Precipitation and it's affect on antler size

[roymunson]

Common belief is that the wetter the spring, the more greens, the better nutrition, the better the buck's health, and bigger the racks, correct?

Read an article this morning where they submitted that in a wet spring, grains and crops aren't planted, the deer that rely on crop fields will be stunted and potentially have less antler growth.
Not sure I quite buy that, but here in NE Ohio once green up starts, we have no shortage of foliage to eat.

My point is, we had several bucks that made it another year from last fall to this fall that didn't put on antler/mass/take that jump, like we'd expected them to due to age class, etc. They're a year older but most of the deer we were watching were very similar in rack from this year and last year. (ages 2-3 and a couple aged 3-4). I'm trying to figure out if it was just a genetic thing on those individual bucks, or if some outside factor that caused them not to take that leap.

Not for nothing, but in gutting and cleaning some of the does we shot late season, the overall herd health seems to be better. The mature does we killed had a lot of kidney fat on them and overall fat and size made us feel good that we were doing it right. Our first year rack bucks are FAR bigger than they were 3-4 years ago. rather than spikes and forkies, we're getting a lot of 6-8 point young bucks and more antler to them.

It's just our upper level bucks didn't jump from 17 to 18. Anyone else seeing this? Or is it possible we're just in an isolated population.

 

[SwampCat]

I dont know why your bucks didnt jump, but my taxidermist claims they get more big racked bucks during a dry year. We had the third highest rainfall EVER in my area this and the taxidermist said it was a really slow year. It could also be dry years there is less food and deer travel more to eat. Our buck’s antler’s were smaller than average this year and none of the deer had any fat on them. This is non ag area

 

[Dukslayr]

It’s an interesting conversation. My personal feeling is that the bucks are going to do the best whenever the Ag yields are best...so whatever conditions provide optimal Ag yields. I don’t think you can ignore the link between PY record entries and overlaying that with a map of soybean yields (on average). The two maps looks quite similar so for those of us hunting in Ag areas I’ve got to think there’s a pretty strongly correlated relationship.

 

[ksgobbler]

I dont know why your bucks didnt jump, but my taxidermist claims they get more big racked bucks during a dry year. We had the third highest rainfall EVER in my area this and the taxidermist said it was a really slow year. It could also be dry years there is less food and deer travel more to eat. Our buck’s antler’s were smaller than average this year and none of the deer had any fat on them. This is non ag area

Interesting observation. We were in extreme drought till october and my taxidermist said it was one of the best years he has had.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I can't relate to you guys' area of the country where ag is huge. What I can say is that at our camp in the mountains with no ag nearby, since our camp and several others have aggressively planted food plots - we have bigger bodies and racks around. All camps lime, fertilize, and plant perennial AND annual food plots. BIG IMPROVEMENT with good food plots. We don't get some of the major droughts that hit the mid-west either. We had a very wet year in central Pa. this past year and we had numerous well-racked bucks eating on our property. ( 110" and up is well-racked here. 140" is a big-time trophy for our mountains. )

 

[roymunson]

It'd be very interesting to know actual evidence on this, not just evidence supported my my small property.

We also have a ton of deer. We try to add food, but we can't keep up.

 

[MickT]

Why worry about precip? We can’t do a darn thing to make it rain more or less.


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[R C]

The biggest buck that I ever put down occurred during a year with heavy rains and localized flooding much of the summer. My initial thought would be that higher precipitation would lead to better growth and nutrition provided by native plants and result in larger antler development. Interesting comments about taxidermists indicating something different.

 

[H20fwler]

I know that lots of rain during deer gun seasons slows the hell out of the trespassers and road hunters that don’t seem to like getting their boots muddy and I like that. The unintentional side effect keeping all the deer in the neighborhood safer letting them get bigger.

 

[roymunson]

Why worry about precip? We can’t do a darn thing to make it rain more or less.


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Because it may help you understand the broader picture and become a better deer and habitat manager.

 

[Catscratch]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4003594?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

 

[Turkey Creek]

I have found that deer antler MASS is related to precipitation levels. Lots of crops in my area but I feel lots of minerals come from forbs and other natural browse during most of the antler growing season.

 

[bwoods11]

First off a normal spring helps, good precipitation and crop/forage growth.