Starting a Deer Management Plan
Filed under: Ask Grant, Food Plots
First of all I just want to say thanks for all you do for deer management. I watch all your videos and really enjoy the info.
I have several thousand acres right in the heart of the northern Arkansas rocky Ozark Mountains. I am attempting to manage it with a large JD tractor, plow, disc and brush hog. I am trying to get started off on the right foot with crops. We have 9 food plots that have all been planted with an orchard grass and ladino clover mix within the last 8 years. Other than that, just a few open pasture areas and the rest is hardwoods and some pine forest. Rocks and soil conditions are a big problem. I do have some motivated help now and am getting a little more time on my hands. I would love to be able to get started on some corn and soybean plots as well as wheat and clover patches. We have a year round spring that runs in the middle of the property with a few good bottoms. My question is… Where would you suggest I start and where would you go from here? I have a lot on my plate and need to get things going. Thanks so much for any help and again, keep up the good work!
Zeke
Zeke,
When I start a new management program my first mission is to define the long-term objectives of the landowner. There is not a right or wrong deer management strategy just different strategies to met different objectives. All management plans should be based around the three limiting factors of food, cover and water. I try to identify the site-specific limiting factors and address those issues first.
Orchard grass and other pasture grasses are not consumed by deer. It sounds as if food is a potential limiting factor for you. If so, the first step would be to remove the orchard grass and replant with something more nutritious and palatable to deer. Soil fertility is always a consideration in the Ozarks and I would strongly suggest collecting soil samples from the existing plots and having them analyzed so the appropriate nutrients can be added.
Any deer management plan is a balancing act between the landowners’ objective of deer-herd quality, the amount of deer on the property and the amount of quality forage available. A simple way to begin monitoring those relationships is to begin placing utilization cages in the existing plots. This will allow you to see if there is more food being produced than the deer can consume, or if the opposite is true and the deer are consuming all the quality food.
Growing Deer together,
Grant
