HAS THE HUNTING INDUSTRY LED US ASTRAY??? BIGGER BUCKS, DOE HARVEST, FOOD PLOTS, CARRYING CAPACITY.

[@rustychambers7816]

Wes, we stopped shooting doe two years ago. We have 180 acres total, well managed with food plots-about 60% big timber and 40% plots. We have noticed more mature bucks, and the weight of doe and bucks has increased noticeably. I'm not sure of any correlation to your video, but it is better now compared to five years ago when we bought the property. Great video tackling a controversial topic. Manageing the land is hard work!!!!

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Rusty thanks for sharing, I really appreciate it. Have you seen a noticeable increase in antler growth after lowering the herd numbers? How many years did yall shoot doe? Thanks for watching

[@jonathanlong9159]

If u don’t mind me asking. Where u located and what do u plant that it seems like they prefer the best to eat.

[@tripleh8979]

You're access to real information from your business is very valuable to the rest of us . Much appreciated. Thanks for the info

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks I’m glad you are enjoying the content, I appreciate you watching

[@scottstooksbury2128]

We have a small farm, 72 acres, 7 acres of fields and the rest is mountain range. In this county, we have 15-20 deer per square mile so I do not take any does and have not shoot any bucks in the past 7 years. I just need to managed the woody brow, screens, etc to hold more deer. We do have some nices ones on cam. We are in North Georgia

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Sounds like you have a great farm! Good luck on the projects! Thanks for watching

[@jeremysilcox9362]

Here in south Alabama, I feel we are running into a different problem with our density. Our rut starts the end of January and I see breeding throughout much of March. Our bucks are so ran down by the end of the rut that I think they are struggling to catch back up. I have had spotted fawns in December. I think this is because there are so many does to breed. Then I also see several really ugly rack mature bucks that are 3-4 points etc. I think there is a high rate of inbreeding.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

There is no doubt that is a valid point, the longer the bucks chase and the longer the rut keeps going, the more run down the bucks will be. Huge difference in bodies here in mid October and mid December. I do think we lose several bucks to this every year, although that is just my guess I’ve got no way to prove it. Thanks for watching and sharing your experiences.

[@janitorialguy4436]

Thanks Wes, seeing deer is all that matters, that’s what makes it fun

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Yes sir, seeing plenty of deer makes the set much more enjoyable, those sets where sightings are a zero, really make it hard to keep hunting. Thanks for watching

[@nathanlester5054]

Wes, my friend you might have punched the hornet's nest with this topic. I used to hunt a managed property, working with a state game biologist, where we took 40 plus does per year to maintain the deer herd at carrying capacity. We collected weights before and after field dressing, collected jaw bones, rumen samples, date of harvest, location of harvest, etc. for every deer harvested; including bucks. We also planted 80 acres of soybeans and 20 to 30 acres of corn for the deer every year. I hunted this property for 18 years and saw no increase in buck antler sizes. We would see mature bucks averaging between 130 to 140 inches, with an occasional monster from time-to-time. What we did see is an increase in body weights. Both the does and the bucks got larger. Our mature does went from an average of 120 lbs live weight at the beginning of the program to an average of 150 to 160 lbs, with some reaching 190 on occasion. The bucks went from averaging 180 lbs to 220 pounds live weight.

[@nathanlester5054]

One additional thing that we saw was after being on the program , we started seeing more bucks on food plots during daylight and does were much harder to hunt after the 4th year on the management program.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Nathan that is really cool that you got to be apart of that!! Thank you so much for sharing that…I was honestly nervous about putting this video out, I was afraid there would be many folks attacking me on it, but it’s just the truth in what I’ve seen. I could definitely see where the weights of both bucks and doe would go up when keeping the numbers down. It honestly makes total sense that the bucks rack size would get larger when we keep numbers down, I don’t really have a good answer as to why it doesn’t. Thanks for sharing and for watching!

[@bb8503]

To me that makes sense. If you really think about it and take a significant amount of doe’s off the property then your said bucks have to move more to find doe. To me that seems your particular bucks will be having more chance to disperse to neighboring properties plus running their body weight down more by traveling further and competing with each other more frequently 🤷‍♂️ just my uneducated reasoning.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Yes I think the counter to that is if there are less doe the bucks finish up with the rut faster and they are able to start rebuilding back faster. Where if the numbers are extremely high, it’s likely that the rut will continue on longer and wear the bucks down more. It’s a tough topic to cover and to completely get our heads around. Thanks for watching

[@bb8503]

@@DIYfoodplotprothat also makes sense as well. All in all the quality and amount of food and coverage per acre is probably the biggest factor in nutrition and lowering stress in the herd. You’re welcome and thanks for the videos and discussing all these topics!

