Question about removing yearling does from a herd.

[Jamesl]

I remembered someone, maybe Encinal, had mentioned that they take out a percentage of yearling does out of the herd.

Well talking to the someone about this practice, he made a good point. If you are moving towards better genetics within a herd, wouldn't the younger does have better genetics overall, than the older does in the herd?

So what are the benefits to removing yearling does from the herd instead of the older ones?

[Wood Man]

I used to remove the yearling does with the mindset that the older does in the herd could birth more successfully and higher likely of birthing twins. However, someone mentioned to me the exact same thing about genetics that you mentioned. So now I try to take out older does. I have no clue what advantage it is to take out the younger ones.

[Wackmaster]

I just try to keep the herd balanced and try to shoot an even number of all the age groups of does. You can't tell anything about what kind of bucks they produce by looking at them anyway, so I really don't think it's that big of a deal personally.

[Flint knapper]

I think it depends a lot on the amount of food that is on a place. A young doe will need as much or more feed to grow and start having a family than one that is mature. The same is true with bucks. The younger ones will require more food than a mature one will. There are problems with this as there is no way to know the genetics of the deer and how it will be down the line for the off springs. So I guess it is a shot in the dark either way and you just have to decide what you want to do. I really don't usually shoot the very young unless I do not have enough food for all the deer to have enough to go around and then some.

[canny]

Research has shown that the does in younger age classes statistically produce more bucks where does in the older age classes produce more does. Just something else to add to the discussion.

[Backwoods101]

Ive had two deer breeder's tell me that @80% of the genetic make up comes from the doe. Out with the old, in with the new

[venado]

Older does produce more twin fawns than younger does. If you are trying to get more bucks to evaluate, then killing yearling does builds the buck population faster. Obviously balance in all things is good so common sense needs to prevail because you would not want to kill an entire cohort of does any more than you would with bucks..

[louieagarcia]

Its a alternative management philosophy. The proponents of this practice believe that it helps with fawn recruitment percentages, older does are better mothers, higher fawn survival rate, ect, ect. I haven't seen enough data to grant me an educated opinion about this, but those implementing it successfully, kuddos!
Two sides to the fence, with many unknowns and a plethora of variables.....kinda like shooting all spikes as a management tool

Good luck

[muzzlebrake]

Young does will breed with inferior bucks more readily than old seasoned nanny does. The older does will seek out the better bucks to do the one hump nasty with.

[systemnt]

wow. The answers run the gambit.
Let me add to it - Young does prefer bucks with dew claws that point out.. not in, and Older does eat 6 times more a day than a young doe that has bred with anything smaller than 7 point.. Young does that breed with 8points or better or more expected to kick their fawns off their teets with the left rear hoof than their right.

A mouth is a mouth and unless you have killed ALL " inferior " bucks, killing a young doe has no more an impact on your herd than killing an old doe.
Does equate to 50% of the genetic, however successful breeders will tell you to ALWAYS start with the best doe you can afford when starting a breeding operation.

[perfectstorm]

Book marked. Interesting read so far.

[PondPopper]

Ive had two deer breeder's tell me that @80% of the genetic make up comes from the doe. Out with the old, in with the new

Yep so how do you know your not culling a true monster???? You don't and never will. I think this management thing has went from using plain old common sense to something way to complicated.

[TP3]

Young does will breed with inferior bucks more readily than old seasoned nanny does. The older does will seek out the better bucks to do the one hump nasty with.

Book marked. Interesting read so far.

I agree about the interesting read. ..

[buzzbait]

It's like the cattle business. You sell the off spring and keep the mama cows. Next year mama cow will birth again, this years fawn will only breed next year for the first time. Well you missed a year of babies if you shot mama cow.

[Dudley]

If you are high fence with introduced genetics, it may be an advantage to keep the young does and shoot the older ones.
However, for the low fence crowd, or the HF without introduced genetics, the main reason to shoot doe fawns is that they are the largest age-class and in most cases will not add anything to the herd for at least a year and a half, all the while they continue to be another mouth to feed.
A good comparison is the cattle rancher. He keeps just enough replacement heifers each year to cover the number of older cows that he loses, knowing that heifer is going to be nothing but a mouth to feed for the next year or more til they produce a calf.