How to Manage Whitetail Deer: Don’t Count Natives Out

Want to know how to manage white-tailed deer? Deer management is about herd improvement coupled with habitat enhancement. Although many hunters doubt the antler potential for native whitetail bucks in their area, in every area where white-tailed deer exists bucks exceeding 170 Boone and Crockett inches can be grown.

In fact, I have seen native 190+ inch bucks come from every region in Texas. And Texas is not alone. Of course, in free-ranging, native deer populations the majority of bucks will have their antlers max-out anywhere from 120 to 150 inches at maturity (5 1/2+ years old). These are good bucks. At maturity, most bucks will be good deer.

How to Manage Whitetail Deer

With that said, most deer hunters have never harvested a whitetail buck exceeding 130 inches. Why? For starters, most hunters are hard-pressed to find well-nourished bucks. Often times, habitat is in poor condition from livestock operations or there is simply a lack of deer food/habitat. This is often the case in farming communities where the only available habitat is low-lying land, untillable areas where woodlots have developed, or along creeks and rivers.

 Deer Management: Managing Native Whitetail Bucks

Deer can forage on most row crops, but only during certain stages of growth or at maturity. The remainder of the time the crops are not consumed or the alleged “habitat” is plowed dirt. Well-nourished bucks need good habitat throughout the year.

Manage Whitetail Bucks for Maturity

Maturity. Show me a mature buck and I’ll show you a deer that more than one hunter is willing to put on a wall. Age, nutrition, and genetics combine to determine the potential for any whitetail buck’s antlers. Without a little age, a buck will never reach his true potential. The short answer for this maturity phenomenon is that it takes 3 years for a buck to complete his long bone growth. After this time, valuable minerals can be put toward antler growth, not skeletal growth. Bones also help store minerals prior to and during antler growth.

Mature bucks are easy to talk about, but few hunters will let a potentially great deer walk. And it’s not because deer hunters do not have patience, it’s simply because most of us do not have enough land to ensure that the buck we pass this hunting season survives into the next season or the hunting season after that. It’s difficult for anyone hunting on 30 acres, 100 acres or even a few hundred acres of land to let a young 140 inch deer walk through.

Sure, that buck may end up being over 200 inches at maturity, but what are the odds that your neighbor let’s him walk, too? And your neighbor’s neighbor? This is why the best thing small landowners can do is form deer management cooperatives with their neighbors, form some bylaws so that everyone is one the same page, and stick to them.

Managing Whitetail Deer Nutrition

So proper deer nutrition and age are very important, but genes, of course, play a part. I mentioned earlier that most native bucks will likely never exceed 120 to 150 inches, even at maturity. However, habitat that provides proper nutrition with or without supplemental feeding can add another 10 to 20 inches, but genetics still determine how big a whitetail buck can get.

A buck with “superior” genes for antler growth will outperform bucks with “normal” genes for antler growth under the same conditions. Exceptional bucks are just that, exceptions to the rule. This is where the management part must take place for the whole deer management concept to work.

Whitetail Management: How to Implement

Take any group of bucks on any property in any part of the country and some deer will have larger antlers than the others. Regardless of the bucks a property owner has to start with, the best whitetail bucks on the property are the very deer that a hunter should be managing to increase the quality of the bucks found in the deer herd. And in this case, management involves NOT shooting them young, rather providing them and their offspring with good habitat to survive and thrive in.

The other bucks should be culled, harvested, and removed, if possible. Culling is not a must. A property can still produce good bucks in the absence of culling. How to manage whitetail deer on your property is up to you. As mentioned earlier, most mature bucks are good deer. Culling is best applied to deer herds when excess deer need to be removed to keep the population in check with the habitat that is available.

In short, if a bunch of deer need to be removed from a property during a given year or over a series of years do not shoot all of the best deer or all of the mature deer, but focus on taking some trophies and then cleaning up some of the “lesser” bucks found throughout the age classes.

Managing Deer Takes Time

Repeating this process methodically year after year while keeping the herd size at an appropriate level for the habitat will SLOWLY improve a deer herd. It’s difficult to change the genetic composition of a deer herd but culling will allow the native bucks that reach maturity to be the best bucks that the property can produce.