[@jameswatson4110]

Wes, I have 260 acres total of which all but 60 acres is hay ground with hedge rose. The soil is fertile Creekbottom. The 60 acres was cut over in 2000. Hunting was excellent until the canopy stop the growth and the deer numbers dropped. I went in three years ago and cut trash trees and hinge cut pockets in the 60 acres. The deer numbers came back up very quickly, but I was not seeing as many mature bucks so I killed a bunch of does. Buck numbers dropped. I let the numbers come back up and now I am seeing more mature bucks.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Sounds very familiar to me and alot of other landownerss, those bucks require those good thick areas and as soon as the area starts to canopy those areas disappear and so do the bucks. Once I come back in and clear cut areas for bedding, it generally takes 2-3 years for them to really start to key in on those areas. Thanks for watching

[@JackFrostTheDeerHunter]

we are on the northern edge of the whitetail range in Northern Maine. Too many does has never been an issue. We only had had 100 doe tags issued for the entire hunting zone this year.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Wow that is very interesting thank you for sharing! And thanks for watching

[@Brandon-uo1rv]

As usual enjoy the videos. So my thoughts, along with some observations on the topic. First as Dr Strickland always mentions there is never an "always" in an answer. Every piece of land is different and each scenario has to be considered. I will say that if food is severely limited common sense would tell us that less mouths to feed would yield more food available for the other deer and therefore potential for bigger/healthier deer in general. I agree with more does, more eyes when you are hunting and that perceived pressure may be greatly increased and the hunting secondarily harder. Having said all that I'll leave you with a couple interesting scenarios to ponder. First is hunting in the midwest deer numbers on the farms we used to hunt were double what they are now. Used to see tons of deer and bucks but not a ton of real upper class deer. EHD happened, deer numbers dropped, and then within a couple years some of the biggest bucks we've ever had with the decrease in number of deer in general. Coincidence?? Lastly, bought a UTV from a hunting operation in northwest KY one year. Just amazed at the number of deer I saw driving in and around their place. I mean fields full of does. I talked about reducing deer numbers and if they are doing it. They responded by saying that they have tried but mother nature just counters it. Huge ag fields there. They said they noticed after a big doe harvest if there was a lot of extra resources the does would be more likely to carry multiple fawns vs if they didn't harvest does they noticed less multiples. I didn't get to see that first hand but interesting comment non the less. I don't have a hard answer myself, but I personally don't go out of my way to kill a bunch of does.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

I totally agree, it makes perfect sense that if we take large number of mouths feeding off the property that the bucks would be healthier and able to grow larger racks….ive just not seen that actually happen, and I don’t have a reason why. It’s hard to believe that the year y’all saw all the giants was coincidence for sure. In our area I’ve not noticed that our doe only have singles on farms that are over populated….the only deer that have singles around here are the yearling doe that get bred the first fall. I really appreciate you sharing your experiences! And always appreciate you watching the channel!

[@jamesfarrow2130]

good video, thanks. I always think back to the Texas high fence, pay to hunt, guaratee to kill a 170 buck operation. They buy their bucks from breeding farms and he found out they sold spike bucks cheaper because they were inferior. He bought them all and since they were well fed with feeders, they caught up in antler size and body weight in 2-3 years. Their mothers were nutritionaly deficient because they were large 'fawns ' that got bred at 7 months old, resorbed one of their fetuses, and had that small buck in may/june instead of april. So the small buck was simply nutritionaly challenged but did catch up.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

It is really interesting to think about how nutrition and genetics come into play when we look at how we are managing our deer herds. Thanks for sharing your experiences and thanks for watching

[@jeremysilcox9362]

I also feel like the farms that are heavy ag was still carrying the deer that were there and that is why whether there were a bunch of does or not all of the deer were growing big. So reducing the herd made the crops better, but the food was still enough to support the herd. My lease of 670 acres has like 5 acres of food plots. We can't carry near as much.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

That’s a good point, a good mix of ag and woodlands has an extremely high carrying capacity. Farms that are mainly wide open timber and are relying on plots are going to have significantly less carrying capacity. Thanks for watching and sharing!

