If you’re reading this article, it’s a good indication that you have a strong interest in the management of white-tailed deer. More than likely, you are reading this because, like me, you’re passionate about white-tailed deer. Their majesty is beyond equal, and their pursuit is addictive. If you’re like most deer hunters, you’re hoping to unearth that magic nugget of information, that secret ingredient that will help you bag the big one or develop a herd that will be the envy of whitetail enthusiasts across the country. Well…..I’m not here to give you the golden ticket to white-tailed deer euphoria. Rather, I am going to try and provide a touch of sanity for this world of unregulated transmission of “expert” opinions within which white-tailed deer enthusiasts find themselves imbedded.
The world of white-tailed deer in the year 2007 is inundated with secrets about how to grow the big one. Almost every magazine or television show contains some shortcut that will supposedly catapult your deer management program beyond every other. Well, I’m here to tell you that this is a “Seller’s Market” in which we find ourselves. All it takes is a fancy package for a product, or some claim of expertise by the author of an article, and WE BUY IT, without any confirmation of quality of the product we are buying.
I’m rather skeptical when it comes to taking advice, and as such, for me to “buy it” I need a bit more than just camouflage packaging to convince me that it’s worth the money. Along these lines, I recall some of the most insightful words I ever read. I had finally scraped together enough money to start thinking about investing. In my attempt to try and educate myself in an area that I had no experience, I bought “Investing for Dummies”. In that book, Eric Tyson suggested the following. If someone says they have a full-proof, guaranteed way to make money, why would they waste their time writing a book when they could be implementing their plan and making a mint?
Like Tyson, I don’t have the secret, so I’m not going to try and convince you that I do, or that my advice is better than the next person’s when it comes to deer management. Rather, I am going to try and bring you back to the basics, and convince you that what you already know is probably adequate to develop a deer herd that is of extremely high quality. Also, I am going to suggest that some of the ideas that are often espoused in these days of the “Seller’s Market” may not be as worthy as they may seem.
If we go back to the basics, we will remember that there are three things that contribute to antler size: nutrition, genetics, and age. Let’s take a few moments to explore how the basics of antler development have been distorted in the “Seller’s Market”.
Nutrition
There is no question that there is more advice floating around about how nutrition influences antler size and growth in white-tailed deer than anything else. There is also no question that without adequate nutrition, large antlers are all but an impossibility. So how do we insure that nutrition is adequate? That’s easy. We plant food plots, provide supplemental feed, fertilize oaks and honey suckle, use prescribed fire, and harvest timber in a manner that will increase the availability and quality of browse.
These are all prescriptive practices that I might recommend depending upon the goals and objectives of the landowner that I am advising. However, all of these recommendations will result in only limited increases in antler size if we fail to do one thing: reduce the number of mouths we are feeding. None of the recommendations for improving nutrition that are listed above are “solutions” to a problem.
I hear it all too frequently: “I need to improve the nutrition of my herd because there are so many deer.” I hope you see the irony in this statement. The habitat has only so many nutrients to sustain deer and every other animal existing on a particular tract of land. I propose that it is more economically, environmentally, and logically sound to reduce deer numbers to habitat carrying capacity (the number of deer that the habitat can reasonably sustain in good health), than to provide more food. Otherwise, your efforts are only getting deer to where they should be, and they will only be exhibiting the antler quality that deer at carrying capacity possess. First, ensure that your deer numbers are in balance with the habitat. Then you can begin to raise the nutritional plane of your herd by improving habitat quality and supplementing the foods that are naturally available.
Ultimately, I think you will be more successful in achieving your objectives by worrying about the number of mouths that you are feeding, than implementing supplemental feeding programs. There is no question that supplemental nutrition (e.g., food plots and supplemental feed) can improve the nutritional plane of your deer, as well as antler size. But, as it is so named, supplemental feeding is designed to be “supplemental”, not the foundation of a nutritional program. Far too many landowners think that the provision of supplemental feed will cure all ills. First, tackle population density issues, then implement a nutritional program, whatever that entails.
