About
Owner, Jay Longhauser
Hunting, being outdoors, and wildlife have given me many of the greatest experiences and joys in my life. Today, I’d like to give back to the animals that mean so much to me. My belief is that by improving habitat we give wildlife the best chance to be healthy and reach their potential. When hunters experience this on land they own and manage their appreciation for that relationship between habitat and wildlife potential grows. Many become motivated to steward the land and animals that we love. I think we as hunters have a responsibility to give more than we take, and to work to ensure future generations can also enjoy hunting and the wild places animals live.
I talk with a lot of people who love hunting or wildlife, or the outdoors enough that they made the investment to buy their own farm. Too often their stories are similar, In the first couple years owning their farm is exciting and fun and they love being there and learning what they have. Unfortunately for many, they find that after the initial excitement wears off they can’t find time to complete the work that would make the property what they want it to be. they learn that they may not know what they need to do to maintain the property. They have a vision and projects they want to complete, but don’t have the time.
If you are buying a new farm to hunt and need help getting it set up initially, or if you have owned your farm for years and want to make the habitat and the hunting better I would love the opportunity to help.
My hope is that I can help you achieve the goals you have for your farm and enjoy owning it. Maybe you are working to grow older age class bucks and want to add food, better bedding habitat, soft mast trees, waterholes, ect to improve hunting now. Maybe your priority is long term and you want to add hard mast oaks and chestnuts and establish warm season grasses.
I grew up in Wichita, Ks and was introduced to hunting by my dad at a young age. By four I can remember walking with him in CRP fields in central Kansas that I couldn’t see out of. He loved hunting Pheasants and quail. I think he may have loved the exploration involved in covering lots of ground in a day behind his dogs. As I got older I was fortunate to have some great mentors that taught me to hunt ducks and geese. Learning to call waterfowl became the pinnacle of hunting excellence to me for a number of years. Turkeys were a close second. In my mid 30’s I was encouraged by a friend that I waterfowl hunted with to buy a bow and learn to archery hunt. I did, and we booked Colorado archery elk hunts. At that point, I had shot at a lot of targets but wanted to make sure I could be effective with the bow on animals. The thought of drawing the first time on a bull elk was intimidating. He helped me learn to hang tree stands and use safety lines, and I was soon helping reduce the doe numbers on a property that he hunted and managed. I loved it. Being close to deer was great, learning how to hunt with a bow was great. I didn’t bow hunt much, really only as a guest to help reduce doe numbers. I couldn’t make myself commit the time and effort it takes to bow hunt bigger, older deer without knowing I had a property that I was going to be the only one hunting, and I didn’t have that property.
By this time my kids were reaching the age that they were going with me to duck hunt and turkey hunt. I could see that waking them up at 3:00 in the morning and heading to the public lakes wasn’t going to always allow for them to have the introduction to hunting I wanted them to have. I dreamed about buying a duck property or something in the right spot that we could develop. I was fortunate to have hunted some incredible properties in the US and a couple Canadian provinces. I had seen what was possible, at the same time it made me really picky, too picky.
I was talking with my uncle Mike about looking for a farm. I had taken my daughter on one of her first duck hunts to a farm he owned in Missouri. His simple advice started us on a path that has had so many positive impacts for our family. I’m paraphrasing, but basically he told me that if I waited for the perfect property to be available in a very small geographic area at the same time that budget lined up to be exactly what I wanted I was going to miss the most important part. Your kids are only this age once. They won’t care or know what the property doesn’t have, they are at the age that if they start going with you now they are more likely to keep going with you later.
I shared the advice with my wife. Shortly after, we bought a small farm that was in an area I would not have considered before. It’s never going to be an incredible waterfowl farm, but it has a good deer herd, some turkeys, and a couple small coveys of quail. We needed to learn to deer hunt. I read every magazine, book, and listened to every podcast and watched a ton of videos and online courses on how to set up properties. I talked to guys I knew who killed older deer like I wanted to hunt. I learned a ton. I continue to learn a ton every year. I started with a backpack sprayer and walk behind roto tiller. I rented walk behind brush hogs. Did a lot of chainsaw work and dragging logs with a chain and a truck. In addition to learning that more efficient equipment allows for faster progress, I also learned that you can make a lot of positive changes with a small amount of equipment. What surprised me the most, was that I found out I love the process and the work of making habitat improvements to the property. Its more rewarding than I can describe to watch deer eat from the food plots I’ve planted, or grow into mature giants hiding and living in habitat I helped build.
