I have no idea how old our mature and biggest doe are as I never age them. I quickly determine a "mature" doe in the field by her behavior attributes not her body size.
However, based on this "unstatistical" methodolgy, I can say that the "smarter" doe are NEARLY always the biggest. Whether that be 2.5,3.5,4.5 or older I don't know.
original:TFOX
2 things come to mind,either a subspecies issue,which is debateable or a climate issue.Deer from the North grow bigger due to the weather being colder and down south they stay smaller to keep cooler,forget the scientific name for it but I am sure this is part of the answer.
This is a well established fact within the cattle industry and it only makes sense that it is Mother Nature's way in deer as well. Cattle grow bigger the farther north and west as compared to being in the South or East.
As a general rule, you can move cattle from the South to the North or from the East to the West, but if you try to do the opposite, the cattle go backwards real fast.
Has to do with cattle needing more internal body fat and larger circulatory systems in North/West as opposed to needing to be more "efficient" in the South/East where they have to fight heat, humidity and in some place alligators.
