How did your area deer make it thru the winter?

[foggy]

On Monday' trip up to Sandbur's "north sandbox" we saw quite a number of deer......all feeding in early to mid-day fields. Kinda surprised me.....with the number of deer we saw "up north".

I think I have fewer deer at my land than last Spring....but unsure what to attribute that to? Likely last years recruitment.....as we did not have many fawns last year. Hopeing my trail cams show me a better population soon.....but I feel my deer numbers are down. I feel I am in worse shape than last spring.

What is happening on your land? Better or worse than last spring?

 

[outdoorstom]

Things look pretty good here......looks like about the same number as last year.

 

[Scenttrails]

I was very pleased that we did not find any dead deer this spring. Last year we found five. First few camera pulls show lots of deer including many bucks.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Just got back from scouring about 200 acres on a consult today in what many here call C WI (I'd call it a little east of central, myself)....Just a few miles south of HWY 29, 35ish mins E of Wausau. Deer sign everywhere from them wintering heavy on the place (also confirmed by owner), only 1 doe for winter kill, and the property doesn't have squat for browse (they hammered thorn brush with the 1/4" thorns...having a mental block and can't remember the name of it right now, going to feel real stupid when I head to bed and it comes to me) and no crops left standing over winter. Ton of deer in that area (saw around 20 while on the property and a boat load in fields when driving back) and they looked in good shape, which is amazing if you saw how little they had to eat in that area.....no underbrush to speak of, except for a couple little pockets of that crap brush, a starvation browse that they took down to the diameter of a pencil. The pine and spruce plantings were what drew and held the deer. Even I was surprised driving in, as I looked at the lack of any browse in the rest of the woods, that I didn't find deer piled up dead in the evergreens, but they weren't...Amazing creatures.

P.S. Heading for the swamp and timber lands in zone 222 in C MN early next week. That will be interesting.

 

[Greta&Gus]

I wouldn't say we have a lot of deer around, but I am pretty happy with the numbers I have been seeing. One of the positives about very few deer shot last year is that there are still some around this spring.

 

[tooln]

I'd have to say about the same as last year. The cams have only been out a little over week. 2 bucks for sure & 2 more that I'm not sure of yet are getting pics taken.

 

[dipper]

I found two dead ten pointers, a 3 pointer half shed and a busted spike. 3 or 4 fawns and a doe. I would guess winter took half of them. Both of the tens were probably wounded...one was on my property.
This was the most dead deer I've ever witnessed in a winter. Nothing catastrophic, butwe'll be seeing 110" 4 year olds again this year.

 

[dipper]

Sounds like prickly ash Steve. Prickly ash isn't preferred browse but it's not starvation food

 

[Snowball271]

Fairly low deer density in my area compared to most of you guys. I only hunt a small 60 acre tract of land. Normally in Spring once snow melts I get a few out browsing the pasture but didn't see any all of March and April. Got me kind of worried plus had 3 deer hit and killed by vehicles in front of my barn this winter. Including one while I was on vacation that the driver said was a "big buck" that I have a feeling was a deer I have hunted last two years. But one evening last week as grass is greening up had 7 deer in field, one looked super small surprised it made it. So that made me happy, just put cameras out last week.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Found 3 from wolf kills and saw plenty. Not one drop of corn or beans in 10 acres. Neighbor had a pile of corn from a field he picked and was gone by mid feb. Deer looked pretty good. Saw lots of fawns that made it thru the winter. Things look rather normal I would say.

 

[nitro27]

Fairly High deer density in the immediate area, 70+ in 2.5 sections, private & state. (50% open farm land) With the neighbors corn, my sugar beets, (turnips, radish, rape mix), soybeans, clover, and rye the deer looked very healthy. I'm expecting to find a few coyote/wolf kills after pulling cams. Had both on cams this winter.

 

[sandbur]

On Monday' trip up to Sandbur's "north sandbox" we saw quite a number of deer......all feeding in early to mid-day fields. Kinda surprised me.....with the number of deer we saw "up north".

I think I have fewer deer at my land than last Spring....but unsure what to attribute that to? Likely last years recruitment.....as we did not have many fawns last year. Hopeing my trail cams show me a better population soon.....but I feel my deer numbers are down. I feel I am in worse shape than last spring.

What is happening on your land? Better or worse than last spring?

There is a huge difference in how deer act and how many are present between the Lottery area of zone 1 (north) and where I live with 5 or more doe tags.

More deer in the north, less doe tags, less spooky deer, and a different area manager.

