lukec19834

Thanks every one for the tips and info about my thread,I herd word that some land owners think that if you have a lot of does they just live on there farm and do the minor doe looking during the rut, witch I guess makes sense but kind of greedy, but I will still getting on them to get the right ratio down pat. so I guess well do are part on our 100 acres and hope for the best. Thanks guys

BarnesX.308

I wouldn't base a habitat's carrying capacity of deer based on amount of agriculture. Agriculture is seasonal and deer need to eat all year round. The more fields you have, the less woods, too. So, the mast and the browse is less. A barren field doesn't do much for a deer in February.

Mojotex

To give you an idea of the population issue we are faced with, were I hunt it is legal to take over 200 deer/season .... of which only 3 can be bucks, at least one of which must be an 8 point. The daily limit is 2 of which one can be a buck. We try our best to pass on all bucks under 4 years of age and take at least 75 does off the property. We have done this since aobut 1995.

About 3-4 seasons ago we started seeing a more like a 4/5-1 doe to buck ratio rather than the 12/15-1 when we first started knocking off the does.(It was not unusual to see 20-30-40 does in any give food plot any given afternoon). We still have a lot of does. And now we are seeing a lot more bucks. It is my personal opinion that the total population is about the same but there are far less does and more bucks.

We have no tough winters down this far south. Mast crop can vary, but there is usually plenty of browse to go around.