Genetics
What can be said about genetics? It ultimately dictates our potential, as well as that of the deer that we are managing. If the right genetics are in place, then the potential exists for the next world record deer. So it’s simple: go out and supplement your herd with genetics from some of the Arnold Schwarzenegger’s that are available today. Or even more simple, just get genetics from some of the monster antler hotspots in the Midwestern United States. Wrong!!!!
This has to be one of the most misguided philosophies of the modern era of deer management. I contend that there is nothing to be gained by supplementing the genetics of your herd. In fact, the results, other than wasting money, may be to hurt your herd. If you are infusing genetics into your herd, you may be bringing in genetics that may not be immunologically sound for your area. In simpler terms, they may not have the genetic immunity to deal with the local parasites, diseases, and other pathogens.
Harry Jacobson, when he was working at Mississippi State University, tested this theory by comparing the resistance of Mississippi and Michigan deer to Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD; bluetongue). He tested three strains of deer (Michigan deer, Mississippi deer, and Michigan x Mississippi crosses) and challenged each strain with EHD. In his experiment, all of the Mississippi deer survived, all of the Michigan deer died, and the crosses had approximately 50% survival. There were no data reported on antler development. Jacobson’s experiment suggests that by infusing outside genetics into a herd of deer, we stand the chance of compromising immune health. Even if this does not result in death, it most likely compromises body and antler growth because of the competing demands of the immune system.
Genetic supplementation has no place in deer management at this time. Because our understanding of genetics in white-tailed deer is still in its infancy, and likely will be for a long time, selling genetics is like selling opinions. In each case, the owner claims they have the best, but we have no way of predicting what the consequences will be if we buy them. However, there is a way to improve the genetics of your herd naturally.
It has been suggested that by simply ensuring that a population of deer has a healthy proportion of mature males present, genetics will naturally improve. This theory is based upon how male dominance relates to mate acquisition. First, we need to assume that every female wants to mate with the male that has the best genetics. I’ll argue that it’s in her best interest to mate with the highest quality male so that her offspring will have the best genetics. If she’s successful, her offspring will have high survival, strong immune systems, large antlers, high reproductive success, etc. Of course, understand that when I speak of “quality” in this context, I mean genetics and not necessarily antler size. While preliminary evidence suggests that large antlers and high quality genetics are correlated, to date this has not been demonstrated scientifically.
So how does a female ensure that her mate has the best genetics? Well, the most dominant male normally gets the most mating opportunities, so she’ll want to mate with the most dominant male. Now, imagine a bunch of yearling (1.5 years old) bucks competing amongst themselves to establish a dominance hierarchy. I equate this to a group of high school freshmen (boys) establishing a pecking order in gym class. The biggest bully in class will be the most dominant, but his dominance has nothing to do with his quality. Rather, his dominance will be a function of how early he hit puberty.
Now picture these same individuals 7 years later as a group of college seniors (men). The bully from 9th grade peaked early at 5 feet 8 inches and 175 pounds. One of the weaklings he used to dominate in gym class is now a starting strong safety for the football team and is 6 feet 2 inches and 218 pounds. Those extra 7 years enabled the weakling to demonstrate his superior genetics.
The same is true for deer. Yearlings are not able to sort out amongst themselves who has the superior genetics because there is such little difference between high and low quality individuals at that age. However, give them 4 or 5 years and they’ll meet their genetic potential and sort it all out, kind of like the example I gave above.
If you’ll allow the males in your population to mature, which I’m confident that you are doing considering you’re a subscriber to Wildlife Trends, then the deer will work out the genetics for you. The mature males will determine who has the high quality genetics (we believe these to be the large-antlered males) and these individuals will do most of the breeding and pass on their genetics to the next crop of fawns. Over time, both genetic and antler quality will improve, resulting in a herd that is physically and genetically in tune with local conditions.
