Getting neighbors onboard with big buck mgmt

[youmyboyblue]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

A deer herd will optimize meat production if most bucks are shot at age 1.5.

Food plots will put deer where you can shoot them. Consideration of soil types and pH will suggest the best forage for increasing protein, but sometimes you just gotta try a few different things to see what likes your soil. Turnips, clover, etc. You also need to consider when you need more protein. If there is a big acorn crop nearby, increasing protein when the acorns are falling is a waste. Turnips can be a great protein supplement in fall, winter, or spring, depending on when you plant them.

Please explain the first sentence about shooting buck at 1.5 years old?

[bgizzle]

Originally Posted by youmyboyblue

Please explain the first sentence about shooting buck at 1.5 years old?

X2


"Go ahead, share your opinion! I won't cry"

["W"]

Originally Posted by youmyboyblue

Please explain the first sentence about shooting buck at 1.5 years old?

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by youmyboyblue

Please explain the first sentence about shooting buck at 1.5 years old?

A buck will gain a lot more weight between 0.5 and 1.5 than he will between 1.5 and 2.5. But he'll eat more between 1.5 and 2.5. A given amount of forage (carrying capacity) produces the most meat when the males are harvested at about 70% of their eventual adult weight, because gaining that last 30% of weight takes as much food (or more) as the first 70%. This is why most beef cattle are made into meat at 18-24 months old even though they would gain a bit more weight by waiting until they are 36 months old. It is not beneficial (cost wise) to keep feeding them to peak weight. The feed is more efficiently used by younger beef cattle.

Quality Deer Management (QDM) is a misnomer which really means Quality Antler Management. The meat is better and there can be more of it if most bucks are harvested at 1.5.

[youmyboyblue]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

A buck will gain a lot more weight between 0.5 and 1.5 than he will between 1.5 and 2.5. But he'll eat more between 1.5 and 2.5. A given amount of forage (carrying capacity) produces the most meat when the males are harvested at about 70% of their eventual adult weight, because gaining that last 30% of weight takes as much food (or more) as the first 70%. This is why most beef cattle are made into meat at 18-24 months old even though they would gain a bit more weight by waiting until they are 36 months old. It is not beneficial (cost wise) to keep feeding them to peak weight. The feed is more efficiently used by younger beef cattle.

Quality Deer Management (QDM) is a misnomer which really means Quality Antler Management. The meat is better and there can be more of it if most bucks are harvested at 1.5.

Please don't start deer hunting anywhere near Woodville,Ms. When hunters start using the same mentality on recreational property as they do in slaughter houses, hunting is down hill.

[swamp snorkler]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

A buck will gain a lot more weight between 0.5 and 1.5 than he will between 1.5 and 2.5. But he'll eat more between 1.5 and 2.5. A given amount of forage (carrying capacity) produces the most meat when the males are harvested at about 70% of their eventual adult weight, because gaining that last 30% of weight takes as much food (or more) as the first 70%. This is why most beef cattle are made into meat at 18-24 months old even though they would gain a bit more weight by waiting until they are 36 months old. It is not beneficial (cost wise) to keep feeding them to peak weight. The feed is more efficiently used by younger beef cattle.

Quality Deer Management (QDM) is a misnomer which really means Quality Antler Management. The meat is better and there can be more of it if most bucks are harvested at 1.5.

That's my thinking as well. This makes since for meat hunters.

[Dogface]

Originally Posted by swamp snorkler

That's my thinking as well. This makes since for meat hunters.

I don't know anyone that manages their deer for meat. I'm sure there are some but the big majority manage for antler size.

[swamp snorkler]

Originally Posted by Dogface

I don't know anyone that manages their deer for meat. I'm sure there are some but the big majority manage for antler size.

I don't have any numbers but I'd be willing to bet my left foot that over 90% who do manage manage for antler size.

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by swamp snorkler

I don't have any numbers but I'd be willing to bet my left foot that over 90% who do manage manage for antler size.

The "brown is down" approach is effectively equivalent to managing for maximizing for meat harvest.

One only arrives at the conclusion that 90% of management targets improvements in antlers if one defines "management" as passing on shot opportunities at legal deer.

If one broadens the idea of management to include food plots, mineral supplements, and baiting, even when hunters on a property take nearly every legal deer that presents a safe shot opportunity, then lots of folks are managing to maximize harvest numbers rather than biggest antlers.

At the state level, a few states have implemented rules geared toward improving antler sizes, but many states have rules more geared toward maximizing hunter success rates which is also effectively equivalent to managing for meat harvest.

[Duck Butter]

I know we can grow them because my uncle started putting out mineral blocks last year and the year before that the biggest buck he ever killed was a 13" 8 pt and this year they killed a 14" 8 pt so I know it works.

My cousin has 5 subscriptions to big buck magazines AND he is on DMAP. He also has some good outdoors channels on his satellite tv that most folks with basic cable don't get. He got me in touch with his DMAP biologist and we talked last night. Dude is an idiot, he said that the soil is what grows bucks haha! Deer don't eat dirt unless they come within 300 yards of my 300 ultra mag Then he tried to tell me that that 7 pt we killed 'woulda been a good one next year' because it was a 2 1/2 year old deer. How the heck does he know when that deer was born? Idiot I tell ya. Then we was talking bout them little wood******s they got up on Kisatchie and I told him that we got Ivory-billed wood******s on our place. We see em every year, and when them suckers get to cuttin up those turkeys be gobblin'. He tried to say it was some pill eating wood****** or something but he is an idiot and why I don't trust them biologists and why I never goin DMAP

The more I think about it I think that big 8 we seen on camera at night didn't make it. The last two pics we got on camera, the deer looked spooked and then it run off. Guy at the feed store hunts right down the road from us and he said he seen a big black cat right at dusk dark cross his shooting lane. Said it had a long tail and cleared that trail in one hop He said they hear what sounds like a woman screaming all time down in the hollow and its probably that cat, cat probably got that big 8 we was seein. His brother in-law hunts on up the road in Starks and he got this pic on his camera:

[Dogface]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

The "brown is down" approach is effectively equivalent to managing for maximizing for meat harvest.

One only arrives at the conclusion that 90% of management targets improvements in antlers if one defines "management" as passing on shot opportunities at legal deer.

If one broadens the idea of management to include food plots, mineral supplements, and baiting, even when hunters on a property take nearly every legal deer that presents a safe shot opportunity, then lots of folks are managing to maximize harvest numbers rather than biggest antlers.

At the state level, a few states have implemented rules geared toward improving antler sizes, but many states have rules more geared toward maximizing hunter success rates which is also effectively equivalent to managing for meat harvest.

I guess you are right , I just never thought of brown is down as "management". I haven't hunted deer in over 10 years but when I did brown was down so I'm not nocking that.