Buck Manager | Buck Manager

Conditioning Deer to Eat New Foods

The new year is well underway and spring is just around the corner. That is a good thing because habitat conditions are as tough as I’ve seen them in some time and bitter cold weather really works on a white-tailed deer’s body condition. But a new year means resolutions to do new things—even when it comes to deer management. Though the supplementation of a deer’s diet is far from a new idea, I am confident that many landowners and managers will begin offering supplemental feed during late winter, spring and summer for the first time ever.

Most of that feed will be in the form of protein pellets. Regular readers of this site know that food supplementation is just a small part of an overall deer management program, but it can be an important component for maintaining and increasing the overall condition of the deer herd found on a property. This is especially true during the food stress periods that occur each year, summer and winter. Right now is as good of time as any to start, but I recommend following the simple suggestions below when beginning a supplemental feeding program for white-tailed deer.

Supplemental feeding itself is not rocket science, but there are some things you can do to increase its effectiveness. First and foremost, do not use supplemental feed as a tool to maintain substantially more deer on a property than the habitat can support. Habitat management and population management are much more important than pouring feed into a system.

If a deer manager can combine good habitat and the appropriate number of deer with a supplemental feeding program kicker, then the result will be far superior to just placing out feed and expecting quality deer to simply show up.

It also needs to be said that protein pellets should not be put into timed, spin-feeders. The unfortunate hunters out there that have tried this delivery method will attest to this advice. For one thing, dispensing “supplemental” foods from timed feeders is not really supplemental. It’s bait. And deer can not consume enough in this manner for it to truly supplement their diet.

Protein pellets contain much more moisture than corn or roasted soybeans and will sweat inside a feeder once temperatures begin to rise. It does not take much heat to make the temperature rise rapidly within a confined area. Because pellets move through timed feeders very slowly, this release of moisture will cause the feed to mold and cake-up. Use free-choice feeders.

Do not be disappointed if deer ignore your tasty offerings. Whitetail know a lot about their natural environment, but deer do not have an understanding of manufactured feeds or any new-to-them feed for that matter. Although deer are quick studies, don’t expect them to hammer your protein feeder right off the bat. There is a learning curve involved.

I’ve been contacted my numerous managers and hunters over the years that have filled new protein feeders with tons of high-protein pellets only to be disappointed when they return to their property and not a deer has touched it. In many cases, the problem is simply about timing.

Properties that have offered free-choice feeds for years know that deer consume supplemental foods in varying amounts during different times of the year. This phenomenon is especially evident during the spring and fall, when forbs and mast are abundant and readily available. This happens even on properties where deer have been supplemented for long periods of time. When available, whitetail deer prefer high quality natural foods over any supplemental food we can offer. This is why good white-tailed deer habitat is so important.

To get to the point, do not expect a lot of activity around your feeder when habitat conditions are good, such as after spring green-up or when acorns fall or during those rare years when rains continue throughout the summer. And although habitat conditions come into play, the time of year is not the only factor that can impact deer use of supplemental foods. It also depends on deer density and feeder density.

Lastly, when new foods are introduced onto a property deer must be conditioned to consume these new foods. Managers can either introduce the new food and just wait them out, or the new food can be mixed with foods that are familiar to deer. For example, if deer on a ranch commonly eat corn, then mix corn with the new feed to introduce it to them. Then, decrease the amount of corn and up the percentage of the new food. This is by far the best way to transition white-tailed deer to consume new foods.

Again, getting deer to eat new foods is not terribly difficult, but there are some factors that can effect how fast they hit new food sources. Habitat conditions, food availability, deer density, season and other deer management practices can all impact the consumption of supplemental foods. Simply keep all of these variables in mind if you plan on introducing new foods to whitetail and prepare to be surprised. Because once deer begin using their new food source you may be looking for supplemental income to help pay for it all!

The Rut and Young Bucks

The white-tailed deer rut came and went with the the deer hunting season, but let’s not forget the importance of successful breeding in deer management as we look forward to yet another (hopefully) wet spring and summer. Many hunters and deer managers looking to provide additional food sources for whitetail have already started planning their spring food plots while others are knee-deep in brush management, which will mean more high quality forbs. By the way, let’s not forget that winter is the time for managing and reducing brush — not July and August!

