The proper harvest of animals is a critical component of white-tailed deer management. Although most conversations concerning the harvest of deer are centered around bucks, the harvest of does is just as important. After all, thinning the doe population, when warranted, will improve the buck to doe ratio, slow population growth, and keep white-tailed deer numbers at the proper carrying capacity for the habitat. The management benefits of necessary doe harvest are well documented. 

But when it comes to shooting does, which ones do you shoot first? With bucks, hunters typically use antler characteristics combined with the age of the deer to identify potential cull bucks and other shooter deer. Hunters have varying opinions when it comes to buck harvest, but it’s even less straight forward when it comes to shooting does. Interestingly enough, I recently had a fellow tell me that he spares the largest does and shoots the smallest. At first I thought he was just taking a stab at becoming an “armchair” biologist, but then I started to think his theory may have some merit. Read the rest »

White-tailed deer management and the culling of bucks go hand-in-hand. To improve the buck segment of any deer herd, some type of culling must take place on an annual basis. Each fall, hunters email me photos and ask, “Is this deer a cull buck?” It’s a simple enough question, but the answer depends on the quality of the whitetail bucks found on the ranch. After all, culling is relative to the buck population in question. In addition, the reasons for culling bucks are also closely tied to the landowner’s objectives.

A cull buck on one ranch may be a trophy on another. Landowner objectives, habitat condition, food availability, and the genes found in the local deer population (for antler growth) all determine what a cull buck on a particular property will look like. Bucks found on a property must be judged against other bucks on the ranch. It would be unfair to compare deer from South Texas with deer from Alabama or Indiana. Although reasons for culling bucks may vary from hunter to hunter and between ranches, there are some physical measures by which all bucks are measured. Below are seven potential reasons to cull healthy whitetail bucks: Read the rest »

Food plots are commonly used by deer managers to provide supplemental forage for white-tailed deer. Most hunters and deer managers prefer to plant forage species that are easy to maintain, but some plant species are worth the trouble. After all, nothing worth having comes easy and a little extra work can pay off big, especially if you consider alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) as a forage plant. Alfalfa is an excellent spring, summer, and early fall food plot choice for white-tailed deer. Alfalfa is a cool-season perennial legume that contains 16% to 26% of highly digestable protein. Not only will whitetail flock to a well-established alfalfa field, but this perennial can surive for 5 to 10 years, if properly managed.

Since established alfalfa plants can have taproots that extend to a depth of over 5 feet, this forage species makes for a very drought tolerant food plot. And what’s better than a drought tolerant food plot? Well, how about a highly productive food plot that is capable of fixing its own nitrogen? Yes, this forage plant is a legume that does not need the application of nitrogen fertilizer. Although not always easy to establish, alfalfa should be considered a highly effective forage plant for fall and winter food plots. Read the rest »

Every animal, including white-tailed deer, has an area that they call home. In the wildlife world this area is know as home range. The home range of an individual white-tailed buck, however, varies by season. One would expect that the range of a buck would be fairly stable for much of the year, only to increase in size during the breeding season. This increase in range would be the result of the buck’s behavior and increased movement in his search for receptive does. Although thought to be true, does this phenomenon really happen? 

Summer is a good time to be a whitetail buck. Not only do male deer get along, but packs of bucks run together in beloved bachelor groups. Hunters and managers alike get a thrill every time they stumble across a fraternity of whitetail. These observations often serve as confirmation that their harvest stategies or deer management programs are effective. We all like to see healthy bucks. Bachelor groups, by the way, can range in size from 2 to 3 deer up to as many as 28 bucks. At least that is the largest number of free-ranging bucks seen together that anyone has ever reported to me.

