Just want to put this out there, as I have no answer. I found 13 sheds last year and about that many the year before, but only 3 this year. I have a friend that hunts and finds a lot and he's only found about 3 as well. I have some farmer friends that farm 6,000+ acres in some prime Jackson Co. deer terra. The guy that drives the spray rig found one match set in a wheat field a few weeks ago, that's it. The spreader truck driver has found none, and a few years ago he filled the floor board of the spreader truck with sheds. The farmers say some years, everywhere you go there are sheds, some years they find few to next to none. This winter there was not a lot of food in the woods late so the deer hit the fields. Everyone thought it would be easy pickings for sheds in wheat fields this spring, not so. Any ideas guys? I guess it's somehow food related other than that, we haven't a clue.

Would like to hear from Dr.D, BSK, Matt as well.

Interesting observation. Maybe they've expanded their "normal" territory where you'd find sheds in search of better food sources since this winter was a little rougher?

I'd say 100% food related unless ya'll had a huge die off.....

I saw an eight point 1 3/4 year old yesterday with both side still up...

I guess, but we hunted quite a bit in wheat fields and the farmers were spraying and spreading in them but very few were found. My friend still had some standing corn, I think he found only 1 near it. Dang mystery for sure.

were the deer hitting the wheat fields hard in Feb/Mar???

Could be hitting the honeysuckle in the woods, might try there....

Don't know how hard they were in the wheat in Feb and March. Most of my plots have a good stand of perennial clover. And the deer have been pounding them, for months. I always find a few in them, this year not a single antler. Of the 3 I've found, one was in a wide fencerow/ thicket that divides two fields, one with wheat the other cut soy beans. The other two were found in the woods on old skidder trails.

If there's been a die off, I 've not seen any and haven't heard of anyone else finding any.

I do think they are holding them a little longer this year for some reason. Had a guy tell me he saw 3 good bucks about 10 days ago and they all had both antlers. My son and I checked our plots Friday and I hunted another area in the woods yesterday and found none in the last two days. It's all a dang good mystery to me. Probably has something to do with our crazy rut this season, weird rut, weird antler shedding season.

I found one side at least a year old, and that is all I've found turkey hunting. Have a picture of a 5 pt. that has shed.
Based on this season, it could be possible that we don't have anywhere near the number of bucks we normally have.

Down here in pike and south Montgomery county area we still have our cameras out and what I'm seeing according to pictures is that a lot of our bucks seem to be droping their antlers late this year. Some have shed one side and some still have both antlers. Last weekend I got five bucks on film and I'm talking about three mature deer and all five still had their full set of antlers. On another camera I have a spike and a four point that have shed one antler each. Both of these bucks had shed a month ago on one side and they still have not dropped the other side. Unless they have this week. I've got another buck that dropped one antler about six weeks ago and he still hasn't dropped the other one. This is a bit odd to me. I've found matching sheds many times over the years within twenty yards of each other but I really don't know what's goin on with them now.

Preferred food related or availability of food related. We found quite a few this year. Found 4 in a food plot of brassicas, wheat and clover. Found a few more just outside our clover fields.

A couple weeks ago one of my neighbors saw and 8 point with 3 does. Still toting both sides. Don't they hang on longer if they are in poor condition? I figure with the poor acorn crop and the long colder than normal winter they were hurting by spring green up. Actually our woods are JUST getting green now. Honeysuckle is about 6" tall. Ladino clover just started blooming.

Until my alfalfa field got knee deep I was checking it often. I haven't found one yet. I KNOW they're wearing out the alfalfa field.

I don't know a lot about it, but this idea found it's way into my mind. We all know that genetically engineered foods affect growth and development. Could it be that these foods are affecting the hormone that causes the antlers to turn loose? More and more people are feeding these growth enhancers to their deer herd, so could that be seriously affecting the shedding season? Hey, just saying.

Actually the healthier the deer the longer they will hold their antlers within reason obviously.

How so, NightHunter? Isn't antler cast related to hormones (testosterone) and its decline after does have been bred? I know it's not good to try to simplify it that much but we're almost into May. It does seem much later than usual.

If bucks don't drop antlers until the next 10 days or so, and they don't start growing-showing for a month, would we possibly see more bucks in velvet by the time bow season opens in October?

We lost a lot of bucks up here in the north end of the county to EHD.

I've heard and read the same thing several times. Bucks in our area must be mighty healthy then, despite the cold winter with little food late.

the deer I've observed have dropped pretty much the same times/rates as normal. I saw bucks drop as early as Jan, and saw one buck with both sides last week. Most dropped in late Feb/March..pretty normal.

I don't know if a "healthier" buck will hold antlers longer as much as it is a sick/injured/run down buck will drop earlier than (what we would call) normal.

I'm with ya, ours, in normal years, seem to peek 2-3 rd week of March, with some as early as first week of Feb. and some being about now for the late droppers.

My reading on the subject continually showed that poor nutrition, being diseased, i.e. less healthy deer have a reduced testosterone level which is one of the main hormones that drive antler production and casting.

Basically, less healthy deer = less testosterone = earlier antler cast.

Not my research though...

Huh. That's interesting. Thanks.

We pretty much walked the 800 ac around our camp the last couple of weeks turkey hunting. I walked every plot,fire lanes, woods roads and woods. Even walked alot of a clearcut and found zero sheds this year. This weekend I even went walk through some of our big creek bottoms and still nothin. No more bucks in Monroe co. I guess. I noticed the same thing here at home in SW louisiana. I always find lots of sheds on our farms. This year I haven't found any and we had a late green up here. I think the critters are getting them as soon as they fall.