Ehd and moving forward

[Mattyq2402]

I got a pic over night of a 120” 3 year old, this makes two bucks in this age bracket over three spread out farms in SE Ohio. Ehd has destroyed my properties like many on here. I have couple doe and handful of yearling bucks and fawns across the three properties. Both bucks have poor genetic traits that I wouldn’t class in the shooter genetic. With such a hard hit from ehd, would you try and cull this genetic or would you let the farms breathe for the year?

Moving forward, other than locating and plugging mud flats, what can I do to help the herd rebound? Any of you guys getting hit more than once have any strategy other than stand by for a few years?

 

[Bill]

Culling for genetics does not work. That doesn’t mean I have never put a deer on the hit list to cull him. When populations are normal a piece of land will only hold so many bucks because of food, cover, social pressure, etc. so I have targeted older inferior racked deer that I felt would never make booner class, not for genetics but to open up a bedroom for one that might.

Don’t shoot does is my strategy for a bit.

 

[hillrunner]

No way would I shoot any 3 year old after a wipe out event like that. It's not going to help you until you fill the place back up

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Have you been able to hunt yet? I thought I had gotten hit hard based on field observations and cameras and seeing dead deer…I hunted this weekend I was wrong. I saw over 50 does on 5 sits. I still have too many deer despite there definitely being ehd on my farm