The fall pursuit

The leaves are falling, the weather is frosty, crops are harvested, manure is spread and deer hunting is upon our farms again. Already, many nice bucks have been harvested by bow hunters. Most farms in this area of western Wisconsin are barely 50% tillable land, so the remaining land is good habitat for whitetail deer. The number of animals on pasture has also fallen much in the last 15 years, creating even more places for wildlife to roam undisturbed. In the 1980s, the whitetail deer population in our area was very low. Gradually, deer migrated out of northern Wisconsin and found a better diet in farming country.

One of my sons is a holistic whitetail and wildlife consultant. Thomas has always wanted to farm, as long as it was in the woods. It’s hard to make a living in the woods, unless you’re a logger, so he went to work for a trail camera company in La Crosse. Technology was his forte and he helped place cameras for hunters. Researchers studying wildlife all over the world – from Australia to the few forests left in Europe – would use these expensive cameras. There were times when he had over 20 cameras on our farm, in a constant effort to test and improve them. I recall one severely cold winter day with temperatures below 20 degrees; still Thomas was out checking trail cameras to see if they were functioning properly. He even had cameras at the entrance to our farm that were capable of recording license plates numbers. Eventually, he gained enough knowledge to help others create wildlife habitats, in hope of harvesting the Big One. This led to the creation of his Untamed Ambitions business. His reputation of harvesting over seven bucks scoring from 150 to 196 from our farm with a bow only helped. His commitment to the hunt is impressive: He has rolled himself in dried manure to cover any human scent before going to a stand. Last year he crawled 200 yards in three hours to harvest a monster buck while it was still resting.

Recently, he conducted an unusual seminar in whitetail country. We hosted a community deer cooperative seminar in our farm shop. Amazingly we had over 40 neighbors come to learn about deer herd and habitat management. One of his guidelines is “natural resources, and the services they provide, are shared and do not stop at property lines.”

Webster defines conservation as “A careful preservation and protection of something, especially the planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction or neglect.” Examples are water conservation, soil conservation and wildlife conservation. Hunters are a key part of the conservation process and with many more non-farmers owning land, the methods they use to sustain habitat are more critical than ever.

Using his holistic land management perspective, Thomas encourages his property-owning clients to understand that their property functions as a system that is also part of a bigger system. It’s important to understand that the property you own and control is part of a bigger landscape. The average whitetail deer home range is one square mile (640 acres). This means that one deer crosses many property lines.

He helps them answer the ageless question: How do hunters get big bucks? The three major influences are age, nutrition and genetics. Whitetail bucks’ full antler and body development happens at 4.5-7.5 years of age. This could be expressed as a 10 pointer or larger with a mature body to match. Many eight pointers are 2.5-year-old bucks. Only 20% of young bucks will reach 5.5 years old.

The ideal adult sex ratio in deer should be about one buck to two does. With the proper ratio, the herd will tend to be healthier, have more large mature deer and carry good genetics forward. If the ratio is not normal, then there will be fewer mature bucks and they will get pushed out of the range.

In early October, we had a fellow with a large drone and heat seeking technology survey two valleys on either side of our dairy facility. He also surveyed another valley just to the north of our farmstead. He was able to count the number of bucks and anterless deer. We had 29 bucks and 109 anterless deer in those areas. Three of those bucks were harvested in the last few days. Our ratio of bucks to does is 1:3.76. A communication system is being set up amongst the neighbors to prevent the over harvesting of does and find out who wants to donate or receive meat. Wisconsin has an anterless deer hunt the last week of the year which is an ideal time to cull the herd if necessary.

An interesting part of that survey was that most deer were found in areas we had harvested trees from in the last three years. Improving habitat and proper nutrition keep the deer herd healthy, meaning more fawns will survive and fewer bucks will die after the rut. Many bucks will not eat for many days during the rut and often lose 40%  of their body weight. We encourage all hunters to test for chronic wasting disease. Too date, we have not had a positive animal.

Research is shown that antler-size genetics are heavily influenced by the nutrition a doe receives prior to conception and during the breeding season. Does will tend to stay within 200 to 600 acres of good habitat, but in poor habitat they will roam 900 to 2,500 acres. Bucks will roam 500 to 900 acres in good habitat and 1,000 to 3,000 acres in poor conditions.

An interesting comparison is a Boone and Crockett or Pope and Young map of where the record bucks have been harvested each year in Minnesota and Wisconsin. If you take a map with the location of dairy farms and overlay it, the comparison is shocking. Sorry corn and bean farmers, but dairy farmers have some advantages that deer like. The diversity of crops, better-balanced soil because of manure usage, and alfalfa seem to help bucks grow bigger antlers. I have always found it curious why non-farming landowners plant a five-acre deer plot next to a dairy farm with many acres of alfalfa. I think they like to drive their mini-tractors and till the soil. I suppose the turnips and beans do add to the whitetails’ diet diversity.

Good luck hunters. Remember bow hunters, that us firearm hunters would like a chance, too.