Cut More Trees! How Aggressive TSI Creates Better Deer Habitat

Published: 2026-03-15
Episode page
Duration: 73 min

In this episode

clear-cutting

• Terry recalls seeing complete clear cuts from pulpwood logging in Southeast Ohio that leave dense stands of small trees growing inches apart. 29:36

clover

• Mark Zoke asks whether there’s something to spread or spray, like a pre-emergent, to help clover establish before planting. 32:40

dealer-network

• Terry announced that thanks to a new relationship with Hawke Optics, a growing number of Real World dealers are starting to carry Hawk products locally. 22:48

deer-funnels

• Terry describes using an excavator with Mia dropping old hackberry and locust trees to build funnel walls directing deer movement across the new property’s ravines. 18:53

deer-manipulation

• Don recommends landowners manipulate deer movement by dropping a tree across an existing exit trail and cutting a new one with a saw to create an easy, huntable access point. 13:45
• Don describes cutting a path through invasive timber to put deer right in front of three tree stands, with trail-camera pictures showing them following the path readily. 31:08

discipline

• Terry observes hunters want an easy fix and think habitat work is harder than it is, when the real answer is the discipline to limit intrusion. 12:04

enlist-soybeans

• David Aman asks whether to switch to Enlist soybeans and spray Liberty for resistant waterhemp, and whether Enlist beans equal Gen-2s with different chemical tolerances. 41:33

flooding

• Chad Fox asks for food plot or habitat suggestions for a farm between two rivers that floods every year. 43:59

food-plots

• Brian Murray asks what food plot to plant on his 25 acres when surrounding fields are all corn and soybeans. 34:32

hairy-vetch

• Don overseeded his soybeans with hairy vetch, a nitrogen-fixing legume, as part of a rotation where those plots will become corn, and plans to keep doing it. 36:20
• Don says his hairy vetch overseed grew a foot tall by fall and was grazed down heavily by deer over winter before greening back up in spring. 37:55
• Terry asks whether hairy vetch, being a legume, is more compatible with residual herbicides than a grass-family cover crop. 38:15

hunting-pressure

• Don recalls learning the hard way, before trail cameras and food plots, that being too aggressive on permission properties educated deer quickly, pushing him toward a conservative approach. 10:08

indiana

• Don is nicknaming the reclaimed Indiana property “Indiana two hundred,” predicting a very good chance of killing 200-inch bucks there. 20:46

invasive-species

• Don says that on revisiting his cut property, the only invasive coming on was some multiflora rose, with most regrowth being grasses, weeds, and blackberry briars. 29:05

listener-story

• Don recounts meeting three different Amish drivers in Ohio who recognized his voice because their passengers make them listen to the Chasing Giants podcast. 24:24

mature-bucks

• Terry asks Don to explain what mature bucks need from timber habitat and why open, park-like woods fail to provide it. 5:41

new-property

• Terry is developing a new 300-acre property in Southern Illinois with Austin Raisor that he plans to hunt for the first time this fall. 18:04

property-sale

• Don announced a 383-acre property for sale in Jackson County, Ohio, about eight miles west of Oak Hill. 16:53
• Don announced that attending the Ohio property tour requires a preapproved bank letter showing the buyer qualifies for at least a $2,000,000 purchase. 17:12

resicore

• Terry says he sprayed only Resicore pre-emergent before planting his corn and plots, and the drone footage from the FAE presentation showed the best-manicured result he’s ever had. 40:02

rye-overseed

• Don recommends overseeding corn with rye, whose allelopathic properties act like a natural herbicide that doesn’t hurt the following soybean crop while suppressing weeds. 39:19

sanctuary

• Terry says his team always identifies a sanctuary on a property, aiming to make it as thick as possible to hold the maximum number of deer. 7:50

small-property-consulting

• Terry recounts consulting on a newly bought 30-35 acre homestead where the family raises sheep and has several kids, requiring a scaled-down habitat plan. 21:33

speaking-engagement

• Don announced he will speak at Shelbina Christian Church in Shelbina, Missouri on Thursday, March 19, including a meal beforehand. 15:31
• Don announced he’ll be at the Wisconsin Deer Expo in Wisconsin Dells on March 28, staffing the Extreme Custom Food Blots booth for one day. 15:47

strip-mine-reclamation

• Don describes a 500-acre reclaimed strip-mine property in Indiana that’s grown up thick with brush and volunteer trees. 20:27

switchgrass

• Terry relays that Dana Rogers has published photos in outdoor publications showing deer using switchgrass extensively, suggesting the switchgrass-bedding pattern isn’t purely geographic. 51:09
• Max Joma asks why hunters further north insist deer won’t bed in switchgrass, despite Don’s own videos showing bucks using his switchgrass. 47:13

trade-shows

• Terry reports Austin Raisor spent the trade show season touring the Booneless booth, showcasing a new feed head design and an upcoming 500-pound capacity feeder. 53:49

tree-species

• Don recommends killing low-value species like beech, maples, hackberry, locust, box elder, and elms to let oaks and walnuts flourish. 3:09

tsi

• In his consulting plans Don calls for a very aggressive TSI, cutting or girdling any tree standing that will never have timber or wildlife value. 2:08
• Don recommends doing a TSI for thick bedding cover, then staying out to limit intrusion and hunting only the edges so deer keep using the property day after day. 11:01
• Terry asks whether it’s typical to go back in and finish a TSI after a logger leaves smaller trees behind during a harvest. 4:46

tsi-definition

• Don explains TSI (timber stand improvement) as cutting and killing less desirable trees to open the canopy and create ground cover, freeing growing space for the remaining trees. 1:26

tsi-phasing

• Terry asks whether Don would cut a large tract’s mature timber all in one year or phase it in sections over multiple years. 26:08

weed-prevention

• Don recommends food plotters shift to a mindset of preventing weeds with pre-emergent herbicide rather than trying to kill them after they’ve already grown. 40:12