It’s a mistake to over-focus on the culling of bucks as THE way to manage a deer herd. Managing for good deer herd nutrition and allowing bucks to reach maturity will go further towards reaching your goals. Research has shown that fawns that start off in good shape end up being bigger, more healthy deer. For that, you need healthy does with plenty of food. And as for bucks, with proper nutrition and a little bit of age, most hunters would be quite surprised at what a native white-tailed buck can do. And more than happy to put it on their wall!

TPWD Adopts New Deer Hunting Regulations

An important part of any ranch’s deer management program is informed and proper harvest. Without sufficient population data, improper white-tailed deer harvest is inevitable, and management objectives will never come to fruition. Managing proper harvest often means managing deer hunters.

At the big ranch called Texas, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has adopted a series of hunting regulations that expand special buck antler restrictions and liberalize doe harvest opportunities in dozens of Texas counties. The new rules take effect during the 2009-10 hunting seasons.

Citing strong support for the changes during the public comment period, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff said the new regulations reflect a shift toward biologically-based communities for managing deer populations. One of the biggest changes involves further expansion of the department’s successful antler restriction regulations into 52 additional counties where biologists have identified a need to provide greater protection of younger buck deer.

Texas gets new Deer Hunting Regulations

According to Clayton Wolf, TPWD big game program director, the antler restrictions have significantly improved age structure while maintaining ample hunting opportunity, based on data to date in the 61 counties where the rule is currently in effect. New counties under the antler restrictions regulation this fall include: Anderson, Angelina, Archer, Atascosa, Brazos, Brown, Chambers, Clay, Cooke, Denton, Ellis, Falls, Freestone, Grayson, Grimes, Hardin, Harris, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Hunt, Jack, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Kaufman, Liberty, Limestone, Madison, McLennan, Milam, Mills, Montague, Montgomery, Navarro, Newton, Orange, Palo Pinto, Parker, Polk, Robertson, San Jacinto, Smith, Stephens, Tarrant, Trinity, Tyler, Van Zandt, Walker, Wichita, Wise, and Young.

In addition, the department got overwhelming support to increase whitetail bag limits in several areas of the state with growing deer numbers or populations sufficient to support additional hunting opportunity. The department is increasing the bag limit in most Cross Timbers and Prairies and eastern Rolling Plains counties from three deer (no more than one buck, no more than two antlerless) or four deer (no more than two bucks and no more than two antlerless) to five deer (no more than 2 bucks).

Counties affected include: Archer, Baylor, Bell (West of IH35), Bosque, Callahan, Clay, Coryell, Hamilton, Haskell, Hill, Jack, Jones, Knox, Lampasas, McLennan, Palo Pinto, Shackelford, Somervell, Stephens, Taylor, Throckmorton, Wichita, Wilbarger, Williamson (west of IH35), and Young.

The department is increasing the bag limit from four deer to five deer in Pecos, Terrell, and Upton counties. The justification for this change is that white-tailed deer densities throughout the eastern Trans-Pecos are very similar to densities on the Edwards Plateau, where current rules allow the harvest of up to five antlerless deer.

Another change increases the bag limit from three deer to five deer (no more than one buck) in selected counties in the western Rolling Plains. Counties affected include: Armstrong, Briscoe, Carson, Childress, Collingsworth, Cottle, Crosby, Dickens, Donley, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Garza, Gray, Hall, Hardeman, Hemphill, Hutchinson, Kent, King, Lipscomb, Motley, Ochiltree, Roberts, Scurry, Stonewall, and Wheeler.

The department also extended whitetail hunting from 16 days to the full general open season in Dawson, Deaf Smith, and Martin counties (three deer, no more than one buck, no more than two antlerless). Increased deer estimates equate to longer and more liberal deer hunting seasons.

Areas of the state having sufficient doe populations that warrant additional hunting opportunity will be getting more doe days this fall: from 16 days to full-season either-sex in Dallam, Denton, Hartley, Moore, Oldham, Potter, Sherman and Tarrant counties; from 30 days to full-season either-sex in Cooke, Hardeman, Hill, Johnson, Wichita, and Wilbarger counties; from four days to 16 days in Bowie and Rusk counties; from four days to 30 days in Cherokee and Houston counties; from no doe days to four doe days in Anderson, Henderson, Hunt, Leon, Rains, Smith, and Van Zandt counties.

