HuntingNet.com Forums - View Single Post - Small acreage mgmt
View Single Post
Old 10-13-2005, 01:36 PM
  #2  
Critr-Gitr
 
Critr-Gitr's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: TX Panhandle
Posts: 620
Default RE: Small acreage mgmt

Wow- you're covering alot of territory with that post. My first thought would be to try and get the hunters/landowners around you to try and hold off on those young bucks. You may have to go slow, mentalities are hard to change. Stick with it and be polite. On a property your size it will be hard to significantly alter the herd population structure without some help.

Think of it this way- You have to plug the lowest hole in the bucket before you can start filling it. The lowest hole is age. Simply put, even with excellent nutrition and genetics, a buck has to grow up to produce good antlers. It is only after you begin to get some age on your bucks that you will start to see the benefits of all the hard work you are putting into your food plots and increasing the production of your native vegetation. Genetics is a far distant third place, and something that very few property owners even have the ability to change. What we are talking about it is the law of diminishing returns. The big deal is age and population structure. Attack that with a vengance. The next step is nutrition and habitat, and you seem to be well on your way with that. I probably haven't said enough about population structure either but that is a different discussion... The easy answer is whack some does. Nearly anywhere you want to talk about could stand to have the doe population reduced at least somewhat. By the way I am a Wildlife Biologist. Good Luck.
Critr-Gitr is offline