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 31:08
• unnamed buck (sighting) 49:48

Listener questions

Question: Terry asks whether it’s typical to go back in and finish a TSI after a logger leaves smaller trees behind during a harvest. 4:46

• Answer: Don says he wants mature timber harvested first, then comes in after the logger to do the TSI cut, leaving the nicer smaller oaks and walnuts, doing both steps. 4:56

Question: Terry asks Don to explain what mature bucks need from timber habitat and why open, park-like woods fail to provide it. 5:41

• Answer: Don explains that a burned firebreak side of a woods left nothing for deer but scattered acorns, with no browse or bedding cover compared to the thick unburned side. 7:06

Question: Terry asks whether Don would cut a large tract’s mature timber all in one year or phase it in sections over multiple years. 26:08

• Answer: Don split an Indiana property’s roughly 500 timbered acres into four sections, logging and TSI-cutting one at a time, spaced five years apart to stagger regrowth stages. 26:53

Question: Mark Zoke asks whether there’s something to spread or spray, like a pre-emergent, to help clover establish before planting. 32:40 — asked by Mark Zoke

• Answer: Don says there’s no known pre-emergent that can be used before planting clover, so that option is out. 32:49
• Answer: Don stresses getting a soil test done and correcting pH before planting, since low pH will often require significant lime and hurt clover growth. 32:56

Question: Brian Murray asks what food plot to plant on his 25 acres when surrounding fields are all corn and soybeans. 34:32 — asked by Brian Murray

• Answer: Don counters that farmers harvest their corn and soybeans, so few standing fields remain by winter when deer need food most, making corn and soybeans still a strong plot choice. 35:13

Question: Terry asks whether hairy vetch, being a legume, is more compatible with residual herbicides than a grass-family cover crop. 38:15

• Answer: Don says he also mixed in Bolanza clover but it barely grew, concluding the residual herbicide suppressed it, unlike the hairy vetch. 38:30

Question: David Aman asks whether to switch to Enlist soybeans and spray Liberty for resistant waterhemp, and whether Enlist beans equal Gen-2s with different chemical tolerances. 41:33 — asked by David Aman

• Answer: Don says Enlist and Gen-2 are totally different beans, and he actively discourages planting Enlist because deer clearly prefer Gen-2 soybeans. 41:45
• Answer: Don recommends planting Gen-2 soybeans with a pre-emergent herbicide and experimenting with overseed options rather than switching to Enlist. 42:22

Question: Chad Fox asks for food plot or habitat suggestions for a farm between two rivers that floods every year. 43:59 — asked by Chad Fox

• Answer: Don’s blunt suggestion is to sell the flood-prone farm, noting some property problems simply have no workable solution. 44:20
• Answer: Don adds that clients who follow this advice and buy a second farm always end up with a better hunting property than the first. 44:56

Question: Max Joma asks why hunters further north insist deer won’t bed in switchgrass, despite Don’s own videos showing bucks using his switchgrass. 47:13 — asked by Max Joma

• Answer: Don says switchgrass bedding use likely depends heavily on hunting pressure, with switchgrass offering deer a place to escape pressure elsewhere. 49:28

Prayer Time

Scripture: 1 Peter
Theme: suffering weans believers from self-will
Brenton quotes 1 Peter 4:1-2 from The Message, teaching that embracing suffering like Christ weans believers from always expecting their own way, freeing them from being tyrannized by unmet desires and pointing toward healing from father wounds. 65:45

Scripture: Hebrews
Theme: the word of God as a weapon of truth
Brenton teaches from Hebrews 4:12 that God’s word is living, active, and sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing soul from spirit, equipping men to fight the enemy’s lies with truth and stand firm together. 69:59

Don and Terry covered timber stand improvement, with Don describing an aggressive TSI approach of cutting or girdling low-value trees like beech, maples, hackberry, locust, box elder, and elms to favor oaks and walnuts. He explained sequencing mature timber harvest before TSI, and phasing a roughly 500-acre Indiana property into four sections logged five years apart. Terry described building funnel walls with an excavator on a new 300-acre Southern Illinois property with Austin Raisor. Both discussed limiting hunter intrusion after habitat work, manipulating deer trails with dropped trees, and food plot strategy including hairy vetch overseeding, pre-emergent herbicide use, and Gen-2 versus Enlist soybean preference. Listener questions addressed clover establishment, plotting near row crops, herbicide compatibility, and a flood-prone farm Don suggested selling. Brenton led prayer segments on suffering and scripture as a weapon of truth. Trail-camera footage showed deer readily using a cut path through invasive timber.

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.