Beginning a Quality Deer Management Program

A few simple steps to help you get started

By MHS Member: MOHunter

“When are we going to start seeing some bigger bucks?” is a question I was asked several years ago when we were in the third or fourth year of our quality deer management program on our property.  I believe it is a question that is asked all too often by hunters and property managers that have implemented some type of quality deer management program on their property, or property they lease.  It seems it is in our nature to desire instant gratification.  We want results, we want them now, and we hardly want to take the time to evaluate our management practices and wait for Mother Nature to lend us a helping hand. 

When I look back now, I realize that we actually began the first steps of quality deer management on our property many years ago.  Even when I was a youngster, the group of people who hunted our property would plant a field or two with Milo each year.  There wasn’t much emphasis put on nutrition or habitat improvements, but a concerted effort was made to try to make sure that there was a food source available even if we had a poor mast crop those years.  It wasn’t until a little over a decade ago that we actually started putting emphasis on nutritious year-round food sources, reliable water sources, timber stand improvements, and passing on the young bucks so they could grow older. 

In reality, a quality deer management program is not something that will yield overnight results.  It generally takes a number of years and a bit of trial and error to really see the fruits of your labor.  I suspect that a number of hunters and land managers get frustrated each year and decide that it is just not worth it; they get a feeling that it just won’t work on their particular property, or that “we’re just never going to have wall hangers around here”.  

It’s easy to see how someone could get frustrated after spending countless hours and countless dollars planting food plots and passing on smaller bucks for a few years.  Just about every hunting magazine or television show we see features nothing but proud hunters posing with monster bucks that fell to their bullets and arrows, and we all want a piece of that pie.  Some property managers eventually just give up while others keep going through the same motions, and still others take their management practices to the next level. 

After 9 years of intensive deer management experience and another 10 years of intensive food plotting, I have experienced numerous achievements and setbacks alike.  It is my hope that the following paragraphs will not only help you start in the right direction, but also help you be prepared for the inevitable setbacks that creep into every quality deer management program. 

Reality Check

“A small dose of reality can go a long way”.  We’ve heard it said many times.  It applies with most things we will encounter in life and it is no different when it comes to quality deer management.  In order to be able to measure results and progress, we have to make an honest and accurate assessment of what we have now, and what we will realistically be able to achieve. 

Before implementing any quality deer management plan, we must first assess ourselves, our property, our equipment, our finances, and our deer herd.  What are our capabilities?  Do we have the knowledge to develop a plan and then carry it out, or will we need to seek out the services of an experienced manager or deer biologist to help us?  For a lot of folks, the truth lies somewhere between.  There is a wealth of information available to the landowner or lessee who wishes to implement a quality deer management plan.  There are a number of books available on the subject and there are countless pages of useful information available on the Internet, although we do have to take some of what we read with a grain of salt.  If we will take the time to educate ourselves a bit, it can save a lot of time and money down the road.   Most all of us would also be well advised to seek out the advice of the Deer Biologist that is assigned to our area by our state conservation agency.  Without exception, every one of them I have ever worked with has been very helpful and very landowner oriented.  Most will schedule a meeting with you at the property where they will take a “tour” of the land with you and assess the habitat.  They will oftentimes send you a written report with their recommendations for improvements such as food plots, watering holes, timber stand improvements, and other practices such as edge feathering and prescribed burning.  Best of all, these services are free to you through your state conservation agency as they are funded through tax dollars and licensing fees.

The Right Tools

Most every task in your quality deer management plan will require at least a minimal amount of equipment.  At the very minimum, you will need access to common garden tools and a chain saw, and on the other end of the spectrum, you may need access to tractors, tillage implements, spraying equipment, and loaders for digging.  Again, we have to do a reality check at this stage of the game.  It’s not realistic to think you are going to be able to plant several acres of food plots without some kind of tillage equipment, and most of us won’t get too far trying to dig multiple watering holes with a garden spade.  Fortunately, there are a number of options available to a lot of us.  Some of us are fortunate enough to have our own equipment or to at least have a source for equipment we can borrow.  For a lot of people, renting a tractor and three-point tiller, or a skid-steer loader a couple of weekends each year is a viable option as well.  Some landowners may also be able to work out a deal with a local farmer to come over with his equipment and work up some ground for them.  With ATV’s and utility vehicles being so popular these days, many of us may be able to utilize the implements that are designed specifically for them.  On the bright side, even if your finances or geography prevent you from being able to use bigger equipment, there are still a number of things you can do with smaller machinery and basic garden tools.  The bottom line is to not let a lack of equipment prevent you from starting on your management goals.  You may have to wait to take on some of the bigger projects, but you can still get a good start on some practices that will help make a real difference.

