Deer on the farm.

[cowboy]

Not really seeing any big bucks on the farm yet. But I feel the year round feed plots are working. The deer look to be carrying a lot more weight than they have in years past. And healthier deer should become bigger deer.

My cousin Gary and I went to the farm last week. Didn't do much just checking on things and snowmobiling after we got his sleds back from the shop.

Went on a 1.6 mile or more walk to pick up my deer cams. Ya ever use a snowball for toilet paper? Its a chilling experience let me tell you! Made it back to just about 300 yards of the gate and just had to go. All pine trees around no birch bark or anything. Its hard to peel off all those cloths enough to go and stand leaning back with a hand against a tree. The first two snowballs weren't real bad but three and four were. But I think it did better than toilet paper. But its really taking conservation of natural resources too far!



A yearling spike by the trailer.



A bigger spike



A nice four point at my Dad's old hunting spot.



Cought someone out shining.



And another nice spike.



My brother Tommy got his first buck last year at Dad's spot. Now I need to get caught up and get my first buck.



I didn't get time to build a hunting cabin last year. So I just through a floor in a log shack I built 30+ years ago when I was in high school. And found it was too high. If I had seen a buck I would have had to shoot way down and through the top of their backs. But it was nice to sit out relax and watch the does.





And I ate way too much out there cooking on the 1940's military tent stove.



Billy

[ricky racer]

Thanks for posting.

However, I'll never look at snowballs the same way again!!

[Super A]

Everybody to their own kick, but around here we would be happy to see no big bucks, or little bucks, and especially no does and I certainly wouldn't be feeding the ones that were there on purpose. I hope to live long enough to see the white tail deer extinct, or at least severely endangered, in eastern NC.

[Stanton]

Lots of great information! A little TMI (too much info) on some things...

[dgrapes59]

Billy,

Lot's of deer and other activity, you usually do a good job with "play by play" pictures of your adventures... thanks for leaving the snowball pictures out!

[Eugene]

I hope to live long enough to see the white tail deer extinct, or at least severely endangered, in eastern NC.

OK. Please define/explain your position on white tail deer.

I have a different opinion, and have not hunted in many years. Deer do damage, but deer hunting provides a large economic impact to the State and local businesses.

23 Jan 13. Unterrified Democrat, Conservation Corner.

Missouri deer hunters harvested a total of 31,304 over the entire season.

Osage (local) County harvested a total of 4,881 deer.

Share the Harvest by hunters in Osage County donated 7320 pounds of lean high protein food for the needy.

[Don McCombs]

I thought those UP bucks were supposed to be big-racked monsters.

[Super A]

I hope to live long enough to see the white tail deer extinct, or at least severely endangered, in eastern NC.

OK. Please define/explain your position on white tail deer.

I have a different opinion, and have not hunted in many years. Deer do damage, but deer hunting provides a large economic impact to the State and local businesses.

23 Jan 13. Unterrified Democrat, Conservation Corner.

Missouri deer hunters harvested a total of 31,304 over the entire season.

Osage (local) County harvested a total of 4,881 deer.

Share the Harvest by hunters in Osage County donated 7320 pounds of lean high protein food for the needy.

I will admit, I have a hatred of deer that burns with the intensity of a thousand suns! For a majority of the 1980's and early '90s it was difficult to grow a soybean on our farm and farms in surrounding areas due to the deer population explosion. The deer would start eating at the back of the field as soon as the beans emerged and mow them right down the row. We had fields that literally looked like hog pens. Part of the problem at least on our farm was my dad tried to cooperate with the local hunting club, and they only wanted to shoot "bullwinkles." If you called the wildlife commission to come out and issue a permit so you could shoot them out of season they might show up but usually you would get a phone call from Raleigh the day of the appointment saying the wildlife officer was "unavailable." Needless to say they showed no interest in re-scheduling. We tried everything we heard of to repel them---"scent" repellants like panty hose filled with human hair or bars of Ivory soap, raw egg mixed with water and sprayed around the field, we even tried scattering mothballs. We took pie plates and tied them to stakes or tree limbs that would flash in the sun and make noise, we even built scare crows! In the '90s we learned to drill beans, using about twice the normal seed population, and were able to begin to raise decent soybean crops again. It only cost us twice as much in Roundup Ready seed costs. That, coupled with opening the farm to individuals that wanted to actually kill deer for the freezer eased the problem somewhat. We also have had a lot of problems with erosion of farm ditches and canals. Everyone things about how well deer can jump, but they prefer to just waddle down one side of a ditch and drag back up the other side. After a few heavy rains, a wash-out forms.

