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I can have a deer broken down into pieces and back at the truck in an ice chest in under 45 minutes. I grind most of the meat at home and package the other cuts in freezer paper. I can give some away if there's no room. I've done 4 deer in a weekend before like that. My wife would have a fit if...

May come to that if deer continue to be pests in some areas, and hunters don't step up.

I don't disagree that it can help contribute to a skewed age structure. But, you're not going to get a great age structure by eliminating baiting. Hunters aren't doing a great job of managing deer populations in many cases. They're taking too many bucks and not enough does. Stopping baiting...

Baiting doesn't ruin the age structure. A combination of regulations does that. There can be a poor age structure where baiting is not allowed. There can be a great age structure where baiting is allowed.

Correlation does not imply causation

Population increases are happening in places where baiting is not allowed. Population increases happen because deer are being added to the herd at a higher rate than they're being taken out.

How do you figure that baiting is not a management tool? Weapons are a management tool, food plots are a management tool, seasons are a management tool. If you don't want to disturb your property, but still need to take does off of it, baiting off in a corner or where there's easy access can be...

I think it's more that hunters want to shoot a buck rather than a doe. Kentucky had 82,264 bucks killed last year but only 63,220 does. Populations are controlled by killing does. More does need to be killed. People are spoiled by seeing deer all the time, every time they go hunting or drive...

I did receive a response back from the deer program coordinator in Kentucky when questioned about baiting and why it's not removed. Here's his response:

That figure doesn't match up with what the University of Georgia just published a month ago. You may want to recheck that.

@356 Where is that published?

With a population that high, there would almost certainly be a die off, CWD or not. Deer populations decrease when they become overpopulated.

I'd probably go less than that to make it even more manageable at first just to see the response. I'd think about an acre with the expectation of coming back once a year to target whatever you don't want coming back would be a manageable plan. See the response and keep beating it back. Expand to...

At the risk of starting this all over, I wanted to share what I just sent to the commissions for the two states where I am. I know this may come off as opposite of what I've posted on this thread. I know I am talking out of both sides of my mouth. While I am against baiting, I will still do it...

It depends on the soil and weather conditions for me. If there's not a good rain in the forecast or the soil or planting depth isn't adequate, I'd rather have coated seeds.

Exactly. People think it has to be deer to deer, or deer have to be in contact somehow. They wonder how it seemingly jumps from one place to another. Prions can travel by all sorts of methods. Birds, water, tornadoes, truck, train, plane, seeds, hay, vegetables, etc.

I dug a little deeper: How could a disease spread from fort collins colorado to the gulf of mexico by water? A disease could spread from Fort Collins, Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico through a massive, interconnected river system that acts as a natural "liquid highway" for waterborne pathogens...

Maybe this is a reach, but I asked AI to locate the Fort Collins research center where CWD was first detected. Right next to it is Horsetooth Reservoir. That drains into the Cache la Poudre River. I then asked where that drains into and the final destination. Here's what came back: The Plains...

Yeah, that's the epicenter for CWD in Louisiana. They first detected it in Tensas parish in 2022. There have been 51 detections as of earlier this month in that parish. There have been 2 more positives in 2 other parishes. Right across the river in Mississippi, there have been detections since...

Wyoming also has shown a 10% annual population decline when prevalence rates get to 40% https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5004924/