Coming Upon Winter Kill

[Enslow]

The NDGF wont feed deer or subsidize the ranchers who lose their ass in the hay hard but they will spend millions radio collaring big horns and mountain lions.

 

[tman]

Yea it would be a shame if they helped out the deer herd so some actually survived and we are able to have a deer season this coming year. The feed and hay would be cheap compared to the hit they will take with not being able to have a deer season or else only being able to issue very few tags.

 

[yellowsign]

Rolled a few oats and alfalfa bales out to keep them off the corn for a bit.. tree rows full.. crp full... next tree rows
will be wide enough for the snow blower:crazythumb:

 

[1pingonly]

anyone hear of some deer being hit by a train in western ND? heard something about that but not confirmed.

 

[Bacon]

Now that we're having a "normal" winter again, we'll finally get a good assessment of what all that reduced habitat means for deer and upland game numbers. We've been living on borrowed time with three mild winters in a row. This was inevitable. Sucky...but inevitable.

What habitat would that be. CRP is level with snow. Nothing gonna make it in there. I hope you are not talking about those one or two row field windbreaks. They are worthless and full of snow and offer no protection from these last few storms. About the only thing that helps the wildlife when it is this bad of a winter is a very good farm shelter belt. Better reassess your assessment.

 

[Traxion]

anyone hear of some deer being hit by a train in western ND? heard something about that but not confirmed.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit. In 96/97, deer and antelope took a huge beating in NC SD along the tracks. They traveled them heavily because of easy travel and congregated around elevators. It was a gruesome sight at times. Sad......

 

[Kurtr]

We have been by McIntosh for 2 weeks digging trains out so far guys out there have seen a few herds of deer but snow has blown off some so it isn't to deep for them

 

[Mac]

I have to agree the lack of habitat is not going unoticed! I can recall growing up, seeing lots of large tree belts, fields of crp, and very large sloughs! We need to address the wildlife habitat shortage in this state! I understand why lots of tree belts were removed due to age and disease, can this be corrected, can we start to plant trees again? Can we get some crp back again? Or is this just a thing of the past?

 

[dean nelson]

Yea it would be a shame if they helped out the deer herd so some actually survived and we are able to have a deer season this coming year. The feed and hay would be cheap compared to the hit they will take with not being able to have a deer season or else only being able to issue very few tags.

They did just that for many many years. They had huge feeding stations that would draw deer in for many miles in bad winters. They had a crew that drove around in an old ski resort snow groomer looking contraption with a hopper and an auger coming up top. They would reload ten foot tall gravity boxes with corn and oats and place out new hay bales every week in places such as Dawson the bottom south of Bismarck and I think they did it at Lone Tree as well. Then in the early 2000's they suddenly stopped and immediately started harping about how baiting was bad and would cause disease spread even though they were doing on such a large scale that they would have a couple thousand deer in a few square mile area. Which was funny since the only deer that died from their baiting where the usual suspects the fawns and really old dear that don't do well with corn toxicity especially if they hit it hard after eating brows for an extended time. Now in Colorado their dnr would already be working with the national gaurd to start dropping bales via helicopters into remote yarding areas to do the dual purpose of keeping the animals alive as well as away from farmers hay crops.

 

[wslayer]

Some of those single rows would be looking pretty good about now. It would stop some of the snow from blowing across the landscape and filling every slough or creek bottom level.

 

[Traxion]

We have been by McIntosh for 2 weeks digging trains out so far guys out there have seen a few herds of deer but snow has blown off some so it isn't to deep for them

How bad is it out there? That is close to home for me. I am expecting the worst, deer were just coming back from EHD. Birds got pounded by the late July hail storm. I haven't been up since deer season though, probably too much snow to get to any lakes at this point.

 

[Kurtr]

Deep in some places but bare in others. They said they have been seeing lots of grouse and a few Chinese chickens. There are a few heards of 50 or so whitetail and smaller muleys they have seen everyday.

- - - Updated - - -

I will ask about pudwell how bad it is they have been out for the last 36 hours straight taking turns sleeping in the loader wind keeps blowing in the cut.

 

[deleted member]

im thinking fields of hemp

 

[gst]

Deep in some places but bare in others. They said they have been seeing lots of grouse and a few Chinese chickens. There are a few heards of 50 or so whitetail and smaller muleys they have seen everyday.

- - - Updated - - -

I will ask about pudwell how bad it is they have been out for the last 36 hours straight taking turns sleeping in the loader wind keeps blowing in the cut.

Saw pics of a couple engines stuck by Lemmon. Uff da

 

[Flatrock]

Now that we're having a "normal" winter again, we'll finally get a good assessment of what all that reduced habitat means for deer and upland game numbers. We've been living on borrowed time with three mild winters in a row. This was inevitable. Sucky...but inevitable.

I wouldn't quite call this a normal winter. Near record snowfall and temps routinely 20-30 degrees less than normal is not what I'd call normal. I agree though, the reduced habitat is going to make it even tougher on the wildlife.

 

[Kurtr]

Saw pics of a couple engines stuck by Lemmon. Uff da

ya that is about 10 miles from where they were stuck to the east of there it has been interesting every one thought they were done and here we go again. Guess positive is people getting hours in the winter they normally would not get.

 

[pluckem]

Now that we're having a "normal" winter again, we'll finally get a good assessment of what all that reduced habitat means for deer and upland game numbers. We've been living on borrowed time with three mild winters in a row. This was inevitable. Sucky...but inevitable.

Ill agree that the reduced habitat will factor into the winterkill.

However, this winter is far from "normal". We have been setting records for snowfall and snow depth and there was some rain/ice storm that rolled through right in the middle of it all. The central part of the state has a reported snow depth of 30-40". That is as tall as a deer stands. Now you throw in a week of temps that don't get above 0F and windchills average -15 to -40F.

We are only in the first week of January.

 

[KDM]

Just bought a 1500 lb round bale of 3rd cutting alfalfa to drop in the back yard. The couple dozen does and fawns I have coming in every night seem to go for the alfalfa before the corn. They all look pretty good so far and will stay that way if I can help it. Going to be a HUGE mess in the spring, but I'll get over it. Hopefully if I can give them some greens they will lay off the fruit trees I have planted, Lord willing!!! Seems to be quite a few folks up and down the Sheyenne that have the same idea. The guy I bought the bale from has already dumped about a few bales in folks's back yards up and down our little stretch of river bottom so hopefully, with a little help from above, we can come out of this with something to chase around come the fall. Fingers crossed!!!!

 

[dean nelson]

Couple pics from my buddy's place on the north side of town. Not sure if the second one rang the doorbell or not but they definitely seem interested in coming in to warm up!

 

[snow]

Man,sad deal forsure,its great to here some of you are pro active helping out the critters.:;:thumbsup