Originally Posted by burbank
Originally Posted by Pwyse
Originally Posted by burbank
So how many properties do you manage that have required killing more bucks than does to correct the balance?

Yes, it’s absolutely about killing does as well as managing habitat.


There’s a difference between an educated decision to kill a certain number of does and “blasting the bleep out of does”

So what is lost when you kill a doe that needs to be killed?


Uh, I don’t know, maybe deer? For every doe you kill, you kill every fawn she will ever have. Some of those fawns are bucks.

I guess I’m just saying it’s a fine balance in my mind. And typically, unless you have 1000s of acres or a high fence it will never be close to an exact science.

It’s not an exact science, and it’s precisely why I tell most of my clients to get the numbers where we would like to get them in relation to habitat, and at that point we will modify harvest annually. It’s a fluid target. Very few properties can withstand heavy doe harvest indefinitely. BUT, it is a tool. It’s like driving 80 mph on the interstate. That’s fine until you hit a back road. When conditions change you have to adjust your speed.