Deer Body Weights
Filed under: Ask Grant, Food Plots, Habitat Management
Grant, Is a yearling buck in Saskatchewan, Canada as big as a big buck in western New York? I know a huge deer around here weighs 200 pounds tops. Does a yearling buck in Saskatchewan, Canada weigh about 200 pound in its first year of life? Cliff
Cliff,
Body weights of deer are a function of the deer’s age and the quality and quantity of forage available, as well as the stage of the rut or pregnancy.
This varies more by resources available within a deer’s home range than comparing geographic region to geographic region. For example, deer living at The Proving Grounds tend to weigh MUCH more than deer in other portions of the county (literally only a few miles away) because of the quality food plots at my place compared to the normal hardwood/fescue pasture habitat commonly found throughout most of the county.
200 pounds would be a very large free-ranging yearling buck in most areas of the whitetails’ range! Deer from Saskatchewan and New York should weigh about the same if they are the same sex, age, and have access to the same quality forage.
Growing Deer together,
Grant
