Bought my property in 2019 and have pieced together land improvements each year. Trying to reach a happy medium between losing out on leasing dollars from a farmer versus cutting off existing field for wildlife.

The entire North side of this plot is heavy bedding with a major swamp across the entire backside of the farm. The South side is actively farmed field.

2 rows of various hard mast (sawtooth, chestnut, white oak ) along the top, running E to W for the most part. You can see the tree tubes if you look close enough.

3 rows of softmast (4 varieties of pear and 4 of apple, with stagered drop dates based on varieties from June to December) on the right running E to W.

A cluster of 8 persimmon trees at the bottom left.

2 deer plots in the middle (0.5 acre and 0.2 acre) allowing me to switch up on where my grains and brassicas are from year to year. Each of the tree strips is planted in clover and I've left a ton of edge cover for screening and small game cover / bedding as well as a 30 foot strip totally blocking this off visually from the big field to the South.

This makes the 4th plot like this that I have put in now. Eagerly awaiting some mast production (hopefully in the next 4-6 years based on some ofthe varieties).

Another example of the 4 plots.

3 rows of various hardmast trees running E to W.

2 rows of persimmon on the left and right sides.

2 rows of variuos softmast trees bottom left. The 2 plots are 0.35 and 0.4 acres. Tons of edge cover and a 30 foot strip visually blocking the plot from the field to the South.

Where is the corn pile?

Great looking plots! how big is the total farm? and is it mostly timber or a mix of pasture and timber?

No corn piles unless the combine malfunctions 160user. Illegal in VA.

Rockfarmer - 170 acres total. 60 acres of fields (6 fields all together), 60 acres of cutover (6 yr ols pines) and 50 acres of hardwoods and flooded timber. Fortunate to have +100 acre farms on both sides of me which helps to keep the dog hunting pressure very light along with the big swamp that borders all of our North property lines.

I know people who strategically spill grain each year but you didn't hear it from me.

That's a great looking piece of property and you're making the most of it.

Down here you can pick an entire cornfield and miss the trailer and it’s legal.

I'd let the farmer farm plant the whole field and hunt around it. You can't build a better food plot than a planted field of corn or beans.

Spike369- My contract stipulates a rotation of only beans or corn. Both are played out (harvested) before November. This allows me to get a month head start on cereal grains and brassicas, assuming that the farmer puts in a cover crop. That stand along with the strips of clover make up my turkey plots for the spring. My farmed fields are already sprayed by the farmer and ready to plant. Nothing for the turkeys if I didn’t have these side plots, at least green field wise.

No hard mast other than along the swamp. No soft mast for some ways as I hunt my neighbors farms as well.

You worried about turkeys? Best farm I I ever hunted for them wasn’t a food plot or any kind of ag for 20 miles Fence rows , few oaks and honey suckle. Turkeys and deer heaven.
Here is 1/2 acre I would bush hog each September