Hedge row replcement

[mag30079]

My family has a small farm in southern Michigan. A year or 2 back our hedge row got totally removed. The farmer said he wanted to thin it up a little bit. Well the next time we went down it was gone. Since the hedge row is gone the deer movement has changed. The thick skulled farmer doesn't care and now doesn't have to drive his tractor around the row. We also have some problems with the Amish dogs running deer but thats another story.
 
We talked this past weekend about replacing the hedge row but this time 5-10 feet over so its totally on our property. I would like to use cedar, poplar and oaks. I believe these are slow growing trees so I thought maybe sumack to fill in and add some cover.
 
Has anyone replaced a hedge row???
 
Thanks
 

[danesdad]

Poplars grow pretty fast. They might keep up with the sumacs.

[shaman]

Around our place, all you need is barbed wire and time. Volunteer cedars and hawthorn trees do the rest. That's at Deer Camp.  Up in Cincinnati, a fence line gets choked pretty quickly with locust, mulit-flora rose and honeysuckle.

My advice is this: 
[ul][*]Go driving and see what is choking the neighboring fence lines, and then find the stuff on your property and transplant it along a 4-strand barbed wire fence. 
[*]Get a visit from the state wildlife biologist and ask for help.  He will give you a bunch of help to reach your wildlife management goals.
[/ul]
If you're there all the time, you can easily transplant trees and bushes to this new hedgerow. The problem that I found is that unless you're there to water everything during the dry spells, you're screwed.  I learned that the hard way.

Now, I transplant only the smallest of the hardiest  plants, I do it in late Fall.  I don't expect much, and I have a few rewards.  Mostly it's just volunteer stuff that fills in. I also plant a lot of seeds and acorns. I have a few stretches of fence I'm trying to do this way. In 5 years, I've coaxed a few cedars and a few small maple saplings, and a hawthorn or two.  The next wet summer we get, I'm sure things will start to take off. It's a snowball thing. Once the seedlings get above the grass and start providing shade, it inhibits evaporation and grass growth which promote more trees and bushes, etc.

If you're trying to influence deer movement, the barbed wire won't do a whole lot, but it's a start.  Piling brush along the fence will aid it.  The trick is to make it harder in one spot for them to cross and easier in another spot close by.  I have one spot that the deer were crossing that was too far away for a bow shot. I put in another hole closer to the stand and did everything I could to stop their passage at the old one.  Finally, 5 strands of wire and a bunch of limbs later, they decided to go to the new spot. A tree fell across a fence during Hurricane Ike, and now I have the same problem at another stand.

[mag30079]

Thanks Dansdad, and shaman,
 
My brother-inlaw said he talked to the biologist and we may be able to get some trees for free, so thats a good start. The other thing is my uncle is worried if we do the new hedge row the farmer next door will cut down the woods behind us.
 
I don't know what the problem is between my Uncle and the farmer. Last week the farmer let 2 guys coon hunt these woods and that has pushed the deer off our property.
 
I'll keep ya posted, thanks again

[hilltop]

If you can come up with some loblolly pines they grow fast and make great cover for deer and turkey. I came up with some at a local paper mill and have seen them at our local coop. good luck