bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
MY horn theory....... Deer need to recover after winter in most areas. The better a winter you can provide for your deer, the better they will be in the spring to produce early horn growth.
Deer rack wise in my AG area, I see better horns after a year of soybeans vs corn. There is more waste in a soybean field for deer to eat than corn. This isn't a push to plant soybeans. But providing good winter health is very important. A coworker of mine has slowly wandered from plant acres upon acres of turnips soybean and corn just for deer, to planting rye mixtures. Not only it saves money, but he sees more late season deer in the area. For him, the added benefit of selling hay has been a plus too.
I wonder what the benefit of very late dropping fruit does for out deer health in the winter. Vitamin C, folic acid, and antioxidants. The past 15-20 years, deer have been dealing with more ticks over the winter. I know Canada and northeast have real issues with moose dying from tick born diseases over the winter.
Definitely another tihng I have seen is results from timber management. A few years are the loggers chop the heck out of my lease, the deer herd goes up, or rather comes over. Our BAC enhanced weekend warrior camp buddies may noit see a buck imporvement, but they definitely see more does.
My 3rd year at my old house, there was a poor mast crop. Any AG around me is typical stressed pastures. 3x mowings a year, no maintenance, just choppin'. The year before I clearanced the hickory and oak trees. Limed them and lightly fertilized them. During 2 bad dry spells I even watered the 3 or 4 of them. Stuff came out of the woodwork that year. That was year 2 of my clover plot in the area, year 1 was better food due to peas and wheat being in the mix. But those deer came to the acorns. Really pissed one hunt, A monster black squirrel came to the hickory tree I have never seen before. That's my big hunting trophy, to find a big black squirrel to fit the fox squirrel molds.
Deer rack wise in my AG area, I see better horns after a year of soybeans vs corn. There is more waste in a soybean field for deer to eat than corn. This isn't a push to plant soybeans. But providing good winter health is very important. A coworker of mine has slowly wandered from plant acres upon acres of turnips soybean and corn just for deer, to planting rye mixtures. Not only it saves money, but he sees more late season deer in the area. For him, the added benefit of selling hay has been a plus too.
I wonder what the benefit of very late dropping fruit does for out deer health in the winter. Vitamin C, folic acid, and antioxidants. The past 15-20 years, deer have been dealing with more ticks over the winter. I know Canada and northeast have real issues with moose dying from tick born diseases over the winter.
Definitely another tihng I have seen is results from timber management. A few years are the loggers chop the heck out of my lease, the deer herd goes up, or rather comes over. Our BAC enhanced weekend warrior camp buddies may noit see a buck imporvement, but they definitely see more does.
My 3rd year at my old house, there was a poor mast crop. Any AG around me is typical stressed pastures. 3x mowings a year, no maintenance, just choppin'. The year before I clearanced the hickory and oak trees. Limed them and lightly fertilized them. During 2 bad dry spells I even watered the 3 or 4 of them. Stuff came out of the woodwork that year. That was year 2 of my clover plot in the area, year 1 was better food due to peas and wheat being in the mix. But those deer came to the acorns. Really pissed one hunt, A monster black squirrel came to the hickory tree I have never seen before. That's my big hunting trophy, to find a big black squirrel to fit the fox squirrel molds.