Deer/Plot Management
Deer/Plot Management will be articles and information to help you better understand how to prepare and manage your land.
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Evaluating Your Resources for An Effective Food Plot Program
If you want to attract more deer and grow bigger deer on your property you must develop an effective year-round food plot program. In other words, you will need to grow and maintain a significant amount of high-quality (year-round) food plots that will greatly enhance the nutritional plane on your property. In short, you must begin “farming for deer” not just planting a few small plots each fall to attract and harvest deer.
In order to get the most out of your property and your investment you must be willing to commit the time, money, and effort necessary to develop and implement such a program. To do this, you will need to develop a comprehensive deer management plan. This management plan will address several key management components such as nutritional management, habitat management, herd management, and harvest management. This overall deer management plan should also include a thorough evaluation of your current resources, goals, and objectives.
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Monday, September 26, 2011
What are the Potential Negatives of Supplemental Feeding? - Part V
Potential Negatives of Supplemental Feeding
Although there are many positive aspects to a supplemental feeding program, there are also several potentially negative aspects. Thanks to researchers at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and cooperating landowners who are funding the research, we now know a lot more about these potentially negative aspects.
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Improving Nutrition
You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” Is that ever true in deer management! Poor food, poor deer – good food, good deer. It’s just that simple. No other area of deer management has the potential to make such a difference in deer quality…and quantity…as nutrition. And, is there ever a need to do it!
In many places, long-term overcrowding has so damaged native habitat that nutritious browse has all but disappeared. And, even reducing deer numbers won’t necessarily bring it back. As one biologist says, “Deer in many areas are eating the nutritional equivalent of lettuce. And if you cut deer numbers in half, the remaining deer just have twice as much lettuce.”
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Monday, September 19, 2011
How To Improve Your Supplemental Feeding Program - Part IV
How Many Feeders Are Necessary?
A recent study, by Marc Bartoskewitz and Dr. David Hewitt at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, answers this question better than any previous study. They examined supplemental feed use by free-ranging deer on three south Texas ranches with three different feeder densities. Feed provided at each ranch was laced with the biomarkers tetracycline during summer and chromium oxide during winter. The tetracycline permanently stained the teeth of deer that ate feed laced with this biomarker during summer. Jawbones were collected from all hunter-harvested deer on each ranch and examined under a microscope to determine if the teeth were stained, which determined whether or not the deer ate feed. Chromium is non-digestible so it passes through and can be identified in the feces of deer that ate this laced feed.
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Saturday, September 17, 2011
The Big 3 in Land Management for Deer
If the amount of deer sighting’s and harvests on your hunting property have progressively slowed over the years or dropped considerably in a short period of time, chances are your property is in need of a serious management evaluation. It is one thing to see a few deer now and again but when your hunting grounds turn from party town to ghost town seemingly overnight, then its time to take a closer look.
Whitetails are creatures of habit and once their nutritional and security needs cannot be met on a daily basis, they will aggressively seek out new areas that will support these important needs. This could be as simple as relocating to your neighbor’s property or doing a complete pullout and setting up base camp perhaps miles away.
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Monday, September 12, 2011
Data & Censusing
Ok, you’re sold on deer management. You’ve taken stock of what you’ve got to work with, set your goals and laid out a strategy. Now, you need good data to establish your baseline, guide your decisions and monitor your progress. Let’s now take a look at the data you need and how to get it.
Deer data can be divided two ways – harvest data and herd data. Data taken from harvested deer tell us about deer size and condition by age class and sex and is essential in monitoring herd quality. Key data from harvested deer include sex, age (somebody needs to be able to age harvested deer by tooth wear and replacement), weight (live and dressed), the gross B&C score of bucks (or some other standard means of measuring antler size and dimensions) and, of course, the total number of each sex taken. When and where deer were harvested and who took them is also important. I like to keep notes on injuries, parasite loads and other pertinent observations. Some managers also keep records on the weather conditions and hunting circumstances to help determine movement patterns and hunting trends.
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What Is The Best Supplemental to Use In Your Supplemental Feeding Program - Part III
Manufactured Protein Pellets
Easily the most common form of supplemental feed provided to deer is the manufactured protein pellet. Dozens of feed companies now manufacture their own varieties of deer pellets. No doubt deer pellets are being provided to deer in every state they inhabit as a result of the increasing popularity of supplemental feeding. And I can only imagine how many thousands of tons of pellets are dispensed across the U.S. annually!
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Monday, September 05, 2011
Is Supplemental Feeding Necessary for Fawn Production? - Part II
Does Supplemental Feeding Improve Fawn Production Or Survival?
Supplemental feeding is mandatory if you wish to maximize the number of deer on your ranch. Fawn production and survival much like antler growth are directly related to nutrition. If nutrition is limiting for pregnant does, especially late in pregnancy (May-July), fawn production will be reduced. If nutrition is limiting for lactating does during July-September, fawn survival will also be negatively affected.
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