First let me say this thread is not intended to address or debate baiting.

I believe MI will be instituting an earn a buck program next year.

I haven't verified this yet, but have heard that MI brought in a biologist in from Wisconsin to help with herd management decisions. It was determined that the herd is way out of balance in the buck to doe ratio, does being on the heavy side of the balance, and that gene pools were not spreading out enough therefore producing inferior deer. This biologist determined the best way to address these issues were to ban baiting and institute an earn-a-buck program (harvest a doe first in order to get issued a buck tag).


For the states that have an earn-a-buck policy, has it worked to produce better, bigger bucks and has it helped balance the herd?