Winchester said:
I agree the Does health plays a role in how big/healthy her fawn(s) will be early on. I have saw some studies however where most fawns that were simply born late, or born to smaller (many times yearling) does, will grow out of the being below average weight and rack size, by the time they are 3 1/2. This is interesting however as if this is the case these bucks would actually be somewhat protected from the problem of High grading at 2 1/2?
Yes, those studies exist and are the standard "thought" on the issue. But one problem with those studies that has been pointed is the fact that they involve penned deer where all parent deer are fed well, hence any
potential effect of parent malnourishment is removed. Of course, this was done on purpose. In any study you want to isolate a single variable to see its effect without other factors "muddying the water." But in the real world, many factors are at play.
The one study I find fascinating (although this is just ONE study and would need to be repeated in a variety of situations) was the South Dakota study using two sets of deer captured from the wild--one from the Black Hills and the other from the agricultural region of eastern SD. These populations of wild deer are noteworthy for their huge difference in body weight and antler production, with the low habitat quality of the Black Hills region producing much smaller bodied and antler deer than the agricultural region. These deer were captured just before the rut, kept isolated from each other, but fed the same high-quality foods. However, being captured just before the rut, the high-quality feed did not have a chance to influence individual deer health before breeding. Male offspring from the Black Hills population from that first breeding were tracked over their lifetime and compared to the male offspring of the agricultural deer. The Black Hills first year male offspring seriously underperformed the first-year male offspring from the agricultural region, and if a remember correctly, by a huge margin (around 30 gross inches less antler growth even at maturity).
However, the second year male offspring from these two groups--after all parent deer had experienced a full year of exceptional feed quality--displayed no difference at maturity. The male offspring from the Black Hills--after their mothers had been fed well for a year--were able to grow equal antlers at maturity to the agricultural region male offspring.
This is just one study, but it strongly suggests that a mother doe's over-all health can have a profound impact on her male offspring's antler growth potential FOR HIS ENTIRE LIFE.
