Texas Parks & Wildlife Department sent out a news release urging deer hunters and meat processors, specifically those in South Texas, to take additional precautions when harvesting and handling deer carcasses during the upcoming season, due to concerns about possible spread of fever ticks in the region. Portions of Maverick, Dimmit and Webb counties are currently under livestock quarantine by the Texas Animal Health Commission due to heightened levels of fever ticks outside the permanent quarantine zone along the Rio Grande border.
If not contained, fever ticks could continue to spread northward outside the permanent fever tick quarantine area and become re-established in other areas of Texas. In addition to cattle, horses, white-tailed deer, Nilgai and elk can act as hosts for the tick.
“We’re asking that hunters use common sense and take precautions when handling and transporting deer taken on ranches within the quarantine zone,” said Wildlife Director Mike Berger, PhD. See the complete news release online by clicking here.
TrophyScore is a great new software program that allows digital game camera users to download their whitetail photos and then, using TrophyScore, measure the animal to give the user a reliable estimate on its trophy score. This program will allow hunters to rough score their deer before they shoot. We’ve posted the TrophyScore Review here.
My CamTrakker game camera came with the software for the TrophyScore program. After we recovered Roy’s 10-point buck I installed the software onto my computer and I scored the buck with TrophyScore. This was a perfect opportunity to use the program and see how accurate it was.
Here is How it Works
When you open the program you select a picture of the buck you want to score from your digital images.
After the picture is loaded your first step is to give the program a reference to base all the measurements on. You have the choice of measuring the buck’s eye or its nose. To do this you use our mouse and click on the edges of the eye or nose. The instructions display as you move through the program and are available to guide you along the way. The instructions state that to measure the eye you mark the edges of the eye, without getting into the skin.
You can Zoom In and Out on any feature and I found it was easier to get an accurate measurement of the eye by zooming in on an eye to measure it. I clicked on each edge of the eye and a line filled in between the two points. Then the program asked me if I had measured the eye or the nose and I of course selected eye.
You only measure one, either the eye or the nose. If your picture has a front view you can see all the nose and get a good measurement. But from the front, the eye is at an angle so your measurement won’t be as accurate as a profile shot. On a side view you can not see all the nose but you can see all the eye.
Onward, here is how to measure the nose. At this point the screen shows you how to make the measurement and you click on the sides of the nose, from inside nostril edge to inside nostril edge.
Next, it’s time to measure each antler beginning with the right antler. First you click along the right main beam. When it is marked you click Next. You then measure the length of each tine, one at a time beginning with the brow tine. When you’re done with the right antler you do the left. Then you measure the width of the antler at the base and between the points. Lastly, you measure the spread of the antlers and click Next. The program tells you it is ready for Completion and when you click Next you receive a print out of the rough Boone & Crockett score, including both gross and net scores.
How Easy Was It To Do This
My first time through I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t zoom in on my nose measurement and didn’t get it right and the buck scored over 160. But on my second time around I knew what was going on and took advantage of the zoom feature — then the program nailed the score. TrophyScore actually adjusts to the angle of the deer in your photo by the relationship of the eye or nose measurements to the antler measurements.
So was it easy? Yep. Accurate? That too!
Roy’s measurements with the tape were half an inch more. The TrophyScore grossed the buck at 131.2″ and the it taped 131.7. That’s incredibly close. The TrophyScore web site has full information on the program and you can download it from the site.
Will it work on live deer? Yep, that is what it was created for!
White-tailed deer are large animals. They require many pounds of food each day. Ever think to yourself, what do deer eat? Well, whitetail are ruminants like cows, but deer diet selection is much different than cows. Cattle are grass-roughage eaters, have a relatively large rumen compared to body size and depend heavily on grasses for their diet.
Grasses are low in crude protein and digestibility when compared to the items deer eat. Whitetail food sources include legumes, forbs (broadleaf weeds) and the new-growth of browse plants. To a white-tailed deer, browse consists of the leaves and twigs of trees, shrubs (brush) and vines. Forbs and browse plants have high protein levels, ranging up to 15-35% depending on time of year.