It is also during the summer that bucks move around a fair amount, but not as much as during the rut. As summer draws to an end, most bucks become less mobile and highly patternable. It is the time immediately after bucks shed their velvet that they become aggressive towards one another and a bit more territorial. By September, hunters at southern latitudes will start to see individual bucks visiting the same feeding areas again and again. Read the rest »

The importance of estimating a white-tailed deer herd on an annual basis is critical to any ranch interested in deer management. And although several survey types (methods) should be combined to get the most accurate deer population estimate, I prefer to use spotlight surveys to estimate the deer density on any given ranch. With that said, deer spotlight surveys on properties less than 400 acres in size become less reliable. The smaller the ranch, the more I shy away from using spotlight routes. This is not necessarily because the methodology is bad, but because smaller ranches have fewer roads. Fewer roads equates to shorter spotlight survey routes and data that is less reliable.

But it can get even worse, especially if a property owner tries to create more survey length by looping around in a smaller area. Surveying smaller properties increases the potential of counting deer in one area, then looping around and counting them again in another area. To accurately estimate deer density on any ranch, animals can not be repeatedly counted along the route. I refer to the importance of maintaining and recording data on individual deer herds all of the time, but I’ve never mentioned exactly how a spotlight survey should be conducted. We are going to fix that today. If you are interested in getting the best white-tailed deer density estimate possible, then this is how a spotlight survey should be performed. Read the rest »

Most people, including me, find any variation in white-tailed deer quite intriguing. In fact, most hunters and deer managers even select for certain characteristics, specifically when in comes to antler configuration. Depending on the individual hunter, they may look to harvest bucks with really wide antler spreads, bucks with numerous points, bucks with non-typical antlers, or very old deer. Color is also selected for by hunters because if the opportunity presents itself, many hunters will not hesitate to harvest a uniquely-colored deer. However, I do not know of any individual or ranch that manages for deer color.

Although there is some amount of color variation between all living whitetail, we all know what a white-tailed deer should look like. They are usually some variation of brown on top with white under the body, on the throat-patch, around the eyes and nose, and let’s not forget the white under the tail. After all, they are white-tailed. We know how a deer should look, but this is exactly why any color variation, even minor, sticks out. We, as predators, pick up on any abnormality or weakness exhibited by deer. This is why we do not see many white albino deer or black melanistic deer–they occur rarely, and when they do, these deer are removed from the population by hunters or natural predators. That is unless these deer are found in protected areas, such as urban or suburban areas. Read the rest »

Let’s face it, most landowners want to see plentiful groups of white-tailed deer running around on their property. However, those interested in improving their herd through deer management practices should want to see healthy individual animals. Why is this, you ask? That is because healthy animals are an indicator of good deer habitat and animals in good condition make for healthy white-tailed deer herds. If individuals within a population are in poor condition, then the overall population itself is in poor shape. So although we may want to sustain as many deer as possible on a ranch, what is the ideal number or the target number? The quick answer is that carrying capacity is based on habitat and environmental conditions.

In short, it’s all related to soils and precipitation, which in turn determines the plant species that grow in a particular area. But even with that said, we all know that the quality of deer habitat can vary based on a variety of factors, even within a single county or even just a mile or two down the road. The previous few sentences probably did not help anyone develop a population goal for their property, but hopefully it did help in understanding that the carrying capacity for a particular piece of property can vary widely between regions, counties, and individual ranches. To help you get a handle on how many deer you should or could have, I have outlined three measurable factors that landowners and hunters can use to monitor the health of a deer herd. Read the rest »

For as long as there have been white-tailed deer there have been predators that have relied on deer for food. Of course, before feral hogs (and European wild hogs) were introduced into Central and North America, that was one less predator whitetail had to worry about. Not so now days. Not only do feral hogs compete with native wildlife for food, habitat, and space, but hogs also have direct impacts on wildlife populations through predation and direct consumption. I have said it before regarding deer management and the impacts of whitetail predators–particularly coyotes–but deer populations can still thrive in the presence of healthy predator populations as long as high quality deer habitat is available.

However, even in the best habitat predators will have some impact on white-tailed deer populations. I think most landowners, deer managers, and hunters understand this fact. But even so, it can be difficult to sit back and wait for predators to do what they do best considering the time, energy, and money that landowners and hunters put into their property, leases, and deer management programs. It can be even more discouraging when such offenses are caught on camera. Such is the case with the attached photos that I recently received via email. Read the rest »