yoderjac
5 year old buck +
We had that same current to swim against. Our numbers were way out of wack when we first started. We killed every doe we could and brought in additional hunters for that specific purpose. Guidance was, no antlers - shoot. We did not worry about button bucks as we did not want to accidentally let a female walk. Our biologist said that every time we shot a doe, it left a hole in our social structure. During the next summer when native foods dry up, deer would range looking for food. Our warm season annuals were the only game in town. New does would fill every hole we create the previous fall by harvests. Our does also switched from most having one fawn to most having twins. Food plots, arrows, and bullets were not enough to tip the balance.
We did get over the tipping point but it required more. First, we had a mast crop failure in 2014. Our food plots were hammered and deer were forced to use them in the face of heavy hunting pressure during daylight hours. We doubled our female harvest that year. We had a harsh winter that year with lots of ice making food less available. Coyotes, which had been in the general area for a number of years but never used our farm regularly, became regular subjects of our game cameras and seemed to take up residency on our farm. They hit our fawns the following spring. There was also a major EHD outbreak in the general area. We did not find any dead deer on our farm or any sloughing of hooves in following years, but it did knock down populations in the general area.
It knocked down our numbers significantly to the point we restricted female harvest the following year. Our timber operation began the following year. With 20 acres of clear cut and over a hundred acres of thinned pines and controlled burns, we increased the overall BCC at a time when our population was down. The native foods responded dramatically. Our populations have rebounded but we have been able to keep them in check with the new BCC so far. Continued timber management will be key for us.
It is always a difficult balance. My point is this. When you increase the native BCC using cost effective techniques and cover natures gaps with food plots, we still need to keep the populations in balance whether by hunting, coyotes, disease, or other means. We never get it right. Nature throws us curves, and we are only estimating populations. Deer themselves respond to hunting pressure limiting it's effectiveness at population control.
I have not delusions that I can create a cache of monster bucks. My wildlife goals are much more modest and achievable: A healthy population with a good age and sex balance and enough bucks living long enough to express the potential our underlying soil fertility can support in a long-term sustainable way. At the same time, affording hunters a recreational opportunity and introducing new hunters into the sport. My hope is to bend nature slightly to favor my long-term goals rather than break it in furtherance of some short-term desires.
Thanks,
Jack
