Big woods, national forest, orchards, and openings. There is far less row crop up here than in the southern and eastern parts of the state, so the corn harvest is a minor factor and natural food, cover, and terrain do the work instead.
Manistee, Wexford, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Missaukee and surrounding country. Observations from Manistee County Blacker Airport (station KMBL).
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This is the region where the harvest tracker matters least, and being honest about that is more useful than pretending otherwise. What matters here is mast, the apple and cherry ground, logging cuts, swamp and cedar for thermal cover, and the fact that a large share of the land is public and gets hunted hard in mid November.
Agricultural weight: low. There is limited row crop here, so the harvest is a minor factor and natural food and cover matter more.
Acorn production drives the fall pattern here in a way it does not in the ag belt. A good white oak year concentrates deer, a poor one scatters them.
As the cold sets in, conifer cover matters more than food. Late season deer trade nutrition for warmth.
With no field edges to work with, saddles, benches, and creek crossings are what concentrate movement.
Michigan deer country changes a great deal over a few hours of driving. If you hunt more than one part of the state, the plan that works here may be the wrong one an hour away.
The most agricultural deer country in Michigan. Corn, soybeans, and sugar beets run to the horizon and the woods come in small pieces: fencerows, ditc...
Rich ground, long growing season, and the best nutrition in the state. Southwest Michigan grows heavy corn and soybean country broken by hardwood lots...
The transition. South and east of here the country is farm ground, north and west it turns to state land, swamp, and second growth. Central Michigan g...