Predictions for deer season 26

[LBrandt]

I predict I will have 19 muzzloader preference points going into 2027.
Our whitetail numbers are abysmal in western ND. Wish they'd at least shut down doe season in our unit.

You and me both. LB

 

[KDM]

Oh I remember all those years. I also remember a few of those years, especially 96-97 when the only way anything survived was in farmer yards. Or in towns or anywhere else they could find something to eat. Because everything was buried in 4 ft of snow.

The question is what are you gonna do to help wildlife. I can say I have probably done more than most of you on here combined. While you guys plant your 2 acre food plot thinking you’re doing any good. Maybe that is why I have never seen a decline in deer around here.

But, it’s easier to blame the guy that’s out here the whole year seeing what happens. Everyone is an expert when they see the land 2 weeks a year

I hear the frustration your post, but it's not always adding habitat. The deer have to want to be there during the tough winter months. Around here the deer are scattered all summer and through the fall from the fields on top all the way to the river bottom. However, you can have the best 100 acres of pine grove, sloughs, and food plots in the county up on top and ALL the deer will move into the river bottom once the snow hits. It's what they do and have done for all time. My own 40 acres is included. I've put in trees and bushes and kept cattle out of it for 5 years now and the deer still vacate the place like cops when the doughnuts run out. Nothing I can do to help winter survival if they aren't on my land. What I can do is help ensure that there are good pockets of food down in the river bottom. Such as my backyard. There are many pics of my backyard full of deer. That said, not many folks can do what I do. Sometimes caring folks are just plain shrite outta luck when it comes to getting deer through the winter. It is what it is. Those same folks however, can call out the dismal management practices. That will always help.

 

[bucksnbears]

^^^.

I find you know damn well how it works.

Winter food is important but thermal cover Trump's it.

 

[Obi-Wan]

Pronghorns are migratory, wrong comparison.

Did the habit at change in the years the antelope season was shut down?
was it the loss of habitat or was it the severe winner that decimated the antelope herd?
has the habitat changed along the Missouri River corridor in recent years?
Was it the habitat change or EHD that decimated the whitetail herd along the Missouri River ?
why did the G&F still depredation tags south of Bismarck with the local herd at less than 10% of its average over the last 15. yrs.

 

[SDMF]

Oh I remember all those years. I also remember a few of those years, especially 96-97 when the only way anything survived was in farmer yards. Or in towns or anywhere else they could find something to eat. Because everything was buried in 4 ft of snow.

The question is what are you gonna do to help wildlife. I can say I have probably done more than most of you on here combined. While you guys plant your 2 acre food plot thinking you’re doing any good. Maybe that is why I have never seen a decline in deer around here.

But, it’s easier to blame the guy that’s out here the whole year seeing what happens. Everyone is an expert when they see the land 2 weeks a year

More deer survive those ugly winter w/habitat than treeless harvested bean fields.

I don’t put the blame on guys trying to make a living on razor-thin margins. It’s unfortunate how a farmer’s products/pricing-power can be so influenced by world politics. Vast markets shut off like a light switch. Couple that with a very tight labor market and the absolute need to get crops in/out efficiently and as fast as possible (to beat the weather mostly) once you start.

It galls me to see all the top-soil that’s in the ditches every spring as the snow melts but the need for speed seems like it must be worth turning everything black every fall.

All that said, I find the idea of farms getting positively enormous and/or being corporately owned far more concerning, especially if those corporate owners are based on foreign soil.

I doubt we’ll see MD ever again covered by an ocean of CRP. That said, we don’t NEED oceans of CRP. A few yards either side of a creek, drainage ditch, fence line, maybe a few tree-row planted @ intervals that don’t interfere w/the newer larger/wider equipment.

 

[Bacon]

I’m guessing you are in the eastern part of the state. You won’t see a black field over winter here. Those guys out there love their tillage. By all accounts it seems deer are making a bit of a come back. That is without crp and habitat cause apparently that’s all gone. My guess is that the nice couple winters have a lot to do with it.