Reader Questions

Deer Management

By: Team Realtree

Question: My father and I have been trying unsuccessfully over the last 10 years to develop a quality deer herd. We own 200 acres in SW Ohio in the Muskingum river valley that my father actively farms. There is no shortage of corn, soybeans, alfalfa hay, you name it to help with the success of the deer population. Over the last 10 years we have allowed the smaller bucks to pass in hopes of growing mature bucks in the years to come. One mistake that we had made in years past is not harvesting any does, but even then our deer numbers don't really seem to grow as rapidly as I would like. I thought that maybe we had turned the corner last year, seeing 5 or 6 nice three and a half year old or older bucks on the farm in late August and finally seeing the light that harvesting some does would be a good idea to keep bucks on the property rather than just passing through during the rut. But our area was hit pretty badly with the blue tonge disease or whatever during our dry hot summer of 2007 and, while we never found any dead deer carcasses, the majority of the deer and all of the mature bucks that we had been seeing had vanished. We planted food plots in the fall of '07 and tried numerous things to increase the quality and quantity of our deer herd, but nothing seems to make much difference. There is great nutrition as well as good cover for bedding areas and we keep our hunting pressure very light. There is no reason for the deer not to flourish but all of our efforts don't seem to help. I just don't really know where to go from here. Should we continue to harvest some does, or should we allow the population to rebound after last years disease? We had the property logged about 15 years ago and it could probably stand it again. All of the undergrowth is starting to clear itself out from the canapy above. While there is still plenty of cover, would this help?

Answer: It sounds like you're providing good food and cover for your deer herd, and seeing 5 to 6 three-year-old or older bucks on 200 acres is far above the norm. It's more typical to have 3 to 4 three-year-old or older bucks for every 500 acres of high-quality habitat. So, congratulations on the number you saw. Deer are driven by the need to feed during most of the year and it sounds like you have ample food during summer and fall. Hopefully you complement that with good cover where deer (and especially older bucks) feel secure. If not, try to increase the amount of thick cover. Last year was a bad year for hemorrhagic disease in many states - and Ohio was one. I still recommend you harvest at least a few does so you can collect harvest data (jawbone and weight as a minimum) to compare the health of the deer on your property to others in the area. This is the first step in determining whether you have too few, too many or the right number of deer for what your habitat can support. Good luck this season.

Kip Adams

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