Deer Herd Management

In order to keep a quality deer herd on your property you need to have at least some what of a management plan in place. This usually involves doe management, buck management and supplementing your deer. Doe management consist of having an idea of how many deer you have per acre, as well as how much browse you have for the deer to feed on. If you come to the conclusion that you have too many deer per acre it is time to start harvesting some does. The point of this is that if you have too many deer per acre for the amount of feed they have available the deer will be less healthy and be more prone to getting certain types of disease. Not only does this affect does but bucks as well and more importantly does that are pregnant because just like humans if the doe is in poor shape and unhealthy while pregnant the greater the chances of the newborn fawn will have poor genetics. Buck management has more to do with being able to age deer by just eyeballing them. If at all possible, you don't want to take any bucks under the age of 4, the age that a buck is deemed mature. Some great ways to identify a deer as mature is by looking to see if his belly and brisket (hangs down at the bottom of the neck in front of his front shoulders) has any sag to it and also the way he looks in the face, An older deer will have a roman nose and lots of the time will have some grey in his face. Usually a mature deer will have plenty of mass in his antlers and a bigger rack in general but that just depends on genetics so I prefer to go by the belly/brisket sag and the face. Also culling out deer with poor genetics, this is noticeable on bucks by the way their rack looks. However, sometimes a buck may seem to have poor genetics at an early age and then one year you'll get him on camera or see him and he'll be a good looking deer so as I said earlier it is key to wait until a buck is mature before attempting to harvest them. In order to grow big bucks it is key to supplement your deer in the off season while their racks are growing. I usually go with a mix that is very common which consist of trace mineral salt and dicalcium phosphate. I always do this in the spring and it is not a very time consuming practice. All you have to do is churn up some dirt, preferably clay, in about a 3 foot circle and about four or five inches deep and mix the ingredients in with the dirt. There is name brand mixes you can buy from the store but they tend to be kind of expensive and the mix I use seems to be working and I know it is cheaper. Hunting can be a very expensive hobby so I prefer to go the cheap route every once in a while when it seems reasonable to do so.