Wildlife Management / Food Plots This forum is about all wildlife management including deer, food plots, land management, predators etc.

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Old 05-10-2004, 01:00 PM
  #11  
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Brutal Attack you said
Supplemental feeding has a whole host of disadvantages by itself.
The only thing I can think of on the downside is high cost and a slight risk of the deer catching a cold from each other eating from the same funnel. Are you referring to protein feeding or supplemental plantings? Which one is it and what downsides could there possibly be?
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Old 05-10-2004, 01:32 PM
  #12  
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Supplemental feeding mainly refers to feeders and other "non-planted" food sources. Still, food plots can have some the same detrimental effects to deer depending on what is there, how big the plot is etc.
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Old 05-10-2004, 01:38 PM
  #13  
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Supplemental feed can disrupt natural migration patterns of some wildlife. Animals that do not migrate naturally because of supplemental feeding operations are often more vulnerable to malnutrition, because they do not have access to the right type and amount of foods found in traditional wintering habitat. Also, without the protection of wintering habitat, animals are particularly vulnerable to severe winter weather and predation.

Predation, not starvation, is the often the major cause of winter mortality for wildlife. Winter severity (deep snow, intense cold) and the quality of wintering habitat are the real determinants of survival in winter. Supplementally-fed animals are still vulnerable to predation, if wintering conditions are severe, particularly where feeding occurs in marginal habitat.

Supplemental feeding may actually increase predation. Providing a supplemental food source crowds deer into a smaller area than when deer range widely to find food. Concentrated deer maintain a limited network of escape trails, since they often bed near feeders. Deer require extensive trails to elude predators. Predation on deer within sight of supplemental feeders is common.

Concentrating animals in a feeding area for extended periods of time will attract more predators and will lead to higher predation that if the animals were spread out

Typically feeding occurs near urban areas which can lead to increase in animals killed by car collisions and other human associated mortality sources.

Unnatural congregations of animals in feeding areas can also increase the instance of communicable disease, especially in the East where deer densities are much higher. There have been documented deer concentrations equivalent to 350 deer per square mile at some feeding sites. This level of crowding produces ideal conditions for outbreaks of infectious diseases. One such outbreak occurred in 1994 among supplementally-fed deer in Michigan. The highly infectious disease, "Bovine tuberculosis," is currently infecting deer and cattle within 4 counties in Michigan. This disease outbreak poses a serious threat to deer populations and livestock in the affected area.

Deer compete aggressively for scarce, high-quality foods. When crowded together, only the strongest, most dominant individuals in the deer population gain access to the food.

When deer are congregated near a feeder or plot, heavy browsing of the adjacent areas will also likely occur, this means landscape plants, shrubs, and anything else. Over-browsing of younger trees can destroy or significantly retard the development of critical future winter shelter.
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Old 05-10-2004, 01:54 PM
  #14  
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ORIGINAL: greg-dude


If you have any suggestions on native habitat improvement, let us know.
Hardwood stands can be managed to favor acorn and/or beechnut production. Wetlands can be improved to diversify forages for deer. Small fields can be planted with native forage species.

Timber harvest is generally good for deer, while also providing income from timber.Clear cuts and/or selective cuts, thinning, and firewood cutting can provide immediate benefits for deer, typically you will see forage production increase by the first spring, or even sooner depending on fall weather/regrowth.

It's all about disturbance. Fire, logging, even grazing. Any kind of disturbance will increase forage for deer.

Do you have deer yards on your land?
If so make sure there is a good mix of hard woods and soft woods.

Do you have streams on your land? Make sure they are undisturbed, as they are important travel corridors.
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Old 05-10-2004, 01:59 PM
  #15  
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Food plots can be a great benefit. However most of the time they aren't big enough to make a difference. 10-15 acres is generally the best size at least biologists think so. I'm not an expert on food plots this figure came from a generally accepted "rule" in the wildlife management field.
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Old 05-10-2004, 04:50 PM
  #16  
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Brutalattack; I agree totally with your disturbance statement for increasing forage for deer. On the other hand in my area a deer yard won't be a mixed stand of conifers and hardwoods it'll be a dense growth of cedars. They migrate to these areas for food and shelter in very heavy snow areas.

Dan O.
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Old 05-10-2004, 08:11 PM
  #17  
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ORIGINAL: Dan O.

Brutalattack; I agree totally with your disturbance statement for increasing forage for deer. On the other hand in my area a deer yard won't be a mixed stand of conifers and hardwoods it'll be a dense growth of cedars. They migrate to these areas for food and shelter in very heavy snow areas.

Dan O.
Well I'm sure you understand that different latitudes have different forest/tree species so of course not all deer yards will be the same composition. I was aiming for the Eastern US south of Maine etc. I'm guessing cedars are fairly rare in the Eastern US expect possibly in northern coastal areas.

In general though you want conifers for thermal cover and security and hardwoods for some forage and travel corridors.
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Old 05-11-2004, 07:37 AM
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Brutalattack:

When you talk about grazing, are you referring to forest grazing?

Like I said earlier, you may be surprised at how many on this forum is doing sometype of native vegitation enhancement. It just doesn't get the glory of food plots. We do timberstand improvement concentrating on mast production trees (mostly oaks), selective clearcutting and forest regeneration, fertilization of some mast production trees, and in the future will try some select burnings. I also raise cattle and a strong believer in pasture rotation and diversivied plant mixtures in my pastures.

There are others on this site that stated doing similar type of things based upon some of their previous posts.
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Old 05-11-2004, 10:26 AM
  #19  
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"Grazing" is anytime you put out livestock to feed on native plants.

Grazing can be a good way to increase wildlife forage. Just make sure that your keeping an eye out for invasive exotic weeds.
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Old 05-11-2004, 02:15 PM
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BA, When you mentioned Cedars in the Northeast, they are quite numerous through the Southeast and over to the Mississippi valley. Here in Northern Miss. I have Cedars all over my timber, and even in my yard. They can be a problem, sometimes.But we don't need them for snow cover, LOL. I am in the hilly part of the state and we have quite a diversity of tree species. The only tree that is a pain is the Sweet Gum, nobody has found a use for them that I know of.

Russ
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