[@Mo75149-j]

Iowa is good example. Yes it has best soil in midwest, tons of food, tons of managed farms,low non resident hunters. But alot of deer overall and look at the giants it produces. The more does you have in your area, less likely the bucks travel too far away in rut, possibly better odds of survival

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Good example thank you for sharing your experience! Thanks for watching!

[@Mo75149-j]

@DIYfoodplotpro I feel removing lower quality bucks is a better option, and does yearly but not a Wipeout

[@kyledexheimer6548]

1)It isn't just what YOU are doing it is the whole area. A buck when kicked off its mother after its first year is going to travel an average of 3 miles as the crow flies to find its adult range. You'd need about +5k acres for a buck to possibly spend the majority of his whole life on your property. The nutrition provided prenatal through weaning has a huge impact on the final size that buck's rack will reach when it is full mature at 4+ years old. If the bucks dispersing onto your land are coming from low quality habitat they will never get as big as those bucks dispersing from your property. 2)Gene expression is regulated by the epi genome. This has markers that turn up and turn down the expression of genes, it takes 2 generations to make a notable change in the genetic expression of traits. So the time frame you are looking at isn't long enough for you to see the changes you are looking for. A doe fawn who grew up that first year with improved habitat would need to have another doe fawn at 2, who would need to have a buck fawn when she turned 2 and he would need to not disperse and to live for 4 years to show the full impact of the improved habitat. 3) all the hunting pressure to hit the doe quota is likely driving mature bucks to use different parts of their range during the day and all deer making themselves scarce. Also a buck's average range is 640 acres, this brings up the importance of working with your neighbors to make sure everyone is taking enough does and there is high quality habitat across 20k acres( buck's mother's home range+ dispersal movement+ his adult home range) 4) Age is the biggest factor in determining the size of a bucks rack if you still have neighbors shooting good looking 3 year olds which might be a little more common with the better nutrition you are not going to see the full impact of your habitat improvements. 5)it is a numbers game, if you live in an area where 50% of mature bucks are scoring between 90-120" less than 25% is going to score above 140" and less than 10% would score over 150". If you have 40 deer/mile, with a 50/50 sex ratio, you'll get roughly 32 fawns per year. Half are female, of the males only about 46% will make it to 4.5 years old. So that is 7-8 reaching maturity. Only one of those is likely to be in that 150" class. In summary: take enough does that your property isn't over populated. work with your neighbors to make sure they are doing the same. Lead by example an encourage people to focus on taking mature bucks and not shooting younger bucks. Help other hunters out with habitat improvement projects and do them on your property, higher quality habitat can hold more deer increasing the odds of outlier bucks being there. Finally have realistic expectations and timeline, if you are in a region with poor soil you aren't going to grow those big ag country white tails from the mid west.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

I think it’s safe to say that good habitat will attract bigger bucks and the more we do as a community to improve the land, the better our deer herds will be. In my area to get 20,000 acres under the same management goals would be near impossible, as most of our farms average 100 acres. I really appreciate you sharing, sounds like you are very knowledgeable on the topic. Thanks for watching

[@kyledexheimer6548]

@@DIYfoodplotpro yea very few people could imagine getting enough acres and having the budget to try and get a trophy reserve, but many people can work with their hunting club, their neighbors etc. to better manage the habitat they can and to try and let as many bucks as possible reach 4+

[@jrwstl02]

@@kyledexheimer6548I enjoyed your comments! Very much agree with getting neighbors to work together too. One of the big challenges I’ve seen is educating people on aging bucks. It’s not easy. I have neighbors that understand the body characteristics and use cameras to follow bucks from year to year. They are (mostly) correctly aging deer. I also have neighbors that use rack size, and unfortunately shoot some of the very best 3 year olds thinking they are 4+. Work in progress!

[@davidkirschten878]

With extreme environmental events, we have seen tremendous differences in antler development and size after one very wet year. Epigenetics doesn't take two generations. By definition, it's a specific in utero effect affecting the generation being gestated.

