In the South, the greatest stress most often occurs in the late Geographically, the degree of stress can vary from season to season and year to
Summer-early fall and another in late winter. There are two stress periods for deer, one in late The goal is to put deer into a position of need. Just getting along is not what we are after in a quality deer management program. One of the largest antlered bucks I remember from my early days was one that had been kept in a Wisconsin chicken coop and fed light bread and lettuce! So, what is the big deal about supplementing their diet? There is a huge difference between surviving and thriving. When there is little or no water, they can survive without a drop for several weeks taking advantage of metaboblic water and scant moisture from drought hardy plants.Ĭlick here to read our article on what to plant for White-Tailed Deer in East Texas! When protein is not available, they can recycle urea to provide their needs. I can safely say that the white-tailed deer can get along under some pretty harsh conditions, ranging from prolonged droughts in deep South Texas to even longer winters with temperatures reaching minus thirty. Photo Taken By: Dan Verips What do deer need? So, I decided to write an article that presents what we have learned that really works and what does not. About every 7-10 years a plant already rejected as a suitable food plot variety is “rediscovered” by some ambitious young deer manager and off we go again! You can imagine my frustration. What is amusing is the cyclic nature to plant popularity. We often are asked about the latest “magic bean,” and each time we respond that we looked at that plant long ago and found it lacking significantly. In the course of our work, there is not a single plant species or variety we have not tested. Oddly enough, after four decades of meticulous testing, we never have been able to prove them wrong. The vast majority of the time, the answer was simple: cereal grains and legumes. After all, dairymen depend heavily on cultivated forages to support large numbers of animals on relatively small areas. Our original approach was to ask the one person who probably knew more about improved forages for ruminants than anyone at that time-the dairyman. Sometimes progress is measured in very small steps! So, what did we learn during the last four decades? I remember the first time I talked someone into planting clover with their oats, I went home and had an adult beverage to celebrate. Here in eastern Texas, we jokingly referred to the approach as 50-50 food plot management-folks would plant 50 lbs of oats and spread 50 lbs 12-12-12 fertilizer per acre and think they are really done something good for deer! When we started, plantings for deer were not called food plots, rather most landowners and hunters called them “oat patches.” That was pretty accurate since it was common practice to plant oats to attract deer to the gun. The Beginning of Food Plots for White-tailed Deer Well, we now are into our third, 20-year plan and time has passed too quickly! Along the way, we managed to make significant discoveries and developments that changed the whitetail world among which included the first food plot research and testing program. We asked them a basic question: What do you need to know about whitetail management and hunting? The consensus involved two basic areas: 1) What can we do to grow more and bigger bucks? and, 2) How do we increase our chances of harvesting mature bucks after we have produced them? So, we put together our first 20 year research plan to meet these needs. Our goal was not to be like the average college professors of that time, working on projects that were not all that relevant! The best way to start was to assemble what today would be called a “focus group,” made up of individuals representing variety of user groups.
Magic bean cyclic farm professional#
We wanted to develop a research program that would address the real world problems faced by landowners, professional wildlife managers and hunters. Austin State University and, at that time there was very little research being conducted on our most popular game animal. In 1975, we founded the Institute for White-tailed Management & Research here at Stephen F.
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