Within the last couple of years, trail cameras have quickly become an essential tool for hunters and outdoor enthusiast alike.  Technology and efficiency have been huge contributing factors for the advancement and affordability of standard trail cameras on the market today.  

Trail cameras allow us to peek inside the lives of deer and other game animals like no other scouting method has.  With minimal impact from human scents or disturbances created when we enter our favorite hunting spot, we can peer into the activities of all kinds of animals that inhabit our farms and wood lots.

WHY USE TRAIL CAMERAS?  Trail cameras, although quite useful for management activities, are typically used by deer hunters trying to get a peak at that big buck.  At Brook Wildlife Properties, we use trail cameras for a number of management practices.  Trail cameras are useful for identifying buck to doe ratios, cataloging game movement, aging the deer within a herd, evaluating new born fawn activity and tracking the development of those fawns during the summer months.  In addition to management, trail cameras can be useful for determining when antlers are shed during the late winter and early spring months and they are useful for identifying when bucks begin to join their bachelor groups in the summer months. We hang trail cameras year round to monitor antler development and it’s always fun to see when the bucks start rubbing off the velvet from their newly developed antlers.  For serious hunters, nothing is more satisfying then being able to catalog a single buck from the time their antlers drop during the previous season, through the development months and right on to point that mature buck is harvested.  The “Complete Hunt”, from development to trophy.

CAMERA PLACEMENT & TIPS: Trail cameras are only useful when they are properly placed.  Hang trail cameras at waist level, typically 3 to 4 feet off the ground to get the best view in the frame of your pictures.  When possible, trail cameras positioned to face north will give users the best opportunity at taking photos that are not blurred out by the sun’s rays.  To avoid wasted pictures make sure that tall grasses, tree limbs and other objects are cleared from the censor range of your camera.  Nothing is more frustrating than going to check a camera where the memory card is full of pictures of the wind blowing a branch or tall grass in your cameras view. 

When possible, hang cameras near bedding areas, feeding areas or on visible trails where game animals are sure to be.  If you don’t know where these areas are or they are hard to identify try putting down feed or a mineral lick to attract animals to the camera location.  It is always best if you can place trail cameras in areas that will minimize your impact to the habitat when you go to replace your batteries or memory cards. 

Always make sure that your trail camera has fresh batteries and a clean memory card before you head out to the field.  We recommend that you leave a camera out for a minimum of 10 days (the longer the better) and always wear rubber boots and gloves when you are hanging a camera or checking the memory card to minimize your impact to the environment and leave as little human scent as possible. 

Trail cameras have many different time-delay settings.  At Brook Wildlife Properties, we recommend placing your camera on a 5 to 10 minute delay or longer but that all depends on how many pictures you want to take in a given period of time.  Most people will find that when the delay is set to less than 5 minutes, you will typically get a ton of pictures of the same deer which can make scrolling through your pictures a daunting task.

Trail cameras are a useful tool for managing and evaluating game species on your property or lease.  Once considered a novelty or a luxury for outdoor enthusiast the trail camera has quickly become a must have.  Beyond technical and management purposes, trail cameras can provide users with a truly unique opportunity to spend time up-close and personal with game animals.  Trail cameras provide users with a whole new way to intimately enjoy the land.

About the author: Nick Rhodes is an avid outdoorsman and the President of Brook Wildlife Properties, a recreational property development and habitat management company located in Smith Center, KS. For more information visit www.BrookWildlifeProperties.com and sign up for the My Wildlife Properties monthly newsletter with tips about property management and improving habitat on your recreational property.

The FRONTIER TERRITORY is more than 5,000 square miles of world class pheasant hunting, pehnominal whitetail deer hunting, turkey hunting, fishing and lots more.  Rich in history and located miles from major cities, the Frontier Territory is comprised of six Kansas counties including Smith, Jewell, Mitchell, Osborne, Rooks and Phillips.

With more than 123,000 acres of Walk-In Hunting land, two major river systems, eight State and Federal Wildlife Areas and six lakes; the Frontier Territory is “the” destination for outdoor enthusiast and those looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Enjoy photos from around the Frontier Territory, which is serviced by Brook Wildlife Properties.  Everything from wildlife, landscapes, history and events which we love and enjoy so passionately.

Enjoy your virtual picture tour and then come see it all for yourself!

(WSJ) Investors nervous about the stock market and in search of better returns than a money-market fund might consider plowing cash into farmland, say some financial planners.

By acquiring and renting out high-quality acreage, investors can book a 3% to 5% annual return from rental income and, over time, might rack up an additional 5% or so per year in appreciation, says R. Dennis Moon, managing director of specialty asset management at U.S. Trust, a unit of Bank of America Corp.

