Winter 2015...

[The_Field_Ager]

Some say food-plotting is feeding 

 

The clue is the name -  'food' plotting.

[Doc]

If you think about it, any human attempts at forcing deer populations to be more dependent on the efforts of humans are likely to be creating excessive concentrations of deer populations and populations that exceed natures ability to provide sustenance when the human intervention ends or becomes inadequate for whatever reasons that nature might provide. Wild deer are not livestock or creatures that should be managed via agricultural means. We may modify populations through hunting, but trying to boost those populations beyond what nature automatically can accommodate is likely not something that will in the end benefit the herd.

[sweet old bill]

amen

[Four Season Whitetail's]

If you think about it, any human attempts at forcing deer populations to be more dependent on the efforts of humans are likely to be creating excessive concentrations of deer populations and populations that exceed natures ability to provide sustenance when the human intervention ends or becomes inadequate for whatever reasons that nature might provide. Wild deer are not livestock or creatures that should be managed via agricultural means. We may modify populations through hunting, but trying to boost those populations beyond what nature automatically can accommodate is likely not something that will in the end benefit the herd.

If they were not managed via agriculture there would be no deer. With a good size piece of property its pretty easy to manipulate your numbers up or down and to keep them in pristeen condition so they show their maximum outlook. Some properties are showing more does having trips. If a person wants the best hunting posible the land and animals have to be managed, To a point!  

[growalot]

So in farm country  where farmers are subsidized and will, as this past winter here, leave 50 or more acres of field corn standing all winter...they should be forced to chop it? Our deer are skinny but not bad. and our fawns did pretty well...yep a few dead deer but those could have been wounded and or gotten by the really large yote I have on cams.

I food plot but not just for hunting. The amounts of winter turnips and grains are mainly to keep a HEALTHY herd through the winter. Especially if summer masts and browse have taken a hit in one form or another...Besides the fact I'm still working the property for any possible future sale. If I'm going to work my land ..and being one person doing it in stages...I might as well make it count for the wild life that inhabits it.

 

I know that even from the road side ditch areas of that field the hanging husks are as empty as those on my property...pretty sure the interior of that standing corn has been stripped just as bare....I imagine had local ppl decided to supplement with bagged corn the deer in this area would not have been effected by it...seeing their  diet contained corn all summer through winter. Unfortunately not all areas are corn ag. areas and ppl can kill a lot of deer "helping" them. Food plotting isn't, at least for me, trying to boost a herd above carrying capacity...it's about maintaining a healthy winter herd because a healthy herd is one that carry better immune systems to fight off diseases.

Edited April 27, 2015 by growalot

[The_Field_Ager]

If a person wants the best hunting posible the land and animals have to be managed, To a point!  

 

 

Exactly. If you want a sustainable deer population for the purposes of hunting ( a commercial and perennial activity) , that provides quality deer, at good numbers, year in and out, you will need to manage that situation to some degree or other.

 

Letting nature takes it's course would likely bring deer numbers down to the lower levels of colonial times. Man's influence, in terms of clearing land and creating variance in the terrain and habitat, has had a positive impact, from the hunters perspective.

 

I have seen a lot of old-timey hunters writing into NY outdoor news talking about the continued decline in deer over the years. A future that includes harsher winters will only exacerbate this. The decline in farming in the state will also contribute no doubt. If it hasn't already.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Papist

[growalot]

prime example...use to watch herds of deer running through camp...hey guys refused to go in and cut the buck thorn and it grew and grew,choking out and understory grasses and forbs...I tried ..."At least cut around the old farmstead apples" nope...crowded out the apples...then the last straw....DIL had loggers come in...didn't consult either of us and he never monitored them...they cut nearly every single white oak...leaving reds and scruff...deer take decline ...decline ...decline, last year....6 guys and not a single deer shot...Now the camps and few land owners around camp...all managing their lands...cutting brush,apple recovery,and across the valley some nice hill side plantings...combined with field mowing, scruff cutting...No shortage of deer shot in those areas....

[Doc]

I've heard it said that "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". Sometimes those old sayings have a lot of truth to them.