Don’t Break The Bank

One thing we never seem to have too much of is money.  Certain practices in any quality deer management plan can cost little or nothing to implement, while others can be quite costly.  Proper planning and research can go a long way to help keep costs as low as possible, however, even the act of planting a few food plots is going to require an initial investment.  It can be difficult to convince your hunting partners to chip in money for seed and fertilizer, especially when they have had their eyes on new rifles or bows since last season, and in general, our lifestyles dictate that we spend our money on certain necessities which leaves very little surplus for non-essential items.  Many hunt clubs, or hunting groups, will collect dues or hunting fees from their members in order to insure that a certain amount of money is available each year for management programs.  Pooling money together and keeping a close eye on expenses is a must to help keep individual costs to a minimum.  Buying used equipment instead of new, purchasing fertilizer and lime in bulk, and working out deals with equipment owners when it is time to have a large task done are all good ways to keep a few extra dollars in your pocket.  Where you do want to exercise caution is in buying bulk seed from a bin that may be contaminated with noxious weed seed, or in purchasing used equipment that may require a lot of repairs before it is serviceable.  Sometimes you are better off to wait until you have the funds available rather than  jump into something just to have it come back and haunt you later.

Know What You Are Starting With

When it comes to evaluating your deer herd, there are a couple of invaluable resources available to land owners and hunters that are either very reasonably priced, or free for the asking.  Most everyone either owns a computer, or has someone in his or her hunting group that does.  Over the last few years, digital trail cameras have come down dramatically in price, and the quality and features have improved.  Several trail cameras spread out in strategic areas around a given property can give you a very good idea of buck-to-doe ratios, fawn rearing rates, age structure, deer density, and the quality of bucks that you have present, especially if those trail cameras are used year round.  With the digital trail cameras, you never have to spend money on film and developing.  You simply remove the memory card, plug it into a computer, and view the pictures from the comfort of your own home.  Also, if you use rechargeable batteries in your cameras, your costs are reduced even further over the long haul.  There are a number of high quality digital trail cameras on the market now for under $150.00, and a lot of times you can find them on sale for under $100.00.  The purchase of a few cameras is a worthwhile investment for anyone who practices a quality deer management program as they can be out in the woods 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can provide you with information in a matter of weeks that may otherwise take years to determine.  The second resource that can help you evaluate your deer herd, and that is free for the asking is, once again, the Deer Biologist that is assigned to your area by your state conservation agency.  These folks are professionals and generally know their territories very well.  A couple of hours spent with the biologist can save you a bundle of time.  Chances are, if you have the biologist come to your property to make an evaluation, they will also try to provide you with numbers in regards to deer densities and buck-to-doe ratios.  Both of these statistics can be of great benefit when putting your management plan together. 

Great Expectations

We all have dreams of record book bucks; especially bucks that we helped grow through our efforts.  It would be nice if there were some kind of magic crop we could plant or some kind of secret management technique we could implement that would guarantee our dreams will come true, but reality generally doesn’t work out that way.  Most of us are trying to manage our deer with numerous obstacles in our way.  We all have a budget that we must work within, some of us are restricted by the equipment we do or do not have, others lack the time and manpower to do everything they would like to, and most of us are dealing with relatively small pieces of property (under 1,000 acres) whereby we have neighbors who have ideas of their own. 

In order to keep things in perspective, we need to be honest with ourselves when we set our management goals.  It is not realistic to think that just because we exercise good management techniques, we will see dramatic results overnight.  It may take several years just to get our buck-to-doe ratio in order, and we still may be faced with neighboring property owners that will shoot any buck that walks by, or a host of other issues that can slow down our progress.  Those of us who manage smaller parcels of property face these and many other obstacles on a regular basis.  We must consider that it took many years for the deer herd to get into the condition it is in now, and it can potentially take just as many to effect a major, yet positive change on the herd.  When you take into consideration that you are only managing a small piece of a herd’s total range, it becomes even more obvious that you will have to exercise a lot of patience as you go.  It is for these reasons that we shouldn’t try to set our expectations so high as to be unattainable.  We should make sure that when we set benchmarks, they are reality based.  One of the worst things we can do is set ourselves up for failure or not allow for unforeseen setbacks. 

In Summary

We need to approach the practice of quality deer management more as a lifestyle change than a short-term program that will be over some day in the future.  An effective quality deer management program will run indefinitely and will be constantly modified and updated as conditions change.  It can take a lot of time to change habitat, change herd age and sex structure, and change hunter’s mindsets.  Making sure we avail ourselves of the many resources available that can help us along the way and that are essentially free for the taking is also important to help us achieve our goals faster and more efficiently, and keeping good records of our results is a great way to gauge our progress.  We should expect positive results, but we need to expect them at a reasonable level and at a reasonable speed.  Most importantly is to at least start working towards our goals and to remain steadfast in our endeavor.  Don’t become frustrated by setbacks, as they are simply part of any program that involves working with Mother Nature and in some instances, against the odds.  In the end, there is little that is more rewarding than reaching your goals and realizing the fruits of your labor.

 

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