Hunters and landowners actively involved in white-tailed deer management know that age, genetics, and nutrition are the rule when it comes to maintaining a healthy deer herd and consistently producing quality whitetail bucks. Because it takes time for bucks to get older and because one can not change the genetics of a deer once it is conceived, a lot of attention gets placed on deer nutrition by hunters and managers on their lands.

When it comes to providing proper nutrition for deer, more than a fair share of this attention gets wrongly placed on supplemental feeding through food plots or protein pellets. I will be the first to tell you that both food plots and supplemental feeding have their place on almost every property, but all too often hunters consider the management practice of adding food to the equation as taking the place of proper deer habitat management. Wrong. (more…)

Most deer hunters start getting “the itch” by the time late summer rolls around. It’s during this time of year that those game camera photos really start to show hunters the potential of bucks on their ranch or hunting property. For the guys with ongoing white-tailed deer management programs it can be very, very exciting to see what those young bucks of years past have transformed themselves into. With the amount of rainfall we’ve received in Texas this year hunters should expect a really good year!

Abundant rainfall throughout in the early part of the year combined with scattered, timely rains throughout the summer have kept much of the deer habitat green and growing. And as most of us in the Lone Star state know, rarely does the ground look green in Texas going into August. All that valuable precipitation has maintained the deer herd in good condition throughout what is typically the summer stress period—but not this year. (more…)

Deer hunting is both challenging and fun, but common sense precautions while handling a processing white-tailed deer should be taken after each successful harvest. In fact, proper handling and cleaning techniques are as important as sound deer management practices. Many diseases affect deer in North America, including rabies, tularemia, plague, blue tongue and potentially even chronic wasting disease (CWD). CWD is a disease that affects white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk and is fatal to infected animals.

Biologist believe a protein called a prion causes CWD in deer, and it’s this disease that most hunters are probably worried about. Prions concentrate in the brain, spinal cord, eyes, lymph nodes and spleen. Prions have not been found in meat or muscle tissue. According to the researchers, there is no evidence that chronic wasting disease can be transmitted to humans. (more…)

Every deer hunter has heard stories of white-tailed bucks locking antlers while fighting during the rut, but few have actually seen locked-up bucks. Fewer hunters have the photos to prove it — not that some hunters question the authenticity of some of the seemingly outlandish deer hunting stories heard around a campfire. But for landowners and hunters engaged in deer management practices it’s always hard to see deer die of natural causes, especially quality bucks. But it happens before, during, after the rut, and throughout the year.

All of the deer population and habitat management in the world will not stop two bucks from trying to kill each other for breeding rights to a receptive doe. After all, bucks fight for the right to pass on their genes to the next generation of deer, and hopefully the buck with the best genes wins. And they typically do, because that’s the way nature works as a whole. But sometimes neither buck walks away. (more…)

It often amazes me when I hear an uninformed hunter talk about deer management and the habitat requirements of white-tailed deer. After hearing them speak just a few sentences, it’s obvious that they do not have a clear understanding of a whitetail’s habitat needs or the foods that they eat. This blows my mind! After all, these are the same guys that proclaim to ”love” hunting. But I suppose there is a big difference between deer hunting and white-tailed deer management.

Deer hunting can exist without deer management. After all, you don’t necessarily need many (or any?) deer to go deer hunting. However, white-tailed deer management can not occur without hunting as part of the overall equation. In short, you can love hunting while being indifferent to management, but if a deer management program is in place then hunting is part of the package.

So where am I going with this? I guess what I’m trying to do is illustrate is the difference between hunters that simply shoot deer and those that manage for them. There is nothing wrong with either of them. Besides, we all go through various stages in our hunting lives. However, there comes a point when most hunters connect the dots and realize that there is a strong relationship between the habitat that the land provides and the health of a local deer herd. (more…)

From the looks of things, Spring has definitely sprung here in Central Texas! Browse plants are putting on new leafy growth and the moisture-rich soil is covered with high-protein forbs. It appears the white-tailed deer found in this part of the world be eating good for some time to come. Let’s just hope the all-important Spring rains come through for the deer habitat this year. So far, so good. Changing subjects now, and I know it’s a long time until deer survey season, but I recently learned of an interesting study taking place out of Texas State University. The research relates to conducting stand surveys to estimate white-tailed deer populations on individual ranches.

First, I’ve never been a huge fan of stand surveys for whitetail, primarily because I feel other deer survey techniques do a better job of estimating deer populations on individual properties. That being said, some properties just do not lend themselves to being surveyed any other way, so even a low-confidence estimate is better than no estimate at all. In the mentioned study, a high-fenced pasture with a known number of marked white-tailed deer was used. Five deer stands and 5 timed spin-feeders filled with corn were placed within the pasture and were located approximately 1/2 mile from one another, creating a hunting scenario similar to many Texas ranches where deer are hunted. (more…)

Habitat is the cornerstone of white-tailed deer management. Plant communities, an important component of habitat, are composed of forbs, grasses, and woody plants (browse). Healthy, diverse habitat sustains native wildlife populations and almost always represent healthy deer herds. However, browsing of woody plants by white-tailed deer and domestic livestock may have negative impacts on perinneal shrubs, trees and the overall habitat.

Excessive browsing may lead to decreased plant vigor, increased susceptibility to disease, or decreased reproduction and seeding establishment. Stresses such as these could potentially cause the disappearance of some plant species important for quality deer habitat. Consequently, deer biologist typically quantify the most palatable browse plants in an area in an attempt to monitor browsing pressure by the local deer herd. Sound deer management decisions can be made by recording browse plant use by white-tailed deer. (more…)

As the snow falls today in Central Texas, I can’t help but think about the white-tailed deer throughout the country. I’m not just talking about the animals living right outside my door, but everywhere throughout the whitetail’s range. This is the time of year when habitat conditions are tough and when the nuts and bolts of deer population management are tested. After all, the white-tailed deer hunting seasons are over and the remaining deer are carryover, the core herd of the upcoming hunting season.

At the heart of deer population management is food availability. With late winter upon us, even though spring is just around the corner, white-tailed deer food is scarce over the landscape. Late winter is the most nutritionally stressful time of the year for a deer. At this point in time, the deer herd on every ranch should be at or below its base population size—the maximum number of animals that the habitat can support. Otherwise, the deer herd is at risk of a die-off from being malnurished due to inadequate food resources. (more…)