The department is also expanding the late antlerless and spike season into additional counties. Counties affected include: Archer, Armstrong, Baylor, Bell (West of IH35), Bosque, Briscoe, Callahan, Carson, Childress, Clay, Collingsworth, Comanche, Cooke, Coryell, Cottle, Crosby, Denton, Dickens, Donley, Eastland, Erath, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Garza, Gray, Hall, Hamilton, Hardeman, Haskell, Hemphill, Hill, Hood, Hutchinson, Jack, Johnson, Jones, Kent, King, Knox, Lampasas, Lipscomb, McLennan, Montague, Motley, Ochiltree, Palo Pinto, Parker, Pecos, Roberts, Scurry, Shackelford, Somervell, Stephens, Stonewall, Tarrant, Taylor, Terrell, Throckmorton, Upton, Wheeler, Wichita, Wilbarger, Williamson (West of IH35), Wise, and Young. In Pecos, Terrell, and Upton counties, the season would replace the current muzzleloader-only open season.

In East Texas, the department is establishing a special muzzleloader season in additional counties, lengthening the existing muzzleloader season by five days to be equivalent in length with the special antlerless and spike buck seasons in other counties, and altering the current muzzleloader bag composition to allow the harvest of any buck (not just spike bucks) and antlerless deer without permits if the county has “doe days” during the general season.

New counties affected include: Austin, Bastrop, Bowie, Brazoria, Caldwell, Camp, Cass, Cherokee, Colorado, De Witt, Fayette, Fort Bend, Goliad (North of HWY 59), Goliad (South of HWY 59), Gonzales, Gregg, Guadalupe, Harrison, Houston, Jackson (North of HWY 59), Jackson (South of HWY 59), Karnes, Lavaca, Lee, Marion, Matagorda, Morris, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, Upshur, Victoria (North of HWY 59), Victoria (South of HWY 59), Waller, Washington, Wharton (North of HWY 59), Wharton (South of HWY 59), and Wilson.

TPWD also added one additional weekend and 10 additional weekdays in January to the current youth-only deer season. They also established a one buck only, antlerless by permit, nine-day mule deer season for Parmer County — the first ever deer season for that county.In other action, the commission approved a temporary, indefinite suspension of the current lesser prairie chicken two-day season in October until population recovery supports a resumption of hunting.

With all the changes, TPWD is encouraging hunters to check the Outdoor Annual of hunting and fishing regulations for county and species specific rules before going afield this fall. The annual will be available online and wherever hunting licenses are sold beginning August 15.

The Culling of White-tailed Bucks is Not a Myth

There has been an ongoing debate in deer management over the culling young white-tailed bucks based on antler characteristics ever since the first research on the subject concluded. The subject at the very heart of this debate still remains the harvest of spike antlered bucks. Though many deer managers cull bucks in an attempt to improve the antler quality of their deer herd, does it really work?

DADH: “Conflicting penned deer research findings have fueled the age-old culling controversy. Study results on captive deer have produced recommendations ranging from removing all spike-antlered (presumably genetically inferior) yearlings, to complete protection of all yearling bucks regardless of their antler traits. Those favoring selective removal of small-antlered young bucks claim such a practice will remove small-antlered genes from the herd and improve antler quality.”

Texas has lead the way in terms of antler research. Research conducted by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department suggests that breeding better-antlered white-tailed bucks improved the antler quality of bucks sired, but then researchers at Texas A&M University concluded that a doe’s “nurturing ability” was the most important factor. The latter study suggests that the genetics of individual deer are not important at all?

The Culling of White-tailed Bucks is Not a Myth

In an attempt to end the culling debate, researchers from Stephen F. Austin State University set out to determine if a white-tailed buck’s first set of antlers were good predictors of future antler growth. Would yearling bucks in a wild population and varying in antler quality really be significantly different as they aged? To answer this question, wild bucks were captured in South Texas and yearling bucks were permanently marked. This allowed bucks to be tracked from yearling to maturity.

What did they find? Well, at 4 1/2 years old they observed no significant difference in Boone and Crockett antler scores between marked 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 point yearling bucks. Researchers found that smaller antlered yearling bucks attained a mean antler size equal in width, mass, length and number of points to those starting with larger antlers at yearling age. They were also not significantly different at 5½ years of age and older. Earlier I said that culling works, but this research suggests that removing small-antlered yearling bucks would not improve mature buck antler size. So what gives?

