Managing deer populations and herd structure on small properties is a complicated and frustrating endeavor, as deer have large ranges, Yearling Buck Dispersal (YBD) throws a monkey-wrench into the picture, and bucks often shift ranges throughout the year. What I'm getting at is the deer using your small property also use many, many other properties at any one given time or at different times through the hunting season. The deer using your property on a given day are subject to the harvest policies of many hunters on many other properties on other days. It can be very difficult to control or effect herd structure without controlling the harvest policies over a large area.
But to answer some of your specific questions:
bigfoot318 said:
I have been having a heated discussion with a friend of mine about shooting does.
I am of the mindset if you shoot all the does you can legally you are actually helping the deer herd.
How many does to harvest is one of the toughest questions in any management program. Doe harvests are used to control herd density and influence the adult sex ratio. The only way to know if you have too many deer is to assess browse pressure at the lowest food production time of year--late winter. And often, several years of late winter browse surveys are required to get a true picture. Browse pressure will be lower in a winter following a big red oak acorn crop. Red oak acorns last through the winter and are a top-choice winter food. A high availability of red oak acorns will reduce feeding pressure on other foods, hiding indicators of overpopulation.
Another consideration is the doe harvest policies of hunters on neighboring properties. If they are shooting does, it won't take many doe harvests on your property to see a difference. If neighbors are not shooting does, you can shoot does until the cows come home and you won't see much of a difference, especially if your small property is a "doe sink."
As Mega pointed out, deer density is closely linked to herd health. The more deer you have, the more the top-quality food sources need to be shared between more mouths, reducing the average health per deer. Lower densities allow each deer to consume a higher percent of high-quality foods in their total diet hence health and performace increase. The results of this "density dependency" can be seen in the areas that were hit hardest by the EHD outbreak in '07. The lower deer densities in these areas post-EHD allowed for much better antler growth per buck over following years.
My friend is of the mindset that you should protect does since the does have fawns in a roughly 1:1 buck/doe ratio. More buck fawns = more big bucks later down the road.
This idea is all good in theory, and certainly holds true when looking at large areas, but for individual properties, it can be deceiving. Yes, more does
can mean more fawns, but fawn production is linked to herd health. If an area has too many deer, the large number of does can actually produce
fewer total fawns (low fawn recruitment) than a much lower number of much healthier does could(very high fawn recruitment). For example, 100 does in an area experiencing 20% fawn recruitment only produce 20 surviving fawns each year. Yet 50 does in an area experiencing 80% fawn recruitment produce 40 surviving fawns each year. That's twice as many fawns from half as many does.
And when discussing button bucks, remember that
most does will chasing their male offspring out of their birth range before their son is of breeding age. This is the process known as Yearling Buck Dispersal (YBD). Those young males may travel miles from their birth range before establishing a new range. This means that many of the button bucks born on your property end up being adult bucks miles away. A high percentage of the adult bucks using your property now were born miles away and dispersed to your area as yearlings.
I got 3 does in Kentucky this year and passed numerous small bucks. The opening day of season in KY I saw 16 does and 3 very small bucks. Should I have let the does go in hopes of seeing more big bucks later down the road or was shooting the does the right thing to do?
Just remember that what deer you see while hunting is not a good indicator of what is really out there in the woods. Due to buck-centric harvest practices, bucks are generally more nocturnal than does (leading to less sightings of them when hunting in daylight), and older deer are more nocturnal than younger deer (more experience evading hunters). The only way to know what is really out there is with a well run camera census.