The rut is a great time for a deer hunter because mature bucks can become quite vulnerable as they search for or trail hot does, but the rut is also the time of the year when bucks and does handle the business of reproducing the next generation of deer for your property. The length of gestation is plus or minus 200 days for whitetail deer, so it’s pretty easy to calculate when fawns will start hitting the ground on your property or lease. Will the habitat on your property be ready?

Do Young Bucks Breed?

Until more recently, it’s long been believed that young whitetail bucks did not participate much during the rut. It was often assumed that young bucks bred young does while the middle-aged and mature bucks took care of the middle-aged and older does. The mating system in white-tailed deer was commonly described as dominance-based hierarchy, where dominant bucks did the lion’s share of the breeding. Under this assumption, the bigger, older bucks would pass their genes on to bunches of fawns, while the younger and less dominant (middle-aged and young) bucks would be lucky to sire a fawn or two.

Additionally, it was often thought that older does would simply reject young, unimposing bucks. This reasoning meant the only way a young buck would participate in the rut was to breed a young doe. But as I eluded to earlier, this was the line of reasoning until more recently. Thanks to genetics and the ability to track the DNA of specific animals, research has taught everyone that all bucks participate during the rut.

In fact, a research project out of Texas A&M University-Kingsville found that yearling males successfully mated with females of all ages.

This blew that old theory out of the water and it also documented the occurrence of multiple paternity in the fawns that were produced. In short, the study found several instances where twin fawns born from the same doe were sired by different bucks. So in some cases, mature does were bred by mature and allegedly dominant bucks, but also by yearling (1 1/2 year old) bucks. This information should change the way you view those young bucks on your property. After all, when it comes to deer management — and apparently breeding — both age and genetics are important.

The study, which took place at the infamous King Ranch, also yielded some other interesting tidbits. It found that the breeding success of young bucks was primarily restricted to the peak of the breeding season when most does were in estrous. It was believed that young whitetail bucks had the most success during the peak of the rut because mature bucks will often form tending bonds with does, and this means mature bucks are not available to cover the other receptive does. This is where the young bucks step in.

Now you know that all bucks on your property will participate in the rut each year, regardless of age. What’s next, and how does this work into your deer management program? Simply said: Be highly critical of all bucks found on your property, regardless of age, if you are interested in improving the quality of the bucks in the future. Improving any whitetail herd through deer management comes down to controlling age, genetics and nutrition. In the case of bucks that participate during the rut, age may not be important, but quality certainly is.

Two Headed Deer Hoax

This white-tailed deer hunting season has really been one for the record books, and not just in Texas. Not only have the true-to-life hunting stories been amazing this year, but now it seems whitetail hunters around the Lone Star State are processing the story of a two-headed deer being shot near Rock Springs, Texas. The website reporting the rare harvest has come up with some pretty amazing stories in the past, but this one is luring in the hunters like a a young buck to a doe in heat.

For those of you that have yet to hear about the alleged two headed deer hoax, the photo may blurry, but the story is at least an entertaining one. In fact, I’m kind of surprised this story did not take place in Louisiana because it definitely has the makings of a Thibodeaux and Boudreaux joke. Only in this one it’s Bill and Steve Jr. out at their West Texas deer lease. Continue reading “Two Headed Deer Hoax”

Hunter Tags Two Locked Bucks

The white-tailed deer hunting season may be in the recent past for most of us, but hopefully we all have the memories and some good eating to help us make it through until next season’s opener. Until then, it’s time to focus on habitat management and wishful thinking that this spring and summer will be a wet one. Almost as much as the deer hunting itself, the one thing that I will really miss about deer season is hanging out at camp discussing deer management and trading hunting stories from past trips.

