Originally Posted by
bowtruck
mostly because i will be logging this winter ,and want good regeneration for a few years . And by ridding around property you can see 75 deer in half mile stretch of road . on some nights. on the same hand you know all those deer dont live there
Need to thin them down a bit . IMHO oh considering i am in northeast pa mountains
i certainly would not consider it Quality farmland.
not a habitat hero, commercial farmer, Just like to keep the wood growing with healthy deer running in it . for good woods.and deer for many generations.
once the deer pop needs to come back up i will not allow doe hunting for a few years.and hold a deer pop of 50 to 60 for about 10 years till the little forester girl come back.
Judging by your statement, I'd say you have alot more deer than can be reduced by harvesting less than 32 doe. If you are seeing 75 deer in a half mile....that's alot and you're surely not seeing them all. Let's just say for reference that you do have a DD of 75 dpsm. That means on your property there are approx. 126 deer. If you wintered that many deer, then a general ratio of 1 buck : 2 doe, means you wintered 86 doe. A recruitment rate of 1.5 per doe assuming you aren't overrun with coyotes or bears would recruit 129 fawns. (I'm not allowing for young doe fawns that did not breed or may only birth one fawn.Lots of other variables we could get into.) Just keeping it basic to show that if you are seeing numbers of deer like that 32 doe tags isn't even close to keeping up with recruitment. Chances are with DD that high, nature will soon begin controlling the herd if it hasn't already. Unless you maintain alot of supplemental food year round it will be hard to support numbers like that for very long. Most guys would reccomend reducing a herd of that size.....and it just can't be done without alot more doe tags than that.
If you are serious about managing your own land and reducing your herd, there are alot of folks you can talk to to steer you in the right direction,but I think they'll all reccomend alot bigger doe harvest at those densities.