Deer Eat High Quality Foods
Because grass is relatively low in nutrition, grasses need a longer residence time in an animal’s rumen. Longer residence time increases rumen microflora (bacteria and protozoa) degradation and digestion of the forage. Thus, for grass-roughage eaters like cattle and sheep, residence time is quite long and rate of food passage is slow.
Deer can’t go slow! They have high physical demands for energy. Whitetail can not afford to carry around extra, dead-weight. Deer must remain lighter and faster. There is a predator around every corner in the woods. Instead, white-tailed deer focus only on the most palatable, most-easily digested food items found in their habitat. This ensures that they get the most energy possible with the lowest amount of food intake. Besides, eating takes energy and time. It’s difficult to watch for predators with your head down.
What do Deer Eat Then?
White-tailed deer are what people in the diet business call “concentrate selectors.” Their rumen is small relative to their body size. Deer simply cannot hold a lot of forage. As a result, their diet must be very high in nutritive value and capable of being rapidly degraded in the rumen. This makes for quick digestion.
Therefore, white-tailed deer rely primarily on the good stuff. Whitetail food sources consists of the best forb and browse plants that are found growing in their environment. These items are usually much higher in crude protein and digestibility than just about every species of grass.
Some forb plants that deer eat:
Illinois bundleflower
Deer pea vetch
Lespedeza
Euphorbia
Patridge pea
Spiderwort
Wild carrot
Some browse plants that deer eat:
Oaks
Elms
Hackberry
Greenbriar
Dogwoods
Poison Ivy
Grapevines
Deer Eat Little Grass
Grasses comprise only a very small part of the overall diet of the white-tailed deer. Often, it’s less than 10 percent. I think this important to point out because so often I hear people say, “The deer have so much grass to eat.” Yes, you may see deer in a field, but it is not the grass they are eating. Instead, deer search for interspersed forbs/weeds that are much easier for them to digest. Furthermore, these food items are loaded with protein.
Warm season perennial grasses supply livestock with most of their nutrients. These items will not meet the nutrient and consumption requirements of white-tailed deer. In fact, a white-tailed deer will not survive in a field of grasses. A whitetail will literally starve to death with a belly full of grass.
Whitetail do eat some grass. However, deer only consume grasses that are rapidly degraded in the rumen. These include the small grains and ryegrass that are used to any extent by deer. This is why winter food plots for white-tailed deer containing these cereal grains and grasses can work. Other useful introduced forages include both warm and cool season legumes. Most hunters know them as clovers. Deer will use small grains and legumes, but they still cannot comprise a deer’s entire diet.
Some grass plants that deer eat:
Canada wildrye
Green sprangletop
Little bluestem
Silver bluestem
Rescuegrass
Deer Eat A Diversity of Foods
As you can see, it takes diverse plant communities to meet a deer’s dietary needs. Healthy deer make for a healthy deer herd. Furthermore, diverse whitetail food sources grow big-bodied deer. Big-bodied bucks grow big antlers, too. Good habitat is key. Supplemental feeding will ensure good body condition during periods of low rainfall.
Deer are very selective feeders so they require a diverse environment. It takes a diverse diet for whitetail to remain healthy. As a result, white-tailed deer prefer high quality habitat. It takes active habitat management to continually create whitetail food sources.
For several reasons, deer are often observed feeding along field edges. First, deer are very difficult to see in dense woods so we rarely see them there. They spend time in dense woods but these areas often lack food sources. Second, there is always a greater diversity of food available at the intersection of field and the edge of a woodland. This is because forb diversity is low in woodlands, but browse diversity is low in grasslands. Put them together and you have a deer buffet! So, what do deer eat in these transition zones? Go to the edge of the wood line and you can see for yourself. Evidence of deer browsing can be found on palatable browse plants.
A complete list of native plants used by white-tailed deer includes browse, forbs, soft and hard mast (fruits, acorns), and mushrooms. Again, deer are not classified as grazers. Rather, whitetail a are commonly referred to as browsers. Each day, a deer’s mission is to get high quality food with as little effort as possible.
