There is a lot of discussion here about herd management and killing does to balance things out so I thought I would bring up something I was reading today. It is an article in the Sept issue of Deer and Deer Hunting magazine written by Charles Alsheimer. In it he discusses a 350 acre area that he and his neighbors concentrated killing does to balance the herd. What he talks about is the results of killing all of the mature does in the herd and the effect it had. The main effect seemed to be that doe groups that would frequent certain areas stopped frequenting those areas and that there was some "disruption" (for wont of a better word) to the herd in general. The conclusion that he came to was that, when thinning the does from a herd, you should kill a broad spectrum of the age group and not just the mature does. He states that the does you should kill should include doe fawns, yearling does, and mature does in order to maintain good herd dynamics. Made a lot of sense to me and I thought I would mention to you guys since a number of you are focusing on does this season.