01/16/2025
I have updated and edited my math on nutritional outputs, supplemental feeding and how it impacts hunting success. In ten years I have said some bone headed things to get attention and even impulsively, but I need to be accurate, so here is some of it. Hunting landowners haven’t been doing more because I believe they haven’t really known what to do. As wildlifers we should be more than foresters. A productive hunting property can have an ~ 8 month hunting (deer,quail, turkey) season. Food and cover increases carrying capacity, trapping coupled with habitat improvements increases population numbers. Coyotes don’t bother me like I thought they would, pesky nest predators can and will. In my opinion, supplemental feeding should not be done without removing nest predators if turkey or wild quail populations are present on the property. In year 3 of a property,post timber harvest, the best flush of growth is 2,000lbs of food and cover per acre on July 15. 20-40% would be above average deer food however many plants get picked over earlier in the year. 12 adults on 100 acres eat 1,000 lbs of supplemental feed pellets a month that is 2lbs of feed a day per adult, this is in year 3. That is 15-20 %of their daily diet. Spring clover and July and August tonnage plots of forage soybeans or American Joint vetch will make up 40% of a deers diet. This is true. In the SE USA, only ~ 50-75 % of forest management is good enough to maintain a density of 1 adult deer per 8 to 10 managed acres and this is in core range scenarios at max carrying capacity. Deer are “concentrated selectors” meaning they want to eat exactly the nutritional requirements of their body at that given time. With all that native food in the woods why deer still chose to browse so heavily on summer food plots and use supplemental feed sites is beyond me, but they do. Heck, the late summer is still the highest stress time of the year on a deers diet. Heat stress changes things, and quick. It can even limit food intake. 1 adult deer per 10-12 managed acres is much more comfortable. The optimal hunting deer density is either 70-80 deer a square mile or 1 adult per 10 forested acres during “fluid” , deer moving, times of day. Therefore this needs to be an acceptable “growing” deer density. So, if you have land in the better part of the southeast that is fortunate enough to do it with woods and genetics alone, ok. But the other 25- 50% that has marginal forest management but wants to grow the biggest bucks possible with acceptable “hunting” deer densities, growing season food plots that concentrate on tonnage and supplemental feeding is essential. Again, I believe in abundance over mere availability in population numbers and summer nutrition. I do not like talking about my work so much because a lot of people dont even like hunting but it is my job to do a good job and be a better voice in a region of the United States where there is still a need of understanding wildlife and habitat management systems.
www.buckcountrywildlife.com
