I can't look at a food plot and say oh I have to many deer..here is why.

If I plant soybeans, assuming I get them up past the cotyleden stage, the deer wear them out. Does that mean I have to many deer?

If I plant clay peas, I can have a really nice stand, until mid August, and then in a week I'll have nothing but stems. Does that mean I have to many deer?

However, if I plant whitetail clover, then as long as I get rain, I have than enough for the deer to eat.

Brassicas are an eat them and they are done crop. When you have a preferred forage, it's going to get more use. Plant some whitetail clover and if it gets eaten to the ground by may or early June, then you have to many deer.

That's my unscientific assessment based.upon what I see on my lease in an area with 30 to 60 deer per square mile based upon the last deer density figures I saw.

The issue isn't whether your herd is stressed or not. It may very well be. However, the issue is you posted pics of a winter and summer foodplot being eaten down and said it indicated you have too many deer. The argument is that you can't tell anything about your herd just because your foodplots are eaten down, especially in a drought.

For instance, If I have 1,000 acres well managed land with half quail woods, burned and thinned, 25% hardwood bottoms, 10% young pine plantation, and 15% foodplots, then I would be worried if my foodplots got eaten down. If I have the same acreage and 1% in foodplots of 20 - 1/2 acre size fields, I would expect them to be eaten down despite the good habitat, especially beans. If the 1,000 acres was closed canopy pine plantation, I would also expect the foodplots to be eaten down as soon as they were planted unless they comprised at least 10% of the acreage. Even then it might not be enough.



Again, we have established you can't tell if you have "too many deer" from a couple eaten down foodplots. But we also have not defined "too many deer".
Take the 1,000 ac examples from above. Lets say both the well managed and poorly managed are side by side. Same dirt, same everything, just one is closed canopy pine plantation with 10% foodplots and the other is open canopy, thinned, burned pine woods, hardwood drains, some thicker areas and 10% foodplots. These two properties have vastly different carrying capacity. If they were in Dallas county for example, I would guess the well managed property could carry a healthy deer population of 100 deer. The pine plantation would be lucky to carry 30-40 in a healthy condition.
Also note that you can have too many does without skewed sex ratios. Often goes with having too many deer overall. Not something that can be addressed with a foodplot pic either.

An extremely small percentage of the state of Alabama has “too many deer”.

A much larger percentage of hunters think they do. It’s really amazing.

"Too many deer" to alot of people means you cant grow a garden without them getting in it or somebody hits one on the road now and then. But then again, im hunting a populated rural area, not a 5000 acre hunting club. Theres alot of deer around here. Theres also alot of food, alot of water, alot of cover and anything else a deer might need. However, these deer have been born around and have always lived around people. They are not dumb deer. Where i hunt is just not like a hunting club at all. This place has its own special set of problems.

When you see a deer standing out there in the middle of you food plot starving with nowhere to turn just wondering where the food is.... that's when you will know you have "too many deer".

Let me know when that happens.

Most people's food plots are "too small"

That's the real answer. 1/4-1/2 acre food plots are garbage. And didn't you plant it for them to eat? Now your mad because they ate it when you weren't around?

That's "too many deer" in a nutshell.

You know what part of it is with people hollering about “gonna have to kill some does!!”…..its just hunters wanting to boast about having good hunting property……Also, somehow or another when we start talking about state wide deer management its like it becomes some kind of contest on who’s county or area is the best instead of it being a non-bias assessment of the facts. Like somehow you’ve offended their pride if you say Jackson Co is declining…..I guess that’s just male psychology for you.

Im real close with 2 girls who are crack shots. Just shoot me a PM and I will turn them loose on those does for ya. We can let the aldeer herd geniuses decide from the pics of them stacked up. LOL

Another thing I have noticed is if you base your opinion on sex ratio based on what u r seeing on green fields u r probably way off. The difference between what I see hunting and what I see at the feeder at night are very very different. Even my little bucks seldom show themselves during the day. Don’t know why it isn’t like they r getting shot at

The sad reality is if you have a timber co lease, having a big "green field" is a pipe dream. None of mine are over about half an acre, and they are certainly not all situated in the best locations on the property in terms of adjacent cover.

Thats why I moved to clover. It was the one crop I felt like no matter how many deer I had, they couldn't eat it to the ground on a small plot. Sunn hemp is pretty similar. It is hard for the deer to eat it to the ground too.

I saw 32 deer on my last afternoon sit at my place mainly does with a few small bucks mixed in. I pulled all my camera cards before I left. The same day that I saw 32 I had at least 10 different bucks on camera moving down a logging road less than 100 yards from this food plot.

Never saw a single one of these bucks in the plot while I was sitting.

I am probably 3:1. That's very good IMO Doe/Buck ratio free range I mean my neighbors shoot literally every buck they see starting with 2" spikes. They lay waste to everything.

So if I based my deer herd off of what I saw and the fact that my plots are eaten to the dirt due to lack of rain and heavy browsing that would be a false assumption.

There is no such thing as "Too Many Does". I promise they will go somewhere else before they starve.


What I have out there standing in the food plot is called 32 pieces of "bait". Deer are starting to think about a Rut which will be end of January which is attributable to the Bucks I got pictures of in the woods. I have a ladder I will start hunting along the logging road but when the Rut kicks off some of these bucks will show in the plot. That is guaranteed.

Pretty simple concept.

If you want more bucks... Stop shooting your deer.

If you have no bucks someone killed them. Figure that out otherwise your effort and goals are toast.