I do have to admit that the area of zone 1 is a bit abnormal, as it has a fair amount of ag, while the rest of the zone is short on deer and short on ag.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Dipper, agree that this winter will hurt both antler growth and fawn recruitment again. And it was prickly ash....It came to me several moments after going to bed, as I knew it would. I was told that eating the woody browse of prickly ash is a starvation browse by McCaffrey...about on the same level as white pine needles, not as bad as red pine needles or tag alder woody browse. That doesn't mean that deer will starve if they eat it. Just that it takes more calories to digest than they get from it. That said, I don't pretend to have done any "digestible energies" studies myself. So, I'm just parroting what I've been told.

As smsmith mentions, I'm talking pure woody browse, not leafy vegetation. In many cases they seem to line up (tag alder appear to be very poor leafy browse, as well as the woody browse being poor), but there are also plenty of cases where either the leaves or woody growth appears to be good, but the other isn't.

Regardless, when you see most reachable branch on any species browsed to pencil diameter, it's a bad sign (stag horn sumac and R O Dogwood are the only 2 that can be exceptions that pop into mind, but I'm sure I'm missing a few more).

 

[chummer]

I was surprised to see at least 4 fawns made it through winter. That is a high number for us. This is the third year I have had food plots and the numbers have gone up every year. Last year we had a 5 bucks 2.5 or 3.5, only 2 the year before. I only know of one being shot so hopefully this will be a good year. Generally shocked at how good the deer look.

 

[dipper]

I'm not too worried, I do most of my hunting out of state anyway. Mn, is one of my hotspots.....

 

[Jason]

i haven't explored much in mn but found 2 dead fawns in the first 100 yards on my property. the neighbor says he walked all over the place and didn't see any though (he walked right by the 2 that i found). i was very concerned when i found the 2 but it looks like that might be it for my woods anyway.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Spent an extra long day on a long term management property in Westist Central WI today. I didn't find any dead deer. Now, I did considerable work on the place and have created a surplus of woody browse (created some more today). I also offered ample fall food sources and top seeded cereal rye into 2 acres of corn that I bought back from the farmer (paid crop insurance rates, which is what I always negotiate for on crop buy backs), as well as had bigger than softball turnips and other brassicas that lasted well into winter. Add all that together and the deer looked great, despite the property having high deer numbers. Saw 5 of last year's fawns, with a chance to study 3 of them closely, and they looked good.

As is always the case during bad winters, offer ample food and the deer come out the other end in good shape. Woody browse is not only the cheapest to create, but a lot can be created with a chainsaw, in ways that encourage deer activities and movements in ways that really benefit hunting.

From earlier work on the WC IL property, I know those deer wintered exceptionally well, for the same reasons these WI deer brushed off this winter with no apparent harm (going to have to gauge fawn recruitment and antler development before I can say no harm at all).

Early next week, heading to C MN to do a bunch of work. I strongly suspect they will be in great shape, as I have more food there than deer. At least that's one advantage to low deer numbers. :rolleyes:

 

[chummer]

I found what was left of a fawn. It was just the jaw bone and the hide. I talked to the neighbors and they told me all about the 7 great bucks they shot last year off their lease that borders me. Four 2.5 year olds and three 1.5 year olds. They all matched the description of the bucks I had pictures of last year. He did say they just don't get any 3.5's. wonder why? Well I don't have to wonder if they made it through the winter anymore. I guess I can look forward to a new bunch moving in. The food plots are looking great so hopefully I will be drawing some in. I also learned that the guys who run dogs for coyotes only got 6 this year, 2 off of deer kills. Usually they get around 30. So hopefully we will have a few more fawns this year.

 

[Da U.P. 'eh]

I am somewhat relieved with the number of deer I am seeing thus far. My fears were not realized as I believed that this past winter would have drastically reduced the herd. That does not seem to be the case at all. I'm seeing plenty of deer and not a lot of evidence of dead deer on our place.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Laterally just got back from working 2.5 long days in the woods in MN's 222. Keep in mind, this property is over 800 acres and I covered a decent amount of 2/3rds of it when working (racing to get a bunch of hinge cutting done before the leaves start popping...just beat it). I found 2 dead deer. Both were younger does, appeared to be fawns, but, between the damage and lack of desire to really inspect them overly closely, there's an outside shot that they could have been yearlings. Only saw 3 deer the entire time. All were either last yr's fawns or 1.5 yr olds. I'll be honest. They looked pretty darn skinny, but I didn't have the over winter food there last year, either. That's one area that the low deer numbers really did help, as the existing browse wasn't hammered nearly as hard as it would have been if the deer numbers were high. With all the hinging that's now been done (about 8-10 acres worth), we're already in a ton better shape for next winter, without even factoring in the overwinter food that will be planted.