The title sounds nonsensical, doesn't it? You're probably questioning yourself at this very moment, puzzled by the idea I'm throwing at you. It's true though, we both could be killing some of the young deer on our property and these causes are a result of a common practice that has recently became a sore subject among hunters. The cause is baiting, and this steered towards those that are using outrageous amounts of it. This isn't a knock towards those that bait. I have done it in the past, and likely still would in one form or another if it wasn't for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) causing a ban to be imposed on baiting in my area. Later you'll see why this is aimed at myself, just as much as the rest of you.
The scoop: I've noticed a trend, and have received many questions and complaints that could help support this THEORY. I emphasize that, because there is no scientific evidence to back this up other than some cases that would support the theory even though they could just be coincidences. A few years ago, on a property I used to hunt a lot with some family and their friends, I noticed 4 or 5 different deer that hadn't made it through the winter. It seemed very odd to me since all of these deer were under a year old (two of which were button bucks). This seemed especially odd to me because they weren't the result of predation or a wound from a hunter. This area of the property had 3 different stand sites, all of which were baited heavily. We'll come back to this shortly. Last spring and once this year I have received similar reports of fairly large numbers of deer under a year old being found dead, with no explanation. I was stumped by these and chalked it up as a weird coincidence and a lack of quality nutrition in the areas. One day watching TV, I totally forget what exactly it was but, it talked about humans relying on how they are raised to function once they're on their own. This lit the bulb over my head and made me think about the instances previously mentioned and I thought to my self: "What if these deer are raised relying on these corn piles all fall and through the end of December, and then once the worst of Winter hits and they aren't with their moms, they just don't know what to eat so they starve?" In the few cases I've seen, all of the deer were under a year old and they were in areas that were baited hard up through the end of deer season and then they were cut off completely when hunters quit baiting when they have to stop hunting. Coincidence or not, they're eerily similar circumstances that we should be aware of as hunters and if you've seen similar things where you hunt then maybe you should consider some of the solutions I'm about to give. There are tons of solutions to this, but I'm going to give you a few of the obvious ones. The first one is to continue to bait up until some greenery begins to grow so the deer can find something. Next, if you don't want to bait that long, then slowly wean the deer off by putting out less and less bait every week until you aren't giving the deer any. A more difficult, but rewarding solution would be food plots. A quality food plot can give the deer plenty of forage through the winter and the right blend will give you healthier deer, bigger racks, and the deer won't be relying on an outside source to survive since you added a positive element to their ecosystem. Tell me what you think of this theory and if you've seen similar things in your area!!
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AuthorAaron Miller Archives
November 2019
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