Farmland investing doesn’t come without risks, though. In order to smooth out price fluctuations, investors are advised to hold their property for at least five years. And if a farmer who’s renting your land goes bust and you can’t rent out the land again quickly, even the income proposition gets iffy.

That means doing some legwork is essential. Investing in farmland often requires a trip to the county assessor’s office and the local farm extension office to compare sale and rental prices. Mike Duffy, an economics professor at Iowa State University, says investors “need to be sure about what they’re buying, because land isn’t a homogenous commodity.”

One of the challenges in the current market is finding quality land. The supply is smaller than usual because farmers and their heirs are keeping land they otherwise might have sold, in order to book the rental income. “The number of high-quality farms offered on the market is down 30% to 40%,” says Loyd Brown of Hertz Farm Management Inc. in Nevada, Iowa, which specializes in farm management and acquisition. “Even medium-quality land is 20% to 30% less available for purchase.”

While wealthy investors can afford to roll up multiple tracts at a time, people of lesser means can buy smaller farms of 80 or 160 acres. Some lenders make mortgage loans for up to 60% of a tract’s value, though mortgage payments eat into rental income.

Another option: using a farm management company. Such firms locate land, advise on improvements and manage rental agreements, which vary depending on the size and type. The most common arrangement is a cash deal in which the farmer agrees to a certain price and pays several months upfront.

Other kinds of agreements allow investors to be more involved with what’s grown and to get greater returns—but they also require investors to take on more risk. The owner may provide the seed, chemicals and fertilizer, for example, in exchange for some of the revenues from crop sales.

Craig Karsen first bought farmland in the mid-1990s in Iowa because “I was looking for diversification,” he says. The retired securities trader, who lives in Chicago, sold about 900 acres from 2003-05, booking a 100% appreciation on top of 5% annual income.

In December, Mr. Karsen bought more. “I think it’s a good hedge against inflation against inflation, and it’s conservative,” he says.

Conservative for a stock trader, that is.

Written By: Jilian Mincer at jilian.mincer@dowjones.com
From the Wall Street Journal posted June 19, 2010
View Article

You often hear people talk about what a great investment land is for several reasons. When you consider appreciation, tax benefits, income from farming or hunting leases, Government programs such as CRP or the often unrecognized factor that you have a place you can spend quality time with your family, buying rural land can truly become a solid investment vehicle.

APPRECIATION: Supply and demand are major components of appreciation. The thing about land is that we can’t make any more of it so as populations continue to grow the value of land increases. In rural settings where crops are produced on the land the demand becomes even higher since growing populations require more food to be produced.  More recently, demand for land has increased because people from urban areas want to find a place away from their daily lives where they can retreat to relax or spend time hunting, riding horses or just enjoying the peace and tranquility of nature.  Because land is a finite commodity the demand for land will always be increasing.

INCOME:  Annual income from farming leases, hunting leases, pasture rentals and Government conservation programs provide landowners with the potential for multiple income streams on rural properties.  I regularly talk with potential land buyers who are either completely unaware of these revenue streams or who are unfamiliar enough with them that they hardly factor into their decision to make an investment in rural land.  Brook Wildlife Properties assists landowners with realizing and capitalizing on these revenue streams.  A well thought out and well managed tract of land can typically cover your annual expenses such as property taxes and hired management and in some cases the revenue streams can provide a landowner with a nice annual return on their slice of paradise.  

LAND vs STOCKS:  Stocks and other mainstream investment vehicles are easy to buy and sell and they are easy to watch go up and down.  Publicly traded companies are required to distribute quarterly reports and there are a number of rating agencies and analyst out there to tell you how good or bad an investment is.  Land on the other hand is more difficult to research from a financial standpoint so the tendency for investors is to take the “low hanging fruit” when it comes to investing. According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, stocks show an average gain of seven percent a year when the data are controlled for inflation. This average works when looking at hundreds of stocks over many years but how many of us really have the time and resources to capitalize on a spread of investments to get that kind of return.  Farmland values on the other hand have increased an average of 13.5 percent from 1998 to 2007. For my money, I would rather invest in land to achieve my personal financial goals while at the same time; I now have that retreat which I can physically enjoy with my friends and family.  Can you take your son your daughter out for a weekend retreat on your shares of Wal-Mart stock?

FAMILY VALUES: People rarely think about an investment in land as an investment in family values.  What I mean by that is when you have a rural property and you head out for that weekend hunting trip with your brother or your kids, you are taking time out of you busy schedule to relax and enjoy the company of those around you.  It’s so easy these days to get caught up in work, extra-curricular activities, video games, television and everything else that distracts us from spending time with those people that we really need to spend time with.  I make it a point to ask outdoor enthusiast what it is they enjoy about their passion and in almost every response they tell me it’s the “time” they get to spend with their friends and family and the escape from their hectic lives that keeps them doing it year after year.  That response alone makes me feel good about connecting people with properties.

