MLD Negatives?

[MAP]

The worst part? In october and then again in jan & feb
you tend to hear from alot of "old friends" and "cousins" that seem to want and hang out for the first time since, well last october and jan/feb.

Other than that its a pretty easy program especially once your enrolled.

[Bear82]

I had a bad experience with mld. Money collector for the ranch got all the permits he could and gave them out. People shot all the doe and spike and after a few years there were no deer. I moved to a different tract on ranch. We saw 10 deer all year on 1000 acres in central Texas. MLD can be a good tool if its managed right and everyone is in it for the right reason. The ranch also never did any habitat management and over grazed the property. The biologist didn't care. It all depends on your area.

We saw 8 deer all summer in our surveys. BUt they gave us about 30 tags.

[lanceodom]

When TPWD went to the new scheme MLD made no sense to me. They gave me one doe permit on 217 acres. The years prior they wanted me to kill five does. They have no clue what they’re doing IMO.

Did the biologist come to your place and discuss any of it with you? Do you do any sort of survey, any land management or supplemental feeding practices? It all depends on the herd quantity and quality (health).

[lanceodom]

I had a bad experience with mld. Money collector for the ranch got all the permits he could and gave them out. People shot all the doe and spike and after a few years there were no deer. I moved to a different tract on ranch. We saw 10 deer all year on 1000 acres in central Texas. MLD can be a good tool if its managed right and everyone is in it for the right reason. The ranch also never did any habitat management and over grazed the property. The biologist didn't care. It all depends on your area.

We saw 8 deer all summer in our surveys. BUt they gave us about 30 tags.

sounds like more of a lease boss issue than an MLD issue.

[Notaguide]

I'm currently leasing 280ac for my son and I which previously held three hunters. MLD surveys typically allow 5 doe and 3 bucks. The negative for the previous hunters was three license would potentially allow 15 deer to be harvested being meat hunters.

As mentioned, I believe there's way more positives to negatives if both landowner and hunters use the program as intended. I could see negatives if you don't agree with the biologist but most are there to ultimately help improve the heard. What he suggests may not be what you want to hear depending on areas potential quality vs. density.

[LWC]

Worst part when I got on our current lease I had planned on duck hunting the month of January. Went mld and now no time for duck hunting lol.

[Sika]

I manage two properties under mld conservation option. The only downside is you have to do a minimum of 3 habitat management practices per year...and supplemental food and predator control don't count. Hog control is the easiest requirement to achieve. Nearly everyone has hogs to kill. We usually do some brush clearing, fallow field disking, and kill a couple of hogs but some years it's hard to get the minimum number of habitat projects done.

[jt400]

I manage two properties under mld conservation option. The only downside is you have to do a minimum of 3 habitat management practices per year...and supplemental food and predator control don't count. Hog control is the easiest requirement to achieve. Nearly everyone has hogs to kill. We usually do some brush clearing, fallow field disking, and kill a couple of hogs but some years it's hard to get the minimum number of habitat projects done.

But that's only when you move out of the harvest program right?

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[PYBUCK]

Did the biologist come to your place and discuss any of it with you? Do you do any sort of survey, any land management or supplemental feeding practices? It all depends on the herd quantity and quality (health).

The conservation option is what you are describing. The harvest option does not require any of this. They issue tags based on historical data for your particular area then give you tags based on your acreage. I find think the harvest option has to pay the $300 fee either.

[Deerguy]

Harvest Option is $30, Conservation Option is $300. I do the harvest option, does only (don't get the buck tags). It doesn't give me quite enough tags given the poor sex ratio, but it's close. Biggest advantage is that it gives 5 months to shoot the does and allows me to save license tags for other areas.

[Sika]

But that's only when you move out of the harvest program right?

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I completely missed where the op was asking specifically about harvest option. Yes, the habitat management is for conservation.


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[AntlerCollector]

Lots of folks have missed the Harvest option part of your question. If you are happy with the number of tags the Harvest Option gives you then there’s really no downside.

[jt400]

I completely missed where the op was asking specifically about harvest option. Yes, the habitat management is for conservation.


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We do our own management practices and it's worked out great up to this point. I don't feel like we kill enough doe though. By we I mean some of the other folks on the lease. I'm looking at it as an opportunity for those of us who do to pick up the slack for others without being limited to the tags on our licences.

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