[@kyledexheimer6548]

@@davidkirschten878 extension.msstate.edu/sites/default/files/publications/publications/p3013.pdf This MSU study looks at it in whitetails. But it isn't uncommon in other species. In humans for example it takes about 2 generations for humans having moved from an impoverished region with out good nutrition and correspondingly short people to somewhere with better access to high quality food for their children's heights to increase and then plateau at a higher new average.

[@bka8851]

We overshot the does for several years and it ruined the hunting for many years after. Some members would go an entire season and only see 1 or 2 deer. Laid off the does and it improved.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for sharing your real life experiences! I really appreciate it!

[@BradFess-jo8to]

In full agreement! I think this argument is the same as many other complex issues, People hear one solution that worked for one person and want to apply it to everything similar. (Think diets, exercise routine, etc) As you mentioned, there is nuance and variation to everything. I think it's more about balance than a specific target. Why do you think bars host "Ladies nights"? The get the ladies there, why, because then the guys will come! I think the efforts would be much better served focusing on FSI work to increase your carrying capacity and soil enrichment, long before you are over run with deer. Once you have a giant herd, THEN you can start thinning things out selectively. I also feel like some of this comes from hunters/society overall getting a little lazy. I've often times heard the argument that killing more does will make the bucks come out of the thicker woods in search of fewer opportunities. Yeah, but they could also leave to go to your neighbors "ladies night" property where there are LOTS of opportunities at the buffet right in his bedroom!

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

100% agreed, as a matter of fact the example you used about the bar was the exact same as the landowner used on the last property I talked about….but I didn’t say it exactly as he said to keep it G rated. Haha. Thanks for sharing and thank for watching!

[@brodycampbell2990]

Every area is different. Knowing the local food source is by far #1 to look for. You can figure everything else out after knowing what food source is around.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

No doubt, you gotta figure that out 1st…and the tricky part is that changes throughout the year and from year to year. Thanks for watching

[@Drifter_13]

I was in a hunting club a few years back that believed you should harvest every doe you see to keep the population at 1:1 buck to do ratio; I swear to God on that 2600-acre hunting club there was 1 buck and 1 doe. Yeah, it was a 1:1 buck to doe ratio but damn sitting on a 20-acre food plot day after day and not seeing a damn thing. On my private farm I don't harvest any does, there's plenty of other idiots to that already.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for sharing your experience, I’ve seen some folks do the same…basically say doe are the enemy….shoot everyone you see. Thanks for watching

[@Camera1931-p5v]

You are spot on!

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for watching I really appreciate it!

[@joshuathompson890]

Great video, Wes. Here in GA, each license gets 2 buck and 10 doe. The state obviously wants more doe harvested. I have 130 acre farm and have a good density of both buck and doe. I think there could be a such thing as a "doe factory" but at same time Im sure that varies from each location. I assume good management practices is to try and have a balance.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Absolutely! Great point, and it really comes down to your individual property and what you want to accomplish. Ky you get 1 buck, and 3 doe tags, but if you choose to continue buying permits in parts of the state the doe are unlimited. Thanks for watching

[@steved5023]

Back in the day! Bars would run drinking specials for the girls. I heard a thousand times. Get the ladies here and the boys will show up! I’m 70 and believe the same concept goes for deer. Yes you need a good acceptable acre per deer ratio.. good food, cover and bedding. I’ve hunted in state parks, small land parcel areas with homes,farms within sight. Have the food, cover and bedding. And the deer might run but they will be back. Right now I’m on a very small parcel 15 acres, 5-30 acre pieces all around. Every few days someone’s dog runs deer through it. Hrs later ,bingo their back. Now the age depends on your neighbors. We have a 6 year old doe. She has a bad front leg. Everyone leaves her alone. Always has twins or triplets. So I know it can be done. The bucks another story. Mostly three year olds. Trigger finger gets going by then on the nice ones. Good ,specials on food ,cover, bedding will bring the ladies, the boys will follow

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for sharing your experience and I couldn’t agree more. Have the doe, quality food, and quality habitat and you will have the bucks, no doubt about it. Thanks for watching

[@anthonyarcoleo9430]

I totally agree with u. Less deer overall will be less bucks. We were overpopulated years ago before ehd outbreak. When we were over populated we had a ton of good bucks. Now it's been horrible for 4 years . We lost 90% deer to ehd like wess said it's about ballence to many not good and to few not good