I had a listener from our radio show write in recently asking me if I had any suggestions for stocking a small farm pond.  What a timely question and a question that most people don’t think about as they head out to their favorite fishing hole.

To answer this question properly I don’t believe you can begin the question with “how many fish?” or “what kind of fish?” better yet, you start with the basics.  While there are numerous factors to consider when stocking fish I would like to address what I feel are the most important elements before we make that investment in livestock.

WATER RETENTION: Having adequate water all year long is the most basic component to consider before you invest in your fish. Three major factors determine whether your pond will hold water year-round 1) evaporation, 2) soil content and 3) the size of your watershed or the source of your water.  Because it’s fairly self-explanatory I won’t go into great detail on evaporation but it is important to understand how much water you lose from evaporation and know that there are measures to help reduce evaporation.

Soil content is extremely important because if your pond lacks a good clay or silty clay soil then there is a good chance the water in your pond will be lost to seepage. Sand, gravel, shale, limestone or sandstone soils or beds are not good for ponds because they allow water to seep into the ground.  If your pond has less desirable soil or bed types like these you will likely need a liner or a sealant such as bentonite.

The third factor to consider is the size of your watershed or the source of your water.  The watershed is the amount of the area that drains into a pond. This is typically a factor when your pond is fed by run-off water from rains. Believe it or not, too much drainage can be a bad thing for your pond because of erosion. Some ponds are fed by ground water sources as an alternative to watershed fed ponds so it is important to understand the underground water tables for your area as well.

SIZE & DEPTH: Farm ponds range in size from small to semi-lake status depending on the terrain and the conditions of the environment around those water features. In my opinion the best farm ponds cover two to five acres of surface area.  The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks recommends that a pond in that size range should be at least 10 feet over one-quarter of the impound area but not more than 15 feet.  Adequate pond depth is important to protect fish from winterkill but it can become a waste of time and resource if your pond is too deep because fish typically found in ponds will rarely use those deeper waters.

HABITAT: I consult with many clients who are eager to develop habitat for whitetail deer, turkey and upland game but it is less often my clients think about habitat that supports fish in a stocked pond. While ponds themselves are a great component of habitat for the species I mentioned before the fact that the fish and other residents of your pond need their own habitat is a critical component to long-term sustainability of your pond ecosystem. Planting grasses and legumes around your pond can help to provide food and cover for fish and they are also beneficial to assist in erosion control. Trees and brush can be placed in the basin of your pond to act as attractors because they offer shelter and provide food sources for your fish populations.  In some cases, manmade objects such as wooden pallets, tires, concrete blocks or pipes can act as fish attractors as well.  Commercial fish feeders are always an option but the expense and maintenance associated can sometimes become cumbersome.

Before you head out to stock your fish pond this summer do a little research and planning.  Consider the factors that will contribute to the long-term sustainability of your fish stock before you make that investment.

If you have questions about ponds, wildlife habitat, managing hunting properties or buying recreational and investment properties contact Nick Rhodes with Brook Wildlife Properties by emailing him at nick@brookwildlifeproperties.com or call (785) 282-6145. For more tips and advice or to view properties developed by Brook Wildlife Properties which are currently available for sale visit www.BrookWildlifeProperties.com.

Offered at $38,000

If you’re looking for a peaceful slice of Kansas land to build your dream home or a modest country retreat than look no further. The Quail Meadow subdivision is part of a larger tract of land that has been developed for wildlife. 

This tract was once the site of a turn of the century farmhouse, well and outbuildings which have been cleared to make way for wildlife habitat improvements and building areas for future improvements. The terrain of the land is suitable for building a pond, putting up livestock or your future cabin or home. A cedar windbreak has been recently planted along the North boundary of the property to provide additional privacy to the property as well as cover for wildlife.

This tract of land is an open canvas looking for the right owner to make this a dream property.

This 20 acre subdivision of a larger tract developed for wildlife enthusiast is conveniently located 5 miles West of Smith Center, KS and 2 miles East of Athol, KS off Hwy 36.

Brook Wildlife Properties was again the site of another successful hunt for the crew from the Pursuit Channel’s Posted Places television show.  Country music singer and host of Posted Place TV, Kevin Blake Weldon returned to Smith County to visit Brook Wildlife Properties for a Rio Grande turkey hunt.

Nearing the third day of filming Kevin along with Brook Wildlife Properties’ Nick Rhodes called in a great looking Rio Grande turkey with a 9.25 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs.  The gobbler responded right away to the box call and it wasn’t long before he moved into range of the camera for a great shot.  Later in the afternoon Kevin took another Rio.  This time the gobbler was chasing around another hen turkey and after several hours of calling and stalking he finally had his shot.  This gobbler measured out with an 11.5 inch beard and 1.25 spurs.  Two great birds, two successful shots and tons of great footage for the show. Filming took place on Brook Wildlife Properties’ featured proeprty Whitetail Haven, a 138 acre farm that has been specifically developed to enhance whitetail deer, turkey and upland bird habitat.

