The age of the does being sampled gets separated into three groups, (yearling, two year old and three years and older). In the past wildlife management used all three age groups in the deer health index but due to the declining sample size it had reached the point where the data sample size was not large enough to fall within that 13% coefficient of variance required to meet the minimum confidence level. For that reason all adults does (two years and older) are now grouped together to increase the sample size and bring it back to being within the required confidence level for making a more accurate herd health determination. Of course the standards used for the combination of the two age groups had to be amended to account for that change.

Yes, a change in the number of younger does in the sample size can have an effect on the statewide adult breeding rates. It shouldn’t have an effect though if the herd health were suitable in all areas and if the buck/doe ratio were correct in all areas. Since the only data being used for that adult breeding rate data is for adult does they should all be mature enough to be bred unless the habitat they are living in is poor or unless there simply weren’t enough bucks available in that area to get all of the cycling females bred.

I have long suspected, though can’t presently prove, that as more of the juvenile does reach breeding weight in an area it sets up a situation where perhaps more of the adult does don’t get bred, or at least not during their first cycle as they should.

Bucks simply don’t care if the cycling doe is an adult or a juvenile doe, they will spend their time trailing and hanging out near her until she is bred and that might be for a couple of days or more. If you have an increased number of juvenile does reaching breeding weight during any year that could, theoretically at least, result in fewer of the adult does in the same area getting bred.

That might not be a real serious problem though it could potentially cause a decline in the fawn recruitment rates for that area since typically fawns born to younger does do have a lower survival rate. But, even that might not be a major concern. Now that we have statewide antler restrictions it seems logical that any place that has a buck/doe ratio that far out of balance that adult does aren’t getting bred it is probably a problem of having too many does instead of not having enough bucks. Keep in mind now that the total deer population for the area needs to be in balance with the habitat, so adding more bucks simply to improve the breeding rate might be counter productive if you exceed the carrying capacity of the habitat.

But, in conclusion yes the decline in the adult doe breeding rates might be partly due to younger does being bred. But, once again nearly all adult does should be bred where they live in the correct habitat and buck/doe ratio balance.

Presently I see no significant concerns with the statewide breeding rates, though there certainly is still room for improvement. I am also confident we will see improvements as more information becomes available from the ever continuing research and data collection.

R.S. Bodenhorn