ORIGINAL: GMMAT
Look at the states who have bigger deer on average how do they differ from NY, MI, and southern states?
Oh I don't know......Soil nutrient content?
We have friends in Iowa. The she of that couple loves flowers. She can go out in their yard and dig a hole....plant the flower....and fill it back up with the dirt she removed. If my wife did that.....all we've done is bought a 1 week decoration. Without filling the hole, here, with rich topsoil.....that plant won't not only thrive.....it won't survive.
2 Deer.....both eating corn and soy beans.......one eating them in NC.....one eating them in Iowa. Which one gets bigger? Now compound that through years and years of genetics....and it doesn't take a biologist to figure out why the deer are bigger in some areas of the country.
They eat healthier. They produce healthier offspring because of that fact. And so on....and so on....and so on......
Jeff and I mean this with the deepest emotion I can munster: I KNOW I am not comapring size of deer from NY, MI or NC to location states. I am comparing the number older bucks in each state.
Bigger is realtive to state. Why do the location states on average have more bigger(older) deer than NY, MI?
NY has more deer the Iowa, real close on habitat. MI has way more deer than Iowa, a pile more of Habitat. Why does Iowa have more older bucks?
Here is article from deer and deer hunting
How does Iowa--a state with a fraction of the deer habitat contained in many other prime whitetail states--maintain such a record? While several factors obviously contribute, arguably the most significant is also the simpliest:They don't hunt bucks with firearms until after the rut is over".
If that isn't a mouthful!
The article credits IDNR biologist and whitetail specialist Lee Gladfelter who helped establish the Iowa deer program and who..."looked around at neighboring states where rifle hunting begins in peak rutting time and saw that most of their bucks were getting cropped off every year. He didn't want us to go that route, and I think he was very wise."
There's another segment on the importance of gun season timing. It mentions Minnesota and how Minnesota once lead the nation in B&C bucks, but how that reputation is now historical. Because in 1974, after several severe Winters devestated northern herds, the Minnesota DNR implemented a season structure that emphasized buck harvest meant to protect does and to grow the herd. Basically, MN's large numbers of mature bucks has never recovered from that decision 30 years ago.
This quote from Minnesota about Iowa is telling...
"(Iowas) have longer, more varied seasons than we do. Their success rates are much higher than ours often double. They harvest a higher percentage of their herd, thereby controlling the herd more effectively. They distribute their hunting pressure more evenly, providing a higher quality hunt. And they produce far more trophy bucks. This is all done in a smaller state, with fewer deer and a fraction of the habitat (than Minnesota)."