It is not difficult to drive around at night and if you go to the right spot, see 25+ deer. I have heard of some people counting 100 or more. This is in areas with lots of hunters too.

I have owned 3 vehicles in my life, and every last one of them has sustained deer damage due to collisions. The last wreck we had, involving our new Ford Escape and a doe nearly big enough to saddle up and ride, did nearly $5000 worth. Multiply that by all the other drivers state-wide, and then wonder why car insurance premiums go up. I have heard my dad say many times that he didn't mind feeding the deer, if the state would show up each fall to compensate him for the damages. I agree 100%. I don't know about him but I haven't seen a nickle of that large economic impact from deer hunting. It all stays in the hunting/outdoors/wildlife management sector of the economy. Seems to me at least in our state that the wildlife officials cater exclusively to the sportsmen, at the expense of the landowner and private citizen. I want to emphasize that every state may not be this way, but it has been our experience here.

I don't have a thing against hunters or hunting--besides a tradition, sport, hobby, and way to provide food, it's an important wildlife management tool. But in eastern NC there are simply too many deer.

The only good deer is one whose metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians!

Al

[Don McCombs]

I hear ya, Al. Things are similar around here.

[grumpy]

Well...All I can say is,,,I'll never eat another snowball.

[Yogie]

Well...All I can say is,,,I'll never eat another snowball.

Cowboy, you got to do like those big ole bears, they use rabbits.

[Barnyard]

Well...All I can say is,,,I'll never eat another snowball.

And I thought it was just the yellow snow you had to avoid!

[Eugene]

I will admit, I have a hatred of deer that burns with the intensity of a thousand suns! For a majority of the 1980's and early '90s it was difficult to grow a soybean on our farm and farms in surrounding areas due to the deer population explosion.

Understand your position. The deer population has and is exploding in and around urban areas and a significant problem.

When living in Iowa, farmers with crop land adjacent to state parks had major deer caused crop losses. Deer would come out of the State parks (no hunting or shooting allowed) at night and forage. An Iowa Conservation Officer said that he conducted an aerial deer count in late winter. There were to many deer in a State park to count.

[Roy47]

Yogie I thought those big ole bears used Charmin. Maybe I'm going to have to stop believing everything on TV.
Al, I can feel a little bit of your pain. I have a tall electric fence around my garden and I still get visits from the local deer population. I went down to the garden one day last summer and a mother deer had knocked down one strand of my fence and hid two young fawns in my squash row. Liked to stress tested my heart rhythm when they jumped up and ran.
Roy

[cowboy]

Ricky. Not much been going on here lately just been feeding the stove wood. And I've been without a computer for the last month or more as the hard drive smoked on it.

Al I see both sides as I am starting to farm. But I still love watching and eating them

Stanton I guess I'm just not afraid to let people laugh at me.

David once was enough and I didn't need any pictures either.

Don the DNR planted a wolf pack on our property 10-12 years ago. And the wolf population in the whole UP is out of control. They were supposed to let them be shot when there were 580 wolves UP there. But some eco lawyers sued and banned shooting the excess. Two years ago the DNR figured there were 1600+ and I think that was way low. And the wolves take more fawns and bucks than does. The bucks stop eating during the rut and are too weak to get away from them. I'd be happy to swap Al some wolves for bucks!

Grumpy don't you go where the husky's go don't you eat that yellow or brown snow

Yogie I wasn't fast enough to catch one.

Bill ya gotta be careful when you're in the UP.

Eugene I don't know what the DNR is doing UP north either. The doe to buck ratio is way out of balance and they are only releasing 5 doe permits for the whole UP and none in our area.

Billy