Depending on what surrounds it. Can you control the edges on one side on the right wind and back burn it. If you have never done a " controlled burn" it is very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Trying checking with your local fire department or maybe a pheasant's forever chapter. Make a donation and get them to help.

 

Local FD might be interested as part of a training project.

 

I cut mine with my riding lawnmower. When it gets really bad I cut it then go back over it a couple days later.

 

Just my opinion but burning is way too dangerous. Have you seen these idiots out there trying to do a controlled burn and it gets away from them. Not a good idea!

I would borrow, buy or rent a disc or borrow a neighbor's tractor or get them to take a disc to it but I'd have a plan in place first of what you want to do with the property That's an awful large food plot. Very expensive. If it were me I would plan some clusters of trees. White pines grow very fast a foot a year and then some food plots around it, also grass makes a really good bedding area for big bucks. They love it!

If you don't have time to get to it or do anything with it if there's a farmer in the area that might lease it and plat it if it's contiguous with his property, then you don't have to pay anything to have your food plots planted or let it get overgrown. Just my opinion. This is what I've done for years with my property about tillable acres!

 

How easy is access to it and any local farmers in the area? We've got over 10 acres of fields and just get one of the local farmers to come by and cut and bale it when they're doing other work in the area.

 

That was my worry about burning it I have help and one is volunteer fire fighter, but I can also talk to the farmer who cuts the rest of the property and see if I can get him to cut it. He hasn't done this field in years. I'll pick his brain too.

 

Burning isn't as scary or dangerous as it's made out to be IMO. Install some good breaks with a disk, take some basic precautions, and have a few buddies lined up to help just in case.

What's your goal with clearing it? Food plot?

 

Burning a fallow field is a practice used by farmers above the bridge for years. Typically they are burned spring when the wind lays down in the evening. A fire break around the perimeter is required so it doesn’t jump into surrounding landscape. My neighbors disc it up in the fall. Know what you are doing since you a responsible for the costs if it gets out of control.

 

Goal is to use part of it for a food plot yes, and hopefully get a nice green up on the rest.

 

I would brush hog the inside area ya want to plot and leave the rest for screening/cover, they love the overgrown fallow

 

Maybe rent it out to a local farmer to plant soybeans next year? You’d end up with a perfectly level, cleared field, and maybe a little cash in your pocket, without having to spend anything or do any work.

 

here is a picture of it I took this summer.

 

Looks like great habitat me, clearing it would be a mistake in my opinion. Could be enhanced with some micro plots or food plot trails. Could spray other areas with clethodim to encourage broadleaf and woody growth.

 

How would you guys go about doing a small food plot in there?

 

Brush hog and till

 

Round up mixed with 2 4 d

 

Is tilling a must? I was really hoping to not till.

 

The better you prep the soil the better results you’ll get. Are ya willing to put All the efforts and dollars to get lackluster results?

 

i would think this FPing method would work great from Matt Morse, he has written a great short inexpensive book on it, does this 'thread link' work for you?:

Deer Food Plots The Simple Way by Matt Morse

Well, I did it. I actually published my food plot book. It's now available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BBJMBMDH?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

www.michigan-sportsman.com

 

Who's Matt Morse?

 

I too did something similar when I started food plotting. I dedicated 12 acres of land to food plots, spent a ton on seed and fertilizer and ended up with a crap load of deer.
Now, 25 years later I have less than 1 acre of food plots and just as many deer. . I found having additional overgrown fields with strategically planted rows of trees has been more beneficial for me. Cheaper and less time consuming by far.
In hindsight, i wish I had never worked up all of that ground and would have had a "HUGE" head start on a natural field as mentioned. The deer in my area spend just as much time in my fields as they do my food plot. They have turned out to be great transition zones in both the morning and evening.
Before you till, spend some time on this site and get a lot of perspectives.
If you do go forward with a gigantic food plot, remember one thing. That buck you want to hunt can stand in any one spot on that fields edge and in just seconds determine if he wants to stay or leave. Break it up into smaller pieces and make him check them all out before he moves on.
Best of luck

 

