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<blockquote data-quote="BSK" data-source="post: 5708562" data-attributes="member: 17"><p>FANTASTIC post Tellico4x4!</p><p></p><p>You bring up so many key factors about collecting/analyzing herd dynamics numbers. Watching how the numbers change over time is key. Each property is different in its herd dynamics and herd dynamics trends over time, and it is those "trends over time" that really matter. Are things getting better, worse, staying the same? Answering that question and adjusting harvests accordingly is the right way to go about things. Too many hunters/managers get hung up on exact numbers. What is a perfectly acceptable number on one property could be absolutely disastrous on another. It is far more important to see the trend over time. Everything comes down to 1) what are hunters experiencing now with these numbers, 2) what is the trend over time, and 3) what could we do to get those trends to move in a more positive direction?</p><p></p><p>And I also want to reiterate what you said about doe harvests, as in, "<em>By taking the same number of does & bucks each year usually keeps a pretty good balance.</em>" Back in the day, when small-land management first started to be talked about, highly skewed sex ratios were common, due to years and years of high buck-only harvests. At that time, "slaughter the does" was a necessity to get some sex ratio balance back. However, we are far from that now. It's extremely rare for me to find a property with highly skewed sex ratios anymore. Hunters have backed off the buck harvests and embraced doe harvests enough that sex ratios have gotten back closer to balance. Now, simply following the policy of killing as many does as you do bucks (and maybe slightly more does) WILL balance a local sex ratio over a couple of years' time. That is because fawns are born at a near 50:50 sex ratio. So give three or four generations of equal birth rate, in combination with a harvest practice that removes adult deer in equal numbers, and you will end up with a balanced sex ratio.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BSK, post: 5708562, member: 17"] FANTASTIC post Tellico4x4! You bring up so many key factors about collecting/analyzing herd dynamics numbers. Watching how the numbers change over time is key. Each property is different in its herd dynamics and herd dynamics trends over time, and it is those "trends over time" that really matter. Are things getting better, worse, staying the same? Answering that question and adjusting harvests accordingly is the right way to go about things. Too many hunters/managers get hung up on exact numbers. What is a perfectly acceptable number on one property could be absolutely disastrous on another. It is far more important to see the trend over time. Everything comes down to 1) what are hunters experiencing now with these numbers, 2) what is the trend over time, and 3) what could we do to get those trends to move in a more positive direction? And I also want to reiterate what you said about doe harvests, as in, "[I]By taking the same number of does & bucks each year usually keeps a pretty good balance.[/I]" Back in the day, when small-land management first started to be talked about, highly skewed sex ratios were common, due to years and years of high buck-only harvests. At that time, "slaughter the does" was a necessity to get some sex ratio balance back. However, we are far from that now. It's extremely rare for me to find a property with highly skewed sex ratios anymore. Hunters have backed off the buck harvests and embraced doe harvests enough that sex ratios have gotten back closer to balance. Now, simply following the policy of killing as many does as you do bucks (and maybe slightly more does) WILL balance a local sex ratio over a couple of years' time. That is because fawns are born at a near 50:50 sex ratio. So give three or four generations of equal birth rate, in combination with a harvest practice that removes adult deer in equal numbers, and you will end up with a balanced sex ratio. [/QUOTE]
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