Hi, I am new to this site and I expect to be spending plenty of time here. Thank You

We recently purchased about 60 acres in NE Texas and I am looking at making improvements to make this a great place to hunt. I have been reading and watching videos on what others have done, but it is a lot to take in. I was hoping that I could get some feedback on my specific situation on how I could best utilize the land.

We have approximately 25 acres of woods and the remainder is pasture. I have been capturing a number of deer on my trail cams, mostly at night.





Here is a high level view of the property. My property is inside (west & south) of the red lines. The yellow highlight is what I believe to be a bedding area and where I have captured the two trail cam images.


Here is a more detailed view of the area of my property:


This topographical map of the area is severely lacking. Not a lot of elevation changes:


Can anyone offer some suggestions on food plot locations or just planning in general?

Thank You in advance.

What County? What part of that County

60 acres is going to limit where and how you hunt, probably not a lot of real long shots.

Are you going to graze anything on the pasture? Cut hay? Do you plan on building any type of cabin/house/shelter out there?

When my family owned our ranch I found Dr Kroll's books to be helpful.

https://www.amazon.com/art-science-patterning-whitetails/dp/B0006F5UK4

And don't forget to get to know your new neighbors.

And don't limit yourself to just Deer. planting some sunflowers might bring in some Dove.
How big is the creek in the woods along the East part of the property, think Wood Ducks.

We're in North Hopkins Co., near Cooper Lake




Yes, we will be living out here. At this time we will not be running cattle, but we do cut hay twice a year.



I will check this out.


Working on that. I have talked to the neighbor to the north, The land to the east is part of a huge ranch. He gets a lot of trespassers hunting and shooting on his land. I don't know if he cares or not.

What I would like to create is an area that attracts deer from the surrounding land, plenty of food and bedding, low hunting pressure. Take one or two deer a year at the most.


We have plenty of hogs. Working on thinning them out


The creek is about 20 feet across and 10-15 feet deep, normally there is maybe a foot or two of water in it. Mainly for runoff when it rains.

When we bought our small place there seemed to be few deer. I put out corn feeders, and over time, the deer, mostly doe, began to move in and visit the feeders and to travel between feeders. Side effects were rabbits and squirrels eating corn, and bobcats and coyotes eating them. And bucks followed the doe. And the pigs showed up.

Give them a reason to visit you place and a reason to visit a certain place on your place. I feed corn year round to keep the movement pattern constant.

take a couple of acres out of your hay production and plant a food plot between the two tanks on your property.
That's something that maybe your neighbors don't have and will attract the deer. Of course put a spin feeder in it
next to the woods and feed year round. Just cut the feeder back in the spring and summer months.
Kill every hog you see, even on opening morning of deer season. Hogs will run your deer off faster than
anything else. And pen your feeder to keep the hogs away. A 50' across pen made out of hog panels will cost
you about $300 and be well worth it if you are wanting to keep your deer around.

Like Mr. T. stated, take a couple acres and plant food plot, do your home on food plots and plant what grows the best in your area. Keep a planted food source year around.
You already have cover and water so just add the groceries

The hogs seem to come and go. I haven't seen any on my trail cams in a few weeks. I was seeing dozens and dozens of them on the cameras. The few that I have seen I shot. I setup a 30 foot coral style hog trap and since then I haven't seen any. Hopefully, they have moved on for a while.



I have more problems with raccoons hitting my feeders. We have a very healthy population of them.

I will setup a food plot and get a 300# feeder as well.



Are you suggesting putting hog panels all the way around the feeder to keep the hogs out, but the deer can jump over and feed? I haven't seen that before so I wanted to get clarification.

I owned a 600 acre ranch we lived on. Looks like you have good water which is key. On food plots - they are awesome but takes work and rain. One of the issues is keeping the deer and hogs off the plants as soon as they come up and not allowing the plant to fully grow out. Winter wheat was a pretty good draw.

It is a lot of work but rewarding. A long shot but trying to unify your neighbors with some kind of harvest plan would be really helpful - good luck to you

Good luck and enjoy

The thicker you can make it the better. Decide where the best places are for your food plots and let the rest start to grow back up in vegetation. Always keep trails open so u can navigate the property and deer will travel these also. Plant summer food plots and winter plots to hold deer on you property. It will be alot of work but it will pay off one day. I have done this same thing on 61 acres in East Texas.