I read a little blurb about this today and tried to find more info. The last sentence kinda sums it up but I'm trying to figure out what this means to the average club.

"We contend managing for high-quality forage (forbs) is more important than soil mineral variation with regard to providing deer adequate nutrition."

Lots of questions to be asked. If only we had a biologist amongst us, preferably one who may have heard the presentation that was given on this study.


http://www.sedsg.com/abstracts_search.as...e&year=2017

I think it means that they need some more grant money to do another 10 year study.

Interesting abstract there Yelp, I'd love to read the whole paper.

I think the main idea here is managing land for the growth of forbs, rather than woody plants. Even on what might be termed marginal soils this management will/should result in more protein availability for the deer.

What does this mean to the average club?

That's a tough one. In my mind the average club has little control over the real important issue here - land management. Leasing land just doesn't give a whole lot of flexibility.

Where one has the power to manage the land they can use fire, herbicides, tree harvests or maybe even lower tree planting densities to achieve more forbs and less woody plants.

As with almost all research studies the ability to generalize this and apply it is minimal. As timbercruiser implied, more research is needed!

I think it means Clorox stumps aren't nutritious to deer and broad leaf weeds are.