It seems ironic to many non-hunters that hunters really do respect the animals that they pursue and kill. The same can be said of deer hunters across the whitetail’s range. Deer hunters relish the opportunity to tag just a single buck each year, but some lucky hunters manage to tag a couple of bucks each fall. This was the case for Illinois’ Phillip McGowan. While out deer hunting this past hunting season he never expected to stumble into two bucks, especially two bucks locked together. Here is his story: Continue reading “Hunter Tags Two Locked Bucks”

Managing White-tailed Bucks by Age Class

Selective harvest is an important part of white-tailed deer management. This is equally true for both the buck and doe segments of a deer population, but many hunters become obsessed with trying to determine which bucks to shoot or not shoot. Buck harvest is part of the equation, but how should the deer on your property be managed, hunted?

For regular visitors to this site, you know that I have covered shooting deer and harvest management in the past, but this time I really want to stress the importance of not stressing out over the harvest aspect of a deer management program. Selective harvest is not something that can be perfectly implemented on a property, but rather a strategy to remove less desirable animals in an attempt improve the deer herd, whether that simply be nutritionally or possibly even genetically.

Whitetail Buck Management

The most controversial issue on any hunting property typically involves around what is and is not a cull or management buck. There is no stock answer to this debate because the quality of a cull buck will vary from property to another. It could be said that one deer hunter’s “trash” is another hunters treasure.

We have all seen bucks with obviously inferior antlers that have been shot as culls, but I bet you have also seen some really good looking bucks on the web, in magazines, and on television that were harvested by someone and referred to as cull deer. So what’s the deal?

Managing Bucks by Age

I mentioned earlier that the quality of “cull deer” will vary from property to property, but the most important consideration to keep in mind when thinking about cull deer is that the quality of bucks will vary within each age class (cohort) on a particular property.

Grade bucks of the same age on a comparative basis and the manager/hunter will be comparing apples to apples. This is the easiest way to determine what may or may not be a cull buck on a piece of property — bucks of the same age must be judged head-to-head against one another to determine which has desired (or at least more desired) antler characteristics and which one will end up in the sausage. Hey, we all gotta eat!

An Example of Whitetail Buck Management

Believe it or not, there are some properties under intensive deer management that consider a yearling (1 1/2 years old) buck with 5 or less antler points a cull buck. This does not mean every property owner or guy trying to manage his deer hunting lease should hammer every deer with less than 5 points.

It would be grossly oversimplified (and a bad idea) to say everyone should do the same thing on their hunting property. This just would not be the case. There are just too many variables for a one-size-fits-all deer management approach for every property.

Spike Buck Management

Let’s discuss spike bucks for a minute. Now, this is a can of worms that hunters and even researchers have been actively discussing for decades, so I am not going to try to change anyone’s thoughts on the subject in this article. But, using the spike buck as an example, I just want to throw out an example of culling bucks by age class.

Let’s first assume that we need to harvest some number of bucks and that I am trying to improve the overall end-quality of bucks on a property. If two yearling spikes walk out and one has 3 inch antlers and the other has 10 inch antlers, I will shoot the one with shorter tines and leave the better buck of the same age every time. Why?

Because my goal when culling is to remove the most undesirable bucks. The 10 inch spike grew over 3 times as much antler as his same-aged friend.

Selective Harvest for Better, Mature Bucks

Although selective genetic manipulation through buck harvest is an important component of any whitetail deer management program, it is not the only component. Keep in mind that better deer habitat means better bucks at every age class. Overall, providing quality deer habitat is the best type of whitetail buck management.

A key to producing good deer on your hunting property may be to remove the very low-end bucks and then allow the rest to get some age on them. This strategy is best applied in areas where deer are at or have exceeded the carrying capacity of the property. If the deer density is low, below the carrying capacity, then it probably does not make sense to cull bucks since there are not many deer to spare. In this case, you will likely want to let each and every buck walk in hopes that it can grow older and eventually become a target for harvest.

The final key to buck management is to manage harvest. Harvest mature bucks and then cull by age class (if warranted) so that you remove no more than 20% of the total number of bucks in the area each year, and then provide the best deer habitat that you can so that all deer on your property remain healthy and bucks reach their full genetic potential.