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07-07-2007 | 09:42 PM

#5

TexasOaks

Nontypical Buck

Joined: Feb 2007

Posts: 1,335

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From: Denton, Texas

RE: How to determine carrying capacity of land?

[align=left]When deer populations are above carrying capacity, the number of fawns born per doe is reduced. This is dictated by available nutrition and stress. When populations are kept below carrying capacity by including does in the harvest, available nutrition is increased and more fawns are born per doe. In Area A, only three fawns per 10 does are born annually. On Area B, more than twice as many fawns are born each year from HALF as many does. The optimum sustained yield is that harvest level where the population is kept below carrying capacity and recruitment is at its highest. Note that both populations shown above have an equal number of deer. Where populations are established, this type of management requires a certain number of does to be killed each year.[/align][align=left][/align][align=left][/align][align=left]By keeping the deer population below the carrying capacity of the available habitat, more forage (nutrition) is available per deer. Thus, does are healthier, reproductive[/align][align=left]success is higher and more does are able to carry two fawns. Ironically, this can result in a greater deer harvest each year. Depending on the relationship of the population and the carrying capacity, an “optimum sustained yield” can be achieved where a relatively high reproductive rate allows an abundant harvest each fall. With highquality habitat and increased nutrition, the percentage of doe fawns that breed their fi rst fall increases (sometimes up to 25 percent). Also, a higher percentage of yearling does produce two fawns instead of one. Because fawns are born at approximately a 1:1 sex ratio, more bucks may be born each year. Therefore, in some areas, you actually can increase the number of bucks born by shooting more[/align][align=left]does.[/align][align=left][/align][align=left]Along with population management, habitat management is essential to ensure deer receive optimum nutri tion. To provide increased nutritional benefi ts to a deer herd, 2 to 5 percent of a management area may need to be planted in quality warm- and cool-season food plots (as opposed to tall fescue or orchardgrass) properly distributed across the property. This strategy helps prevent overgrazing and provides nutrition on a year-round basis, especially during late summer and late winter stress periods. Other habitat management practices that can improve the quantity and quality of forage available to deer (thus increasing carrying capacity) include: forest management (e.g., timber harvest and/or thinning), controlled burning (both old fi elds and woods — especially after thinning), using selective herbicides, and planting soft and hard mast-bearing shrubs and trees (especially in hedgerows designed to break-up fi elds larger than two acres).[/align][align=left][/align][align=left][/align]

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