The harvesting of does is extremely important. Why seems to be the question? Well you need to keep the balance of bucks to does stabile if your only shooting bucks there are going to be more does then bucks. What does this mean. This means that there will be more does that a buck has to mate with. Why is this bad? The easier it is for a buck to find a doe that harder it will be for you to encounter him during the rut. Also many does will go un bred during there first and second estrogen cycles and it might not be till there third cycle that they actually breed. This is bad because then there fawns will be born later in the year and have a harder time preparing for its first winter then other fawns that were born earlier. From a scientific stand point it has ben proven that buck fawns that were born later then other fawns encounter a rough winter and this effect antler growth. I cant stress enough how important it is to harvest does. If your a buck hunter only maybe this will change how you do things. If you only shoot bucks there is going to be more does then bucks and when these big bucks usually break there nocturnal patterns and come out during daylight to find does may not occur anymore because it will be so easy for them to find a doe they don't have to do much fighting or searching. This changes up there normal activity for the rut of expanding the area the cover. Some people ask well wont this decrease the numbers of deer on my property? The answer is no. Most properties can only hold so many deer because of the amount of food that is there. The only things you can do to help stimulate numbers is to plant more food for them so the area is capable of holding more deer. And with this you still need a equal ratio of bucks to does so all the does can be bred. If a female doe goes a season without being bred it increase her chances of no longer being able to reproduce because her body will fluctuate in hormones so much. If this starts happening to your deer then the number will certainly go down. And this is what you need to avoid. If you watch any of the seasons on this site you will see how important doe management is and you will also see numerous amounts of avid hunters who shoot quality bucks shooting does.
I appreciate your enthusiasm but You should do a lot more reading on deer and deer management. 1) Never heard of a 3rd estrus cycle. That would put some fawns born on 8/1 vs. 6/1. This would retard antler growth in their future as they would be dead from winterkill. 2)Never heard of a doe going unbred then losing the ability to concieve the next year due to a hormone imbalance. Please site your scientific research paper stating this. 3) The carrying capacity of a land area should dictate whether any doe should be harvested or not. Some DMU's in Wisconsin have no antlerless tags issued, some have a few and some have unlimited tags. Units near the U.P have a dpsm of 9 while some have dpsm of 80.
I shoot does so myself and others don't kill them with the cars. I counted 7 splatters on a 20 mile stretch of road yesterday. That and its cheap meat (kind of) for the family!
Cheap is relative. 45 deer last year@60lbs. boneless meat/deer=2,700 lbs. of venison. The property tax alone= $5.55 per lb.
Doe Management Equals Deer Management By Kevin Holsonback, Wildlife Biologist, Black Warrior WMA There is your proof. For does going un bred its a process of minimal estrogen releasing when un bred does will continue to produce estrogen for reproduction all the way into march. And if no breeding occurs the body stops producing estrogen and going through her cycles until the next year and this can throw off her cycle to come at a later time then when the rut occurs I am not saying with experience but from scientific data that was collected during these studies. As said in the research it is possible that the deer started reaching her estrogen levels later because of bad genetics and this could be the reason she hasn't ben able to reproduce and the past 3 years or it could be that she went into menopause early then most female deer. Evaluation of Reproductive Behavior in White-tailed Deer through Genetic Parentage Analysis by Stephanie Kimie IrvinApproved by Stephen S. Ditchkoff, Chair, Professor of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Mark D. Smith, Assistant Professor of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Todd D. Steury, Assistant Professor of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences
The article was written for Alabama. Those metrics don't fly in the great white north. "late summer, early fall born fawn?" Deer gestation is 210 days or 7 months. That fawn would have been conceived in Feb.? good stuff.
This isn't just an article for the northern areas. Whitetails aren't only found in the North sorry to tell you. Just because this article doesn't apply to you doesn't mean it doesn't apply to someone else. If I was going to generalize it to only the northern states I would have posted it in the north east category. As a traveling hunter I get the opportunity to hunt a lot of southern states and I can insure you that they do have whitetails down there and there are a lot of them! This article wasn't written for you obviously it doesn't apply. But there are many hunters who can relate to this as southern hunters. Thanks. Regardless doe management is still important it might night be for certain areas in the country but for several it is. I have hunted more than 4 states some have more of a problem of doe management then others. Not every article out there is going to mold to the area that you hunt but it does to others.
Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it isn't fact. We don't all live and hunt in Wisconsin
Everything he's posted has been written by another author. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk www.skyangler.com
I have seen late summer/early fall born fawns in Wisconsin. It seems to happen in areas with a very high deer population with an over abundance of does. My theory is that during mild winters some of the later born doe fawns come into estrus later in the year. They probably weren't mature enough during the first or even 2nd cycle/rut but were able to conceive in Feb. This also means that a lot of the top breeding bucks were not the sires of these fawns due to their shedding of antlers and doing sterile after the normal cycles/ruts. Some of the younger/lesser bucks were then able to breed. I have also noticed a decline in buck antler size in these areas after a few years.
So an early fall born fawn say 9/21(first day of fall) was too young to breed on 11/5(6 weeks old) or 12/5(10 weeks old) yet could breed on 2/5 at 18 weeks old? And only young bucks would breed these fawns? Amazing! Decline in buck antler size? Are you now inferring that a young buck can only breed inferior antlers? I would enjoy hearing a state DNR biologists explain this anomaly. I have hunted the same ridge in 62b, the highest DPSM in the country for 37 years. I have seen 1 spotted fawn in November and the yotes got her in January. The few fawns born in July are winterkill or yote/wolf/eagle hot lunches. We take 40 antlerless and 6 mature bucks per year. We have 30 over 150 and they keep getting bigger with a 191,194,226 taken within 3 miles of us the last 4 years. Sorry, not drinking that koolaid.
Sorry for cramming too much info into one paragraph. A) The early fall born fawn I was talking about was about 2-3 weeks old on 9/21 when I saw it. It probably was too young to breed during it's first year. I was referring to its mother as being the late born fawn that eventually conceived late and then birthed the fawn I saw..... late. Real late. B) When I stated that younger bucks would most likely do the breeding of these late comers to the rut cycle (Feb/March), it was because by that time most mature breeding bucks have shed their antlers and have become sterile. Leaving the younger bucks to clean up. I thought you would know that. C) There are small pockets WITHIN some management units that have exceptionally high numbers of deer. Think of areas surrounding larger metro areas where there is very limited amounts of hunting pressure. The over population alone could lead to antler reduction. Also, when there are way too many does, almost all bucks get to breed... again, leading to a decline in antlers size (herd health). Thought you might have known this also. D)I have hunted Wisconsin, including 62b, and Illinois for 46 years. You have to know that some areas within certain management units have a lot more DPSM than your area in 62b. Last, I don't care if you drink koolaid, water or piss, these are just my observations.