Deer Management Overview

Let’s face it, you are here because most landowners and deer hunters want a high-quality white-tailed deer herd on their property. The social emphasis on quality deer combined with the economics of hunting have caused a marked increase in the number of individuals interested in deer management. And for good reason! White-tailed deer are amazing creatures because of the diversity of habitats they can survive in, their smarts, and the fact that they also make great tablefare. Deer habitat varies greatly across the United States,but the techniques that can be used to improve and manage a deer herd remain the same from area to area. Although each situation is different and requires special considerations,general guidelines can be followed which will lead to a better deer management program–and better deer hunting for you.

When it comes to deer management, it is really about habitat management. Producing quality deer involves enhancing and maintaining high-quality deer habitat that provides both food and cover. Without adequate escape cover, you will not hold deer on your property. And without proper whitetail food, deer will never achieve the quality you desire. Not only can deer density impact the body condition of individual animals, but even your buck to doe ratio can effect herd dynamics. If this sounds new to you, then you have stumbled into the right place. That’s because this site is focused on helping dedicated landowners and sportsmen better manage the deer habitat and deer herds found on their lands.

As you will notice across the top menu, topics on the Deer Management site cover the necessary components for a healthy deer herd that will help you produce and maintain more and better trophy whitetail bucks! You do not need to buy expensive breeder bucks to have bigger bucks than you ever thought possible. There are no secrets to producing a healthy deer herd and high-quality bucks. However, it’s not always easy. Improving a deer herd requires a good amount of time and a fair amount of work. But if you are dedicated to your deer management program, then installing food plots, performing deer surveys, learning key whitetail plants, enhancing habitat, and selectively harvesting deer will help you achieve your goal.

White-tailed deer eat a variety of plants and different plants become important during different times of the year. As for any wildlife species to thrive, the most important seasons for deer are the seasons in which they are stressed–summer and winter. It is during these two periods that whitetail have the least amount of food available to them. Of course, summer stress is not nearly as hard at northern latitudes (such as the mid-west), just as winter stress is not nearly as tough at southern latitudes (such as Texas). Why do I mention food resources, stress, and earlier talked about body condition? Well, as you will learn, body condition of both bucks and does is the most important component of your deer herd.

Individual white-tailed deer body condition is the building blocks of your deer herd. I will not tell you that you need to go out and buy supplemental feed or plant a high-dollar food plot mix, but I will tell you that food is what you must ultimately seek to manage for in order to improve your deer herd. There are a couple way to do this and they are discussed in detail, by topic, on the remainder of the site. As I said earlier, there are no secrets to deer management, but it will take some work.

A deer manager should consider deer nutrition on a seasonal basis. Energy and protein needs change based on the season, physical activity, and the age of individual animals. Changes in the nutritional requirements of deer that occur with gestation, lactation, breeding, and antler growth should be coordinated with seasonal changes in nutrient availability from forage plants. Nutritional requirements of deer are generally separated into five categories, which are protein, energy, minerals, vitamins, and water. Research on white-tailed deer has primarily focused on protein, energy, and minerals (phosphorus and calcium). These requirements are most often the ones that limit growth, reproduction, and antler development.

Protein is very important for body growth in deer, especially for fawns and yearlings. Inadequate protein intake in a given year will also reduce antler development in bucks. In fact, a period of inadequate nutrition (low protein) for buck fawns may adversely influence antler development for several succeeding years. A deer must obtain at least a 6-7% crude protein diet to maintain rumen function, but a protein diet in the 14-16% range is required for successful growth, antler development, and reproduction.

The quality pf deer food plants can sometimes be improved through vegetative management, such as brush management. However, the habitat manager has much less control over forage quality rather than quantity. Forage quality is associated with the growth stage of the plant, the plant species, and environmental factors such as soil type and precipitation. No single plant species maintains year-round nutrient and protein levels required by deer for successful growth and reproduction. However, some plant species are higher in nutrients than most other species in the same plant category. Some browse species may maintain adequate year-round levels of protein, but may be seasonally deficient in energy or certain minerals required by deer.

Deer managers can influence the quality of deer forage by manipulating vegetation and encouraging plant diversity. The greatest influence on deer nutrition can be achieved by managing forage quality. This is done through correct stocking rates, proper harvest of deer, and proper brush management and enhancment. In addition, the manager should be aware of the nutritional value of deer food plants so that informed brush, weed, and grazing management decisions can be made. White-tailed deer need protein, but they also need other items to achieved their nutritional requirements. A good deer management program will seek to provide at least 16% digestible protein and sufficient energy and minerals for optimal white-tailed deer growth.

Many land owners feel uncomfortable about increasing their deer harvest and choose to inflate the carrying capacity of thier ranch through supplemental feeding in the form of protein pellets and food plots. However, deer managers must realize that feeding deer is very expensive and generally the cost of maintaining the additional deer outweigh the financial returns. The best deer management practice is to keep population numbers in line with the carrying capacity of the habitat and provide free-choice supplemental feed. In this manner, the feed actually is supplemental. A well-feed deer herd will be very productive, often producing 60-100% fawn crops. This means that 50 does can regularly produce 30-50 fawns each year. How many deer do you need and how many can you feed?

When talking about deer management, it’s difficult to say whether predator control is warranted on your property because all lands are different. Property differences mean variation in habitat, differences in deer density, and differences in predator density. In addition, research suggest that poor deer habitat allows predators to hunt more efficiently. Whether it does or doesn’t is not the important point, because poor habitat is bad for your deer herd either way.

In the end, the decision about predator control on a property comes down to the landowner. Most deer hunters really like to hate predators, particularly coyotes. This is the easy route since we know predators do in fact kill deer. And besides, we know coyotes don’t help your deer population get larger. But how many deer is enough? At some point, too many deer decreases deer nutrition and decreases productivity. I think that topic lends itself to a whole other article.

In terms of the white-tailed deer, the coyote is the primary predator that most landowners could live without. The coyote does likely consume the lion’s share of predator-killed fawns each year, but what percent is that of the total fawn production? It likely varies by property for the reasons listed earlier.

But coyotes are not the only animals that kill and eat whitetail fawns. Mountain lions can take down a mature whitetail, so a fawn is no challenge at all. However, though mountain lions are not very common in general, they can have a high impact on a deer population in a small area — at least for some period of time before they decide to move on.

But just about every carnivore out there consumes a whitetail fawn at some point. These secondary fawn predators would be animals such as bobcats, fox, feral hogs, and even raccoons over most of the whitetail’s range. Very young deer fawns are suceptible to a variety of predators, but habitat conditions combined with deer and predator densities ultimately determine the impact that predators have on a deer herd.

If you still have at least 6 fawns for every 10 does in early fall of each year, then predators are likely not a limiting factor in your area. If you have 5 or fewer, then poor nutrition from sub-optimal habitat conditions and/or predator populations could be to blame.