Looking at the last pic and keeping in mind what’s been said about the total amount of quality forage being produced…….Another question to be asking for the deep thinking crowd is……. “How is this impacting the generational nutrition of the deer herd?”…….

I think this is what causes a lot of the differences you see in the deer herd across the landscape that people often attribute to being good genetics or like the discussion now in the serious forum about Gastonberg just being “ a good area” for big bucks……While there’s a few places in the state where genetics ARE playing a role……I think the vast majority of the noticeable differences people are seeing in isolated areas that "just seem to grow ‘em bigger" than other places comes from improved nutrition over a 10-20+ year time period. That is influenced by soil and understory management as well as soil type. For example, places like Sedgefield probably have doe herds that have been feeding on good quality understory forage for decades worth of generations......mamas and great-great-great-great-great- grandmamas that have all fed on good quality understory forage and those doe herds are kicking out quality buck fawns for the area. I think the pic above looks like the reverse of that.