Harvest Ratios
 

I just came into a piece of land about 1000 acres. I' ve had it for about 3 years and have shot some nice sized 8 and 10 piont deer. The problem is that I know that I have too many doe in relation to bucks because I saw groups of 4-6 doe in a group two years ago and there are nearly 10 to a group this year with fewer buck signs. I plan on having the land surveyed next year but my question is this...on 1000 acre ranch what would be the prime ration of buck to doe to be harvested in a year. ( 1:1 , 1:2) Thanks for any help!

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

1:2 is a good target.

On 1000 acres - you should be harvesting 4-6 does per year with a population of 30-40 deer per square mile and adequate food. - More if the buck: doe population is out of whack.

When assessing doe populations - Be sure not to count fawns - Only does older than 1-1/2 yrs.

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

I agree with farm hunter. Take at least 4-6 does per year out of the herd and you' ll start to see improvement in the overall herd.

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

My cousin and I hunt over 6,000 acres that we own. We have done trophy management for about 10 years now and we always try for a 2 to 1 ratio. It is hard to do and you have to be extreamly strict on yourself but it WILL pay off. Also, we wont shoot anything (or try not to) that is not at least an 8 point with a min. rack score of 125. Good Luck!! -- CDH

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

trust me this may sound wrong but we take 10-15 does a year off of 350 acres and have more does still. Seems like every time we shoot one two come back. But have noticed seeing alot more bucks traveling, hard to get land 1-1 or 2-1 that is in the southeast. But we also kill all of our does with bows and not guns so we dont spook the bucks, only time gun goes off is for large bucks and coyotes

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

We agree with Trophyhuntr on this one. What you need to do is to do a count. Go into the woods and sit on a stump for the whole day. You will need to do this about 10 times in 10 different areas.
Count all the deer and what you see is about what you have. If you see 100 does over the day and 3 bucks than you have about a 33:1 ratio... We suggest that the doe' s be taken, not just antlerless. If you take fawns you need to be careful to take only doe fawns. If you cannot distinguish the fawn sex than they get a free pass until you can.
If the doe has a doe fawn take the fawn. If you take the doe and not the fawn the fawn may starve and there is no sense in wasting meat.
If the doe has twins take the doe fawn and leave the buck with the doe. If the doe has twin doe fawns take the fawns. Take all the yearling doe fawns you can and look for the doe matriarchs.
You must leave one old doe she will teach the younger deer survival skills. We havve clients in the south that take all the doe' s they can untio they think they have taken too many then they take 25% more.
Just reducing the doe herd will increase nutritrient to the herd. Don' t forget to plant and use some supplement.
Also, once you get some property you will not believe how many friends you will have. Make sure they give an equal amont or more towards the management capital during the rest of the year...
Good management costs $$$ and time.
You will recieve some sound information here, don' t hestiate to ask questions...

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

On good habitat you should be able to harvest 40% of your does just to keep herd numbers from growing. In Charles Alsheimer`s book Quality Deer Management he says shooting 25% of an areas does is a disaster waiting to happen. Because a 25% harvest will not control herd growth.

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

qmabry - Our harvest ratio is over 4 does per buck on ~3000 A, with about 70 deer harvested and registered per year. (Poaching is a known problem, no way to account for it). I have to disagree with some of what lunchbucket says - do not hestiate to shoot mature does that have fawns or you will never get there; the fawns will fend for themselves and do not need their mother once they are weaned. Fawns without spots can be considered weaned. Keep good statistics on the harvested deer - live and dressed weights, age, etc.
-Daylight observation is not enough to determine doe to buck ratios - mature bucks are nocturnal by nature and may be under-represented in any daylight sampling. Better to invest in remote motion cameras to survey your herd.
-fsh

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

If your seeing that many does - bust a dent on them. But not to big adent.

You will need to do your count right after hunting season. The most affordable is a spot light count. This should be done on a grid type system. You must do it before the bucks lose their antlers and the trees start getting their leaves back. I have several statistical formulas I can give you if you need them . Most counts - even good ones - can be +- 70%.

You need to know how many animal units your land can support. Some really big S. Texas ranches carry as little as 1 deer per 26 acres. But they have enourmous bucks.

For optimum growth potential you should carry only an average of 56% (+-)of your carrying capacity.

Lot of people have a lot of ideas. Some good - some bad.
Check with your local NRCS and they might be of some help.

Find a goal and stick with your plan. Long term managment goals are never met with changing plans.

RE: Harvest Ratios
 

It really depends on your overall herd size, and the carrying capacity of your land. On our 1000 acres, we harvest an avg of 30 does each season, and about 6-8 bucks. So that comes out to about 4-5 does for each buck. For us that works well...but to begin with we had a way out of whack buck/doe ratio. There are still too many does and we' ve killed about 150 in the last 5 seasons. I wouldn' t hesitate to take at least 2-3 for every buck...probably more.