Gary from Wisconsin asks,
Congrats on your new land purchase! How many acres did you purchase? What is the mix of timber vs open ground? Thanks!!
Bill responds,
Topic: Breaking Down the new Winke Farm:
The new farm is mostly timber, roughly 80%. Much of the remaining open ground is old pasture – too steep to plant anything but trees – and will have to be converted to some kind of habitat or native cover. You can see just the corner of one of the two food plots I planted in the valley above the pond. It is a beautiful farm but probably not one that is ideal for deer hunting because there are limited food options. Lots of timber stand improvement will produce browse in the timber and that will be an important part of making this a great hunting farm. Figuring out to how to maximize those old pasture acres will also help.
Gary,
Thanks for the note. It is roughly 405 acres of which 45 are tillable ag fields and about 25 to 30 are old open pasture that I need to convert to some kind of habitat. Maybe six acres of open areas that can be food plots.
That means the farm is roughly 20% open and 80% timber. I would ideally have more open land to work with to create food plots if it was the perfect farm, but I do like the way this one looks and even if it doesn’t have a lot of available food plot acres, I will surely enjoy hunting and managing it. Have a great day. (7/19/22)
I really enjoy your blogs and “new farm” progress. I live in SW Iowa where the land is typically 90-95% open with maybe 5-10% timber. What is the cost per acre on average for Iowa land that is 80-90% timber? Just curious how it compares to our area.
John P.
SW Iowa
Boy, that number runs a really wide range. In parts of southern Iowa it is in the lower $4,000s per acre and in other parts it is in the $6,000s per acre. Where I own land now it is even higher -at least some of it. Good luck.