Skeeter - I am guessing the limited tags available in Saskatewan are due to the rough winters? The weather is taking care of your doe harvest for you? In that situation, you may already have a very good buck:doe ratio without managing the property that way in particular. That weather stituation would definately affect the management strategy of a QDM program.

Down here in Wisconsin, we have a different situation. We have been managing our herd for maximum numbers for so long, many hunters refuse to shoot does and the doe population is getting out of hand in some areas. Some hunters were brought up thinking that it was wrong to shoot a doe. That attitude is changing now and doe tags are beoming more readily available. In order to keep our doe herd in check, hunters need to actively stay on top of their doe harvest.

One of the biggest gripes people have against QDM down here is with the landowners who are building the deer herd beyond carrying capacity in hopes of producing more bucks. Some of these landowners selectively harvest bucks and try to call it QDM. Non-QDM hunters negatively view this management style and frankly, so do true QDM hunters. It does a great disservice to the true QDM hunters who are doing everything they can to improve the deer herd.

Our doe permits were very limited at one time. It used to be that you had to apply for what was called a " party permit" to shoot a doe. A " party permit" was basically one doe tag given to several hunters and only one of them could fill it. As the herd grew in size, things changed. Wisconsin went to individual antlerless tags. Then they went to " Earn a Buck" seasons which forces the hunter to harvest one doe before they can harvest a buck. Now we have what are called " T zones," which are mangagment zones where hunters can be given several doe tags to use when they please. Some zones also sell bonus doe tags over the counter to increase the doe harvest.

Another issue we have in Wisconsin is that most of the land is broken up into small chucks of private land. In order to have a large area under a QDM program, you need to get several land owners to buy into the same management strategy you are using. Of course, every landowner may not always agree on what should be done with the deer herd and some may not want to participate in a QDM program at all. What ends up happening is compromises are made that will encourage as much participation as possible, and still allow improvements to be made to the herd.

Our minimum standard for bucks may increase as our QDM program progresses. We have seen some success over the last few years and some participants have already raised their personal standards to a higher level.