Some mast that deer eat:
Acorns
Pecans
Persimmons
Dewberries
Hackberries
Forbs and mast, while providing good nutrition, may not be available in abundance every year or at certain times of the year. Forbs are often most numerous during the rainy seasons such as during the spring and fall. Deer will consume these readily when available because they have very high protein levels.
Browse plants tend to be more stable from year to year. Consequently, browse plants are the “bread and butter” of a deer’s diet. Again, browse plants are trees, shrubs and vines. These types of plants are deeply rooted and can persist through the summer. When natural foods are low during the winter, deer will also eat old, dead leaves directly off the forest floor. They are low in nutrition at this point, but they may be the best food available to them at that time.
In closing, whitetail food sources can be classified into several categories. However, browse is the most important source of deer nutrition because of its year-round availability. Important browse plants include green briar, poison ivy, grape vines, honeysuckle, hackberry, elm species, oak species and a variety of other trees and shrubs that are palatable in the area/region where the deer live.
Food plots go hand-in-hand with most properties practicing white-tailed deer management. Alfalfa can be one of the many plant species used to provide supplemental food for your whitetail herd. Most hunters do not know this, but there are over 205 varieties of alfalfa! Which one is right for your property and deer? For those landowners and hunters looking to plant and establish an alfalfa food plot, this article covers information that can help you learn more about high-quality alfalfa.
Alfalfa varieties with the best forage quality will be marked high quality (HQ) or multifoliolate (ML). These select varieties have high yield, are resistant to insects and heavy grazing, and are somewhat winter hardy. Because there are so many varieties of alfalfa, there are a lot of differents between alfalfa varieties. The key is finding the variety that is best-suited for your ranch. Continue reading “Alfalfa for White-tailed Deer Food Plots”
A piebald is an animal, usually a mammal such as a white-tailed deer or horse, that has a spotting pattern of large white and black patches. In fact, piebald deer are deer that look a lot like an American Paint Horse. The color of a piebald’s skin underneath its coat may vary between black under the black patches of hair and pink under the white patches.
The coloring is generally asymmetrical, resulting in piebald deer with abnormally wild brown and white coloration. In addition, many piebald-colored animals exhibit coloration of the irises of the eye that match the surrounding skin. This condition also occurs in white-tailed piebald deer and makes for a very unusual animal.
Piebald whitetail are often striking animals because of their unique beauty. Observers are often shocked to see such a remarkably colored deer. Let’s face it, most whitetail are very similar to one another when it comes to hair coat coloration. Not piebald deer; they are all different!
Genetics on Display
A genetic variation (defect) produces the piebald condition in white-tailed deer, not parasites or diseases. Piebald deer are colored white and brown similar to a pinto pony. Sometimes they appear almost entirely white. Regardless of the pattern, piebald animals always cool to see.
In addition to this coloration, many piebald deer have some of the following observable conditions: bowing of the nose (Roman nose), short legs, arching spine (scoliosis), and short lower jaws. This genetic piebald condition is rare. Typically, less than one percent of white-tailed deer are affected.
A normal colored whitetail and a piebald deer are spotted in a field. The piebald is almost completely white!A gorgeous piebald deer is spotted browsing on the edge of the woods. A beautiful deer makes for a beautiful photo.Wow, this piebald deer almost looks like a llama! Remember, there are some physical abnormalities that often accompany these color abnormalities.This piebald buck is pretty cool site. Looks like he’s got the right camo for living in a semi-snowy wonderland.
Viewing Piebald Deer
In closing, piebald deer are oddly colored and beautiful deer. They are different looking, but they are still white-tailed deer. Piebald are generally not protected any differently than other deer. All states have deer hunting regulations that protect deer for most of the year, but piebald can be hunted and harvested during open hunting seasons like “regular” deer.
Piebald deer behave much like other whitetail. Stay calm and quite when viewing piebald, as deer do not like loud noise or sudden movement. In addition, make sure to abide by all laws when trying to get that “once in a lifetime” piebald deer photo. Do not trespass on private property!
If you have seen a piebald recently, please comment to let us know if you observed any of the following, and where:
