It’s warmer than normal across most of the whitetails’ range. Warm weather during January is usually associated with swirling winds. Looking at the weather forecast below, the wind direction will go around the compass during the next day or so at my place. That makes hunting conditions tough.

Hourly temperature prediction chart

However, that’s not the only ramification of warmer than normal temperatures this time of year to a deer hunter and manager. At this point in the season deer have a full fur coat. It was created to retain heat during extremely cold conditions for the area where those deer live (this is one reason deer shouldn’t be transported to new areas with different climatic conditions as they may not be adapted to thrive in the different conditions).

I don’t feel like moving much when I’m hot. Likewise, deer tend to limit their activity until the coolest times of the day when it’s hot relative to the normal conditions (60 in January when deer have a great fur coat probably makes them feel much hotter than when it’s 90 in July when they have a very thin summer coat). The coolest temperatures usually occur during nighttime. Hot temperatures during the late season encourage nocturnal activity. These factors make hunting deer very difficult during the late season when the temperatures are much warmer than normal for that time of year.

However, there are other considerations about warmer than normal temperatures during the winter. Deer ingest more food when they are colder – at least to a certain point. An exception is that if the temperatures get significantly colder than normal, deer tend to remain in cover and limit their activity.

Deer will produce larger antlers the following year if they consume more quality food (within limits) during the winter. It seems that warmer than normal temperatures probably result in deer consuming less food, and therefore potentially smaller antlers the following year.

I enjoyed walking to my stand yesterday without carrying bulky clothing. I never felt a chill the entire evening. Although I was comfortable, I would have gladly traded my comfort for colder temperatures and seeing deer during that hunt, and the hope of the local herd producing larger antlers and healthier fawns during 2012.

Slightly colder than normal temperatures during the late season probably result in better hunting, and healthier deer the following year. How are the weather conditions where you are hunting?

Growing Deer together,

Grant

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Adam called me two days ago with a bitter sweet message. He had found a shed from Giant 8. It was bitter because I had used some Reconyx cameras to understand Giant 8’s post late season feeding pattern. I had a Muddy hung, and felt I could tag him when the temperatures dropped and he needed to feed more during the daylight to gain calories to maintain his body weight. That plan is now canceled.

The sweet part is that his shed was found in one of two food plots that I had determined where Giant 8 was feeding. My scouting was spot-on! In addition, I’d rather the shed be found and confirmed it was a clean shed (no sign of injury, brain abscess, etc.) than he simply disappear.

Grant holding shed from Giant 8

I host an annual shed hunt during March. Even though March is relatively late for many shed hunters, we always jump a buck or two that still has antlers. However, I have multiple images of bucks that have shed early this year. In addition, folks from throughout the whitetail’s range have commented on my Facebook page about bucks shedding early in their neighborhood.

I expected bucks to shed earlier than normal this year – but not this early. Bucks will shed early when they are stressed. It was the fourth driest summer on record where I live. In addition to the lack of moisture, several months were recorded as the hottest or some of the hottest on record. Those hot and dry conditions caused a huge amount of stress to Eagle Seed beans planted in my plots. I was shocked they grew as well as they did – my other crops perished.

To a deer manager, forage plants are simply nutrient transfer agents. They simply transfer nutrients from the soil and air to the consumer (deer). No matter how many nutrients are available, plants can’t transfer nutrients without water. Soil moisture was so limited this year that the plants simply couldn’t transfer many nutrients. The heat directly and indirectly caused a huge amount of stress to bucks in my area this year.

Giant 8 after he shed his antlers

I was shocked that the antler production was as good as it was during 2011. This was confirmed by comparing some sheds we found last year to some mature bucks that were harvested here this year (most notably Giant 10). I was pleasantly surprised that they actually produced larger antlers than during the previous year when the growing conditions were much better! This is a great testimony of the relationship between age and antler development. If you wish to harvest bucks with larger antlers, allow the bucks where you hunt to mature and provide the best nutrition you can afford. Food plots are relatively easy to produce and can definitely yield great results in allowing bucks to be healthier (larger antlers) and easier to hunt.

However, a buck’s antler growth potential (genetic potential) can only be expressed if the buck is allowed to live until it reaches older age classes AND has access to quality nutrition year round. It seems my buck hunting may be over soon even though the legal season where I live extends to January 15th. I learned some very valuable lessons about managing for and hunting mature bucks during the drought of 2011. I’ll be a better manager during 2012. I will continue sharing what I learned in this blog and each week in the video episodes of www.GrowingDeer.tv. Thank you for being part of the www.GrowingDeer.tv team and for sharing what you’ve learned and observed with us. May you be blessed with a great 2012.

Growing Deer together,

Grant

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I posted an image on Facebook of Matt, my intern, with a bobcat he’d trapped this week. I was surprised that image resulted in name calling and arguing among readers of that page. Folks were either thrilled with the removal of a predator or offended that someone would trap a predator.

Bobcat that was trapped to help balance predator & prey species.

I trap and call predators for many reasons. I enjoy the challenge of matching skills with a predator. My family and I really like the pelts and we enjoy giving them as gifts. Just as importantly, I wish to attempt to balance the predator/prey relationship on my land so there are plenty of prey (turkey and venison)  for my family, our guests, and for the remaining predators to eat.

When I was a younger boy (I’m 50 now), raccoon hides sold for $40+ in my neighborhood and gas was $0.70 per gallon. Now raccoons bring less than $10 in the same area and gas is $3.00 per gallon. We all know the price of fuel, steel, etc., has increased dramatically. There is very little incentive for trappers, except for the love of the work, to remove predators. Predator species have few predators in most areas.

“Balance” is a tough objective to achieve in most aspects of wildlife management. This is because the habitat and populations are always changing. It is a fantasy that wildlife populations or habitat will remain balanced without man’s intervention. Allowing either predator or prey species to build up too high always results in bad results. This has been documented time and time again in species like deer, rabbits, wolves, etc.

However, given that the habitat resources are becoming more and more limited, big swings in population levels don’t recover as easily. I don’t wish for predators – bobcats, opossomus, fox, raccoons, coyotes -  to remove most of the prey species -turkey poults, and whitetail fawns – at my farm. I want there to be enough turkey and whitetails  for me and the predators. There aren’t many predators of bobcats and coyotes where I live. There certainly aren’t many trappers in my neighborhood. So my efforts to trap some predators will certainly not hurt the coyote or bobcat population in the county.

We tend to actively manage the game species, but have shifted to a protection mindset for predators in some states. On my property, I will work to maintain a reasonable balance between predators and prey. The balance to me means there are plenty of prey (turkey and venison) for my family and the predators to eat. Having just enough prey for only the predators to eat and me shifting to playing ping pong is not an option. I’m going to work to provide good quality habitat which benefits both the predators and prey species, and trap and call to make sure the predators have a predator. Are you managing all the species on your property, or just the prey?

Growing Deer together,

Grant

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I’m returning from hunting in Kentucky as I write this. I hunted a friend’s property that is primarily timbered. Timbered means that much of the sun’s light doesn’t reach the ground during the growing season as it’s captured by the trees’ canopy. The lack of sun reaching the dirt means food production for deer (and many other forms of wildlife) is limited.

Several deer in field at a row crop farm.

Limited food means limited numbers of deer compared to habitat types like row crops (corn and soybeans) or the prairie. In these areas most of the sun’s light (energy) reaches the dirt or at least the crop’s canopy which is within a deer’s reach most of the year. More food, more deer. I like hunting where there are more deer (I call that a target rich environment!).

Another advantage of hunting in row crop or prairie areas is visibility. Less than 20 miles from where I was hunting on the timbered property, I toured a corn and soybean (row crop) farm. It was a well managed farm with excellent crop production and cover strips for wildlife and erosion control. It was a great example of farming for profit while managing a percentage of the land primarily for wildlife (farming and wildlife can co-exist while profits are maintained). I counted more than 300 deer during a brief tour!

The weather, date, etc., was the same as while I was hunting on the timbered property. With three of us hunting, we saw fewer than 20 deer from the stand during three days of hunting.

I felt very confident I could have grabbed my bow and Muddy stand and harvested a good buck within a day or two at the grain production farm. It was very obvious where the deer were bedding and feeding, and where they were traveling from one to the other.

Many other folks have made this same observation. This is why hunters migrate annually to the row crop areas of the Midwest to hunt and most hunting shows are filmed there. It’s simply easier to pattern deer in areas where most of the land base is open and visible. In addition the cultivated crops are outstanding food for deer and allow them to express most of their genetic potential.

That’s not to say that hunting in the timber isn’t fun. My place is mostly timbered and I enjoy hunting there. However, I usually spend several months  trying to pattern and harvest a buck. I can usually accomplish the same goal in much less time when hunting areas where row crops are the dominate habitat type.

I enjoy hunting anywhere – but know my chances for success are better where there’s lots of sunlight reaching the dirt!

Growing Deer together,

Grant

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