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

EHD is all our worst nightmares, completely ruins the age structure. We have had a few place here and there of it but thankfully nothing really widespread. Hope your herd gets built back up quickly. Thanks for sharing and for watching

[@littlerayofsunshine69]

Had a poacher on adjacent public land start popping does out of season last winter. We got his ass caught good. Saw several good bucks and plenty of does last year. This year, saw four does and only one decent buck. Heard a shot right on top of me a couple mornings after seeing that one buck so he's most likely gone. Public land hunters suck. Getting game wardens to do their jobs around here is like pulling teeth from a grizzly. They're more worried about harassing land owners feeding deer than they are catching poachers and baiters on public land. You can literally offer to show them the bait piles and the stands and they'll tell you there's nothing they can do about it. It took three (angry) calls to get that game warden out last year. I'm surprised he even showed that last time.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Man I hate to hear you’re having trouble with poachers, they are a leech on the resource and need to be all caught and prosecuted. Any idea how many he killed? Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching.

[@rickirmer6252]

Im debating right now if i need to harvest more, does. I have solid deer numbers. Not uncommon to hunt over my standing beans and see 20 deer. Out of those 20, 5-6 are bucks. I have 52 acres

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

What are you seeing on browse lines and non quality species being browsed? Also are your soybeans completely gone by green up or are there some left?

[@jrwstl02]

Every property is different, so true. Every property is affected by how neighboring properties are managed also. Generally: If you want more does, focus on food. If you want more deer, focus on food and cover. If you want more mature bucks, focus on security cover with sanctuary. And “sanctuary” means no human goes in there ever.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

You just hit the nail on the head, I can’t emphasize that enough. You want big bucks provide them extremely thick areas and use those areas as a sanctuary and stay away from them…they are buck magnets. Thanks for sharing and for watching

[@scottpulver4920]

If your a meat hunter and love venison take a doe. In NY we have way to many doe! Guys will take small bucks for “meat” and then complain about no big bucks and they will not shoot doe. The Ohio property deer kept the beans like a putting green. The beans would grow a inch and they would ear two inches. Almost all deer are on cams at night. Almost no daylight pics ever. We had a few good bucks and then 2-3-4 dogs at a time started running the land and all the good bucks left!! So my youngest daughter and I got nothing again. January is muzzleloader and we will try again. Great job!

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Good look in the upcoming season….the late season is a great time to hunt the plots. Thanks for watching

[@jamesfarrow2130]

Gotta get rid of the dogs, I called animal control for the county and they stopped it immediately, incredible difference in big bucks

[@patrickseekins1299]

Is that 12pt laying on the back of a Nissan Titan? Looks just like my 2004.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

No it’s a f150.

[@terrytummons8898]

Does are for kids and neighbors who can't hunt

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

I think there is a time And a place for doe harvest, but I don’t agree that killing piles of them on every farm is going to sin us antler inches. Thanks for watching

[@Grizzlife]

I shoot no does and tell people you kill your does you lose the hunt. My experience is the same as you. Each property is different but I wouldn’t risk losing the hunt.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thank you for sharing! Good luck this season! Thanks for watching

[@sm7171369]

It totally depends on how many deer are on your farm.

[@dennisignowski144]

Well EHD whiped us out in sw michigan Almost no Deer seen on our 40 Ac. We have a few years to wait. Have great food and nothing to eat it

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Man I am sorry to hear that, hopefully, the herd rebounds quickly! We had that in some isolated areas the last couple of years….really sucks getting bucks to age then losing them like that.

[@midwesternoutdoorsandnatur8272]

Hopefully you are feeding turkey, songbirds and all kinds of other wildlife with your plots. That’s how I looked at it in 2012 when we got slammed with ehd in IL. Bounced back in a couple years better than ever.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

That’s a great attitude to have!

[@bradbrockhaus633]

what about high deer density and more spike bucks than normal?

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

I’ve not seen that correlation either. We don’t have a tremendous amount of spikes around here, so I might not be in the right area to answer that question. Thanks for watching

[@bradbrockhaus633]

@DIYfoodplotpro it seems since our doe population increased so did the number of spikes...just my observation...hadn't seen spikes for many years till population of does increased

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

@ that’s interesting!!

