Genetics is the LAST thing you can change and worry about in a free-range deer herd, so forget about even trying. (See Mississippi State study on Nutrition and Genes... it's all about nutrition!). Supplemental feeding (SF) is just that... it's supplemental. I am so frustrated with my hunting club as they think SF is the answer to our lack of killing 140" mature bucks. We've conquered the mature buck harvest goal as we're killing mature bucks that are 4, 5 yrs old and even older, but our antler scores aren't getting any higher or they've reach a plateau in antler score and we're not happy with our "glass ceiling".

Our property consists of too much mature hardwoods (river bottom and they probably won't ever be cut (flooding) and too much mature pines (we have begged the landowner to cut those mature pines) with waaay too many gum trees growing and waaay too much pine straw on the ground! It's approx 3000+ acres and we basically have very little browse! RE: we don't have enough sunlight reaching the ground!!! Mature tree canopy, gum trees and a thick layer of pine straw!) Our members think that we can overcome our issues with SF. I, personally, would like to burn and do habitat enhancement and fertilize our natural browse, which would be a lot cheaper and I think it would produce more tonnage of food for our wildlife. We do have some recent clearcut but too much of our property is basically, browse free. My members don't see our woods as a browse desert, but it is.

But, SF is sexy!!! Oh it sounds like the answer to our ills!

You'd be much better off burning and fertilizing your nat browse. HOWEVER, if you can do it all, that's even better. But SF takes a lot of money and time and more of it is money.

Regarding letting the bucks mature.... I'm assuming you're already doing that. Sadly, you have some (too many) people that thinks that every 5 yr old buck is going to be a monster, and that's just not the case! As the MSU study points, it's about nutrition, nutrition, nutrition! (Given that you're letting bucks mature AND... does need nutrition too! Good luck! Oh, planting a sufficient acreage of food plots helps... especially if you plant how you should. Green doesn't mean good (rye grass "looks" great, but don't be fooled) and the best thing I've found is planting clovers that explode in the early spring.

Last edited by Antlerfluke; 05/28/20 03:55 PM.