I've read differing things on this topic and want to know what you guys think. I have a small 40acre farm that I hunt in central MN - This summer was the first time running cams on this farm and I got pictures of 8-10 different bucks. There are roughly 4-5 bucks that are 8+pts, one 160" 5.5yr old, and a lot of smaller bucks. Almost EVERY buck that I have got on cam has split brow tines - The 160" is a mainframe 10 with both brows split. My question - Do you think that the 160" buck is breeding the does and passing the split brow genetics on to the others, or could it be a nanny doe thats helping with this? I am very excited to see what this next year brings as there were 2-3 8/9pts with split brows that were borderline shooters this year. Thoughts?
Genetics are passed 50/50. But antler growth, and the way they grow is one of the most highly passed traits. They could get the trait from either or both Here's a snippet. Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas A & M studies demonstrated that antler development in deer is a highly heritable trait. Antler traits are passed from one generation to the next. The mass or heaviness of the antler had the highest heritability. Main beam length and number of antler points are also highly heritable
That makes sense. The 160" deer has a crab claw antler and a few of the 8s have the same thing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Comes from both sides. All genetics are 50/50. Sounds like you have a good spot. My parents farm is 70 acres and I have a couple younger 8 or 6's, but nothing big. Lots of neighbors shoot anything that moves. I would guess that big buck is getting the majority of the available does, with the other biggest bucks picking up any he missed.
Its fun to think that big guy has fathered the younger bucks with split brows but this probably isn't the case. Bucks disperse, as proved in recent threads that distance can be great. Most of the buck fawns born in your area are going to mature miles away. On the property I have I see a huge diversity of antler characteristics. Sometimes I'll have a few bucks with similar traits, then not see that characteristic for a few years. Genetics are hard to understand in a wild population, all you can hope for is giving the herd nutrition and age and seeing what happens. I find a lot of characteristics don't show until 3+ years of age.
