It rained a tad more than one inch at The Proving Grounds last week.  It had been very, very dry locally.  I’m always amazed at how rapidly quality forage can respond to a much needed addition of water.  The Eagle Seed beans have been surviving very well considering the temperatures were higher than normal and the amount of rain was behind normal for the month of June.

June is a critical month for antler and fawn development.  Both would have suffered growth if the overall habitat wasn’t as diverse at The Proving Grounds.  During periods of stress is when having a diverse habitat really pays dividends.  Some of our ponds went dry during the drought.  However, the creek always had ample pools of water.  Some of the native vegetation in our cover area is extremely drought resistant.  We have food plots in bottoms and east facing slopes so the summer sun doesn’t cause as much evaporation of soil moisture.  The western facing plots do best when there is too much water (which almost never happens on the rocky soils at The Proving Grounds).

If we had only one species of cover crop, or one location for forage crops, or one source of water the herd’s quality would have suffered during the previous month.  I’m thankful for the rain and the diversity of the habitat that buffered the local herd from the stress of the drought during June 2010.  How’s the habitat diversity where you hunt?

Growing Deer together,

Grant