I too did something similar when I started food plotting. I dedicated 12 acres of land to food plots, spent a ton on seed and fertilizer and ended up with a crap load of deer.
Now, 25 years later I have less than 1 acre of food plots and just as many deer. . I found having additional overgrown fields with strategically planted rows of trees has been more beneficial for me. Cheaper and less time consuming by far.
In hindsight, i wish I had never worked up all of that ground and would have had a "HUGE" head start on a natural field as mentioned. The deer in my area spend just as much time in my fields as they do my food plot. They have turned out to be great transition zones in both the morning and evening.
Before you till, spend some time on this site and get a lot of perspectives.
If you do go forward with a gigantic food plot, remember one thing. That buck you want to hunt can stand in any one spot on that fields edge and in just seconds determine if he wants to stay or leave. Break it up into smaller pieces and make him check them all out before he moves on.
Best of luck

I would suggest that two to three acres of food is manageable from a time and cost standpoint, but will still provide meaningful nutrition for the local herd and attraction for hunting. You could create a really nice landscape by interspersing old-field cover with planted food in some kind of strategic layout. If your field has any topography, plant the food in the lower spots in long, narrow strips. Good luck! It should be a fun project that will reap many rewards.

 

Cut/ mow it.

Rent a towable self powered mower and have at it.
I watched briefly a guy cutting old field the other day. Just knocking it down.
On another sight a guy had cut and was using a blower to clear the mowed area. Rich soil so he wasn't worried about thatch probably. And an established clean field.

IF you own the property and will work it in the future you have all winter to make short and long term plans.

Regarding how to intersperse plots within a field broken up by fallow areas , what is around it matters.
You have some shrubs in the pictures distance. Are deer using that "line" to cross the field?
If they are the sides of the field and points beyond likely factor.
Given encouragement , cover along that line can be increased. IF you want deer to use it.

Deer like browse areas where they are a jump or two away from cover (when not in a destination field and using distance as security.)
By leaving a generous buffer of fallow area along your field edges you're creating more than just field edges. Now there's a transition zone creating more edge. And security if open field is not the moments desire.

Lots you can do. But how deer use the area now is easier to enhance , than creating a reason for how they use it only. Both can be done. Yet that's an example of short and long term.

Trails at the edge of your buffer on field edges create more edge.
Micro plots within the fallow field can be just out of sight from those edge trails.
If you're going to shoot deer in/on a plot put it where you can get in and out without getting caught. And be able to hunt in varied winds. But give deer a place to browse unhunted too. Such areas can be located to make it difficult to access as a predator without getting caught.

That "line" along shrubs after being developed for more cover can have a trail kept cut along it. On which side?
Should that trail be connected to others?
Straight trails , or meandering trails with curves?

It depends on what you want for your visibility , or deer visibility. There can be a balance.
If you have great cover beyond the picture you can focus on more plots scattered about per a design.
If you lack cover , use your field to develop cover. With small plots and trails kept maintained.
Trails can offer what a plot offers. That affects where you would have small plots. As it does your volume of browse.

Being four acres , a half acre of browse would be a good start. And not a horrid balance vs cover.
By the time you add trails (might as well if you are going to provide browse / plots that is screened inside the four acres) there's going to be small area /volume remaining to reach half an acre.
Expand each year if desired by removing fallow ground that doesn't suit your cover goal/design.

 

this was all fallow before mowing and hiring a brush cutter to cut through alders.

Edges. Mowed foreground. Fallow transition. Edge of cover beyond.

 

Cut through alders. As a trail , it counts as browse potential.
Same cut with deer in other pictures.

 

We have about 50 acres of old field habitat with numerous shrubs and spruce planted throughout. We also have areas of switchgrass plantedHere’s what it could look like in a few years.

 

Find a farmer or someone that will come in with a tractor and brush hog. Probably and hour and it's done. Wouldn't cost much.

 

Most hay sold isn't just straight Alfalfa, and straight alfalfa isn't all that great as Cattle feed. Most hay is a mixture of some alfalfa, and a lot of weeds. Plenty of Farmers will harvest "hay," which is just cut weeds. Got any Cattle Farmers in your area? They might be up for harvesting an overgrown old hayfield, if they can keep the hay for feed. Pigs will eat anything, so Pig Farmers might be interested, too.

 

Thanks for all the great info guys. I'm think maybe just a small food plot an acre or so and leave the rest for cover. I'm going to get some soil samples here and make a plan this winter. Again you guys are amazing and thank you for all the info.