Well, first let’s look at how the yearling bucks were grouped. In the study, yearling bucks were divided into two antler-point categories, those with three or fewer antler points and those with four or more antler points. Although their objectives were to determine if 2 and 3 point bucks were inferior to 4+ point bucks, the implications to deer managers are muddy. If one were to just read through the study it would seem meaningless to cull at all, but it’s not and here’s why.

In my opinion, instead of comparing 2 and 3 point yearling bucks with 4+ point yearling bucks, the data should be re-worked to compare 2 and 3 point yearling bucks with 7 and 8 point yearling bucks. Since most yearlings have either 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 total points, I think all the mediocre yearlings (4, 5, and 6 points) bring down the average from the top-end deer (7 and 8 points). Since yearling antler points, like everything else, fall along a bell curve, I can only assume that there were many more 4, 5, and 6 point bucks in their sample than 7 and 8 point yearlings. Let’s see the data from 2 and 3 point deer versus only 7 and 8 point yearlings.

Buck Management:  Culling bucks is not simply shooting every 2 and 3 point buck we see. If you are even remotely interested in improving the buck segment of a deer herd then I recommend shooting yearling bucks with 4 or fewer antler points. If you have a higher threshold for pain (especially fewer bucks in the short-term), then I suggest shooting yearling bucks with 5 or fewer antler points. This may sound insane at first, but because top-end bucks make up only 20% or less of the buck herd, the competition has to be removed! By doing this, a land owner can ensure that all future deer (bucks and does) are sired by the best bucks. If you are going to make drastic genetic changes within a population, it takes drastic action. Ranchers do not put a crappy bull, a mediocre bull, and a good bull in with their cows and hope all the calves end up being grand champions.

Buck management is not a one-size-fits-all for every ranch. Culling must occur at the yearling level as well as each age class thereafter. Bucks at each age must be compared on a relative basis to other bucks in the age class and inferior bucks should be harvested. As a property progresses in a deer management program the quality of cull, management, and trophy bucks should increase if the age, genetics, and nutrition are in place. And remember this, if genetics were not heritable why would deer breeders (whether you like them or not) consistently produce monster buck after monster buck. I think there is something to it!

Bottomlands are Important White-tailed Deer Habitat

Bottomlands are Important White-tailed Deer Habitat

Creeks, streams, rivers, and all riparian areas are important habitat for white-tailed deer. Not only do these areas typically provide access to water and good bedding cover, but they also serve as great travel corridors and have the most fertile soils in most any area. Great bottomland or riparian soil is typically clay and silt-rich and full of nutrients and natural fertilizers.

So why do riparian soils (those found along drainages) serve as outstanding areas of food production areas for whitetail? Well, we know the soil is nutrient rich and this happens over time from flooding and drying and the decay of organic matter. But in addition to being rich in organic matter, riparian soils have a high water-holding capacity. In fact, any soil rich in clay and silt has this ability, but let’s not forget that bottomland soils are also adjacent a seasonal or permanent waterway.

Even without rainfall, many of the plants adjacent a creek or river can simply extract water from the soil below like any other plant, but there is a lot more water. Thus, the amount of forage produced in bottomland areas is often 3 to 5 times that on upland soils during the same year. This soil provides for an abundance of a very lush and diverse plant community. And remember, deer like diversity especially when it comes in the form of forbs and browse!

So what should you do with bottomland areas on your property? As important as they are for deer habitat and the health of the overall wildlife community, I recommend protecting them and revegetating them if necessary. Many bottomland floodplains are cleared and become prime farming and grazing land. If you are serious about deer management, encourage native vegetation to retake these areas, saving some portions for great food plot areas.

Bottomlands are Important White-tailed Deer Habitat
This ag field has a filter strip – but to benefit deer, it needs to be “let go” into native weeds, grass, and brushy plant species

In addition, permanently vegetated areas along creeks, streams, and wetlands reduce erosion and sedimentation, stabilize streambanks, improve plant diversity, and improve wildlife value of these sensitive areas. I also recommend establishing vegetative buffers or filter strips along water courses or runoff areas to trap valuable bottomland soil in the event of heavy rainfall and or channel flooding.

So here’s the bottom line: White-tailed deer and other wildlife love bottomland areas. Not only do these areas attract big bucks, but because of the quality and diversity of habitat, it attracts lots of does. And to a big mature buck, that’s a good thing!