[@marcusburns4377]

Putting racks in the freezer is what it's really about.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Most folks do have more of an emphasis on antler production at this point. Thanks for watching

[@ryanfirst9761]

All I can account for is where I hunt in SC. The property is a farm (875 acres) with mostly fields that has cattle on it. When I first started hunting the property, you could go all season without seeing any bucks bigger than 4 pointers. You’d see does (mostly), spikes, and 4 pointers everyday. Several years before I started, DNR gave the landowner 50 doe tags, but nobody used them. After listening to the other hunters complaining about not seeing big bucks, I suggested shooting does. Five years after starting to shoot does, I shot a big bodied 10 point. We’ve been seeing and shooting more larger bucks (>16” inside spread 8 points) including 3 good 8 pointers this year. Most of the does we take every year weigh between 100-120 lb does. 120 is a good size doe in SC. Not shooting does isn’t the plan for every property, and I will say it wasn’t the right thing for this property.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thank you for sharing your experience, really appreciate it! Sounds like you got a good place and getting better all the time. Thanks for watching

[@carrollsanders9376]

It takes 7 years for mature bucks to grow, the pay off isn't instant it takes 7 years for the young bucks to mature. Maintaining carry capacity increases rack size. Accurate assessment of herd size is critical to heard management a drone survey in the spring is critical to herd management.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks Caroll for sharing your insight and experience, really appreciate it! Thanks for watching

[@carrollsanders9376]

@DIYfoodplotpro Higher live weight in fawns in early years means a larger bone structure in Mature bucks, with a larger bone structure the Antlers increase. So it takes years for a properly managed herd to produce larger antlers as it takes 7 years to reach top growth.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

I’m mot arguing at all just having a friendly discussion, but if the deer numbers exceeded the carrying capacity, then most all deer would be running at a deficient. It would make total sense that take a large majority of mouths off the landscape, within a years time those Deer should have plenty, then as they drop their fawns those buck in 4 years should have more upside potential, as their mother had plenty, and they had plenty by the time they got to maturity. I’m just not seeing that difference, i wished that It was….but it’s just not been what I’ve seen.

[@carrollsanders9376]

@@DIYfoodplotpro It also requires a large amount of protein to induce antler growth at the right time, Balencia clover is excellent for that followed by beans and sun hemp and minerals. I realize your number one food plot Wess is standing corn, because you can't bait. We prioritize the protein and provide whole corn from deer feeders. Are you trying compatible high protein crops in with the corn? Also didn't think you were arguing Wess, just wanted to point out what the research into deer biology showed.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Most of the standing corn plots, also have crimson clovers, frosty berseem clover, oats, winter wheat, and brassicas

[@sm7171369]

A good farm w ample amount of food should harvest 2 doe per 1 buck. That would help keep a good buck to doe ratio.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for sharing! Appreciate you watching

[@kristophstjames4143]

Sounds like it may not be as productive as we’ve been told , I know places that have killed way to many does - like u said, they don’t see many bucks now either.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for sharing! It’s a really interesting topic and I’m sure there will be plenty of folks who believe in taking large amounts of doe. I’ve just not seen the upside of it. Thanks for watching

[@Lonzo1]

You also have to take into account how many doe are being shot on neighboring properties. for us we shoot zero doe.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

That’s absolutely accurate! Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching

[@ew1421]

Hell no! we don't shoot Doe's on my land in eastern Oklahoma. I don't think I have enough Doe's it's easily a 1 to 1 ratio. There are no ag farms around my land it's all cattle ranches so the only food plots are on my land.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Has it always been a lower density area or has it just recently gotten that way? Thanks for sharing, really appreciate it!

[@ew1421]

@DIYfoodplotpro the buck to doe ratio has always been good. I usually see more bucks than does. The average mature bucks are around 130 to 140 . I think there's a lack of nutrients so I plan on planting beans this spring to see if that helps. Do you think forage beans will help?

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

It won’t help you this year, but I’m planning on doing a ton of experimenting with forage soybeans this spring/summer. I should have a pile of data to look at this time next year to help us all make better decisions on this topic.

[@jasonstevens5943]

More does=smaller bucks get to breed=smaller deer overall.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts, really appreciate it

[@carterpernell4011]

In some of my experience, antler size doesnt increase or decrease due to number of does. Antler size will increase or decrease based on the health of the surrounding vegetation, and water availability, i.e. abundance vs drought.

[@DIYfoodplotpro]

Thanks for sharing your experience, really appreciate it!