But if you can’t wait for the deer to work it all out, go and buy some genetics. You may have some dandy deer until the next wave of EHD comes sweeping through, which happens every 4-5 years in the Southeast. Of course, you can just go buy more deer to replace the ones that died. But remember, this is a “Seller’s Market”.
Age
Age is THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR when considering antler size. Of course, this is not what you always hear because you can’t sell age, like genetics and nutrition. But, there is no question that age makes a greater impact on antler size than any other factor. The best thing about age is it’s also the easiest to control. However, I am continually amazed at the reluctance of deer hunters to use age to their advantage when developing a deer management program.
Now I’m assuming that as a subscriber to Wildlife Trends you already do a fantastic job of protecting your yearling bucks, and most likely protecting a good percentage of your 2.5 year old bucks as well. The proponents of Quality Deer Management have done a fantastic job of spreading this message, and most serious deer hunters have “bought in”. This is one product that I think is a good buy. More than likely you have some combination of the following management strategies imposed on your property/lease: antler point restrictions, inside spread restrictions, fines for shooting young deer, etc. These management tools can do a wonderful job of protecting 1.5 and 2.5 year old deer. The result is a high harvest of 3.5 year old bucks, all of which were killed long before they had the opportunity to grow a good set of antlers. (NOTE: If you are perfectly happy with harvesting 3.5 year old deer and have no interest in growing older deer, then you can stop reading now.)
Now don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with harvesting a 3.5 year old deer. A good 8-point with an 18 inch spread and long tines (~120 B&C points) would make me very happy as a hunter. But, if I’m serious about growing a 140, 160, or even larger deer, what in the world am I doing shooting a 3.5 year old deer that has yet to make it halfway to the age at which he will most likely display his largest set of antlers? The fact is that most deer will not achieve their largest set of antlers until 6.5-7.5 years old.
What I’m saying is this – those of us that really want to shoot a 150+ class deer but settle for a 120-130 class deer are no better than the guy who complains that he never sees any big deer but shoots 10 small bucks a year. The question is whether or not you have the discipline to pass up some good deer and shoot less bucks each year (or go several years between each buck you harvest), on the chance that the deer you pass up will be a few years older the next time you see him.
I think as hunters we tend to act very immature. I continually berate my students (the generation of young adults that are in their early 20’s) for expecting instant gratification with everything they do. They want good grades, great jobs, high salaries, etc., but they don’t want to have to come to class, study, or demonstrate any sort of commitment to their education. I guess my question is this. Do we go to the woods to kill a big deer, or do we go to the woods to enjoy the hunt? Do we need the success of harvesting a 150 class buck to prove to everyone else that we’re a man, or can we be satisfied with ourselves by knowing that we developed a deer management plan that would achieve a certain set of goals and we stuck with it? I tend to think that a hunt is a heck of a lot more enjoyable knowing that there are some dang good bucks out there, and I know that every time a buck is harvested from my hunting property that there is one less deer that could be a big one down the road.
Now don’t misconstrue my comments as suggesting that anyone who shoots a 3.5 year old deer should be tarred and feathered. If a 100-120 class 3.5 year old buck is a wall hanger to you, or would put a big grin on your face, then you better shoot it. But, if that deer is just going to be added to your pile of antlers, then I contend that you’re making a mistake.
My point is this. Establish some goals, and work towards achieving those goals. Be patient, and let the deer do some of the work for you. Because I can promise you this, it is a heck of a lot easier, cheaper, and environmentally sound to give your trigger finger a rest and let the deer get a bit older, than it is to try and beat the system with nutrition or genetics. Once you have the deer population at or below carrying capacity and the deer are allowed to reach the age at which they will grow a set of antlers that make you happy, then the genetics will begin to work in your favor and you can supplement the nutrition to give a boost to your program.
Or…..you can continue to buy all the gimmicks that come your way and fool yourself into thinking that you’re doing a first-class job of managing your deer.