The Posted Places television show aires on the Pursuit Channel (DirecTV 608) and can be seen Monday’s at 12 p.m. EST and Tuesday’s at 6:30 p.m. EST beginning in July 2010.  The show is hosted by country singer Kevin Blake Weldon and his pro-staff who travel around North America in search of game animals.  Besides the TV show, Kevin Blake Weldon is a notable country singer and more recently has branched into country music comedy with his well know hunting parodies of popular country songs under the Bad Bob and Jimmy label.

This was Kevin’s third trip to Brook Wildlife Properties in Smith Center, KS.  Him and his pro-staff had previously filmed whitetail deer hunts during the fall of 2009 and the winter of 2010.

For more inforamtion about Posted Places TV or Kevin Blake Weldon visit www.BadBobandJimmy.com.  For more information about the property featured during their hunt click here.

The Great American Outdoor Trails Radio Magazine was recently selected to air on American Forces Network Radio on their 170 affiliate stations around the world.  The American Forces Network Radio, formerly called Armed Forces Radio, was established in 1942 and serves American forces and their families in 177 countries around the world, as well as every U.S. ship at sea.  Audience size exceeds 1-million according to Jef S. Reilly, Director of American Forces Radio Network Worldwide. The first program aired April 21st at 4:30 pm Pacific. “This is a humbling experience,” says Jim Ferguson. “I’ve wanted to give back to our men and women in the Armed Forces ever since I started the program over nine years ago.  We have numerous service men and women already listening online and we get emails from them thanking us for our program.  Now they’ll be able to listen on the radio to the program from bases all over the world.

”In another unprecedented move OTN negotiated a contract with CRN Digital Talk Radio, www.crntalk.com, who provides talk-radio programming to over 120 cable television systems from California to New York. The Great American Outdoor Tails Radio Magazine begins airing May 15th on CRN1 at 11:00 a.m Pacific. This is a departure for OTN, instead of terrestrial stations the show will be aired on cable systems like Time-Warner, Cox and Comcast. CRN Digital Talk Radio is the leader in providing talk radio programming utilizing six channels on these cable networks.

OTN now encompasses over 350 radio stations/cable systems  in 26 states: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri,  Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, and now Wyoming are broadcasting this award winning program to a projected audience of over 14.6 million.

Brook Wildlife Properties’ Nick Rhodes is a featured guest and contributor on the Great American Outdoor Trails Radio Magazine each week, providing tips and advice on improving the habitat, value and overall enjoyment of recreational properties. The Great American Outdoor Trails Radio Magazine also hosts and produces podcasts for Brook Hunt Club, North American Hunting Club (900,000 members), North American Fishing Club (500,000 members) and Family Fish & Game Magazine. They’re also the Official Podcast of The Hunting Wire and provides programming for www.CamoSpace.com  , www.MyDreamHunt.com , www.sportsmanslife.com and  www.brookwildlifeproperties.com.

Offered at $149,000
Smith County, KS

A mixture of winding creek, native grasses, quail buffers and heavy whitetail deer bedding areas combine to offer a premier wildlife habitat scenario. In addition to the running creek drainage this property has several springs, marshy areas and natural pools to provide wildlife with ample sources of food, water, cover and space. 

Two primary bedding areas have proven to hold and grow large whitetail deer. The pheasant hunting and turkey populations are phenomenal on this Kansas property.  This tract has been a featured destination for whitetail deer and Rio Grande turkey hunts on the Pursuit channel.

This property and several adjoining properties have been professionally developed by Brook Wildlife Properties to maximize the habitat potential for this parcel of a greater hunting community.  In addition, Brook Wildlife Properties has a hunting lease secured on an additional 80 acres adjoining this property which combines with this tract to offer a potential 162 total acres of hunting land.

A combination of development and natural habitat make this tract an ideal, yet affordable investment for the true outdoor enthusiast.

Call Nick Rhodes (785.282.6145) today and ask about our cooperative land program which gives you access to hunt other properties owned or leased by Brook Wildlife Properties.

On April 5th, 2010 Brook Wildlife Properties added Wildlife Espresso, a gourmet coffee and espresso bar to the lobby of its offices in Smith Center, KS.  Wildlife Espresso features gourmet coffee ground fresh daily as well as a range of drink options to get the outdoor enthusiast going before their morning hunt.  Patrons can choose from a variety of coffee blends, espresso, lattes, cappicinios, hot and cold teas as well as an assortment of rotating montly flavors and specialty drinks.

Next time you are in Smith Center stop by our office for a hot cup before your spring turkey hunt or your next fishing excursion.  We promise you won’t be dissapointed.