This is an interesting approach to looking at how to manage the deer where you hunt.
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Cool, we just try to harvest on a 1:1 -
Stuart is talking about intense feeding scenarios... it's grade school math but you actually have to work with it to fully grasp it.
Part of people telling landowners to shoot does IS to shut DOWN the factory...
I'll finish reading in a sec and have more to say about it... but it's just production logic, like a cow/calf operation.Comment
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I know it's simple math but it applies to an advanced situation. I thought it was interesting that he thought 43 does per 1000 acres to get the 15 buck fawns. It's a higher density than we've been carrying but I have increased it in the past 10 years from a deer per 22 acres to one per 16 acres. We've been working on a doe flip in the past few years and I intend to increase the density to 1:12 or so after this year.
I do like his point about if the ratio is out of whack, stop shooting bucks
That can apply to a lot of places that have too many does.
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Ok so... what he is saying is exactly true... but in order to run your ranch like a factory and come close to those numbers every year, you have to have a fudge factor...
Faith may average a 70% fawn crop and only need 43 does/1k acres to produce 15 buck fawns... but if you only carry 50 does/1000 acres and you run into a horrible year... you are SOL.
I carry about 70/1000 just because I know that it is a lot easier to kill excess deer after a good year than it is to create deer out of thin air after a bad one.
The purpose of this slideshow isn't to give people a formula for their deer herd... very few herds work on a formula... herds that work on formulas are the 100% fawn crop herds (hill country) and are very easy to manage so long as you have bullets...
Herds in real life... that swing 30-80% with rainfall require yearly adjustments... but like Stuart said... never to balance ratios... always to put buck fawns on the ground... if you don't put as many buck fawns on the ground as you want to one year.... carry more does over and make up for it the next year... you have room..
If you put too many on the ground for too many years in a row... cut down your doe numbers...Comment
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We have sloooow years where there aren't any mature trophies because we have culled out the bucks and there's not much left. I know this is because of the number of bucks that are born each year. When we started managing 28 years ago the thought was to have a deer per 20-25 acres. We stuck to that until about 10 years ago when I took over the management and realized that 1 trophy per year wasn't going to satisfy our family. I started raising the density, along with the feed bill, and after a few years we had more big deer to hunt. We reached our highest density of 1:12 about 3 years ago and then started the doe flip. I think we are back to about 1:16 now, but I plan to lay off the does next year and build it back up. Last year we had about 95 does on 3300 and killed 38. I know we set ourselves up for a slow 2018-2020. I'm trying to get us set to where we don't have the slow years and can hope for 3-5 trophies a year. From Stuart's numbers, I need to have about 150-160 does which will be my number to maintain in the next few years.Comment
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Why are you going to have slow years because of a doe flip? Are you not double carrying to make up for it?Comment
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Why are you going to have really slow years because of doe flips? Are you not double carrying to make up for it?Comment
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Why are you going to have really slow years because of doe flips? Are you not double carrying to make up for it?Comment
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Why are you going to have slow years because of a doe flip? Are you not double carrying the year before?Comment
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Well as you can see... I tried to pose that question last night during database issues...
This is what a "hard" doe flip should look like...
It shouldn't effect your production too much if you double carry the year before... i.e.... not shoot any does or fawns... then the next year shoot does AND fawns... so yearling does who get bred their second winter (who still have SOME fawns) can hold up part of their weight in the fawn crop.
This model shows the different fawn success rates based on age of does... until they get to 4... then it lumps them all together because the difference in years is negligible.
buck numbers work off of this "engine"Comment
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Why do I feel like you to may be wildlife biologist's??????????? You two are proubally responsible for the good reputation Texas gets for management minded ranchers. Keep it up gentlemen! This is a little bit over my head, but I am tuned in.Comment
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I'm a geologist
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This presentation of Stuart's really makes sense when discussing the "engine".
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Do you follow my doe flip model graph Peyton?Comment
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