Feeding over the winter months

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SilverKype
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/18 13:08:33 (permalink)
I'd say the reason corn is the hot topic is because it's what everyone feeds them.  If everyone fed acorns, it'd be the same hot topic; don't feed deer acorns.  There is a difference between deer going to corn and them being fed by a person's feeder.  There is also a difference between deer eating acorns and people feeding them acorns.

The question still remains as asked by the author:  Is feeding deer good or bad? 
 
There's nothing good about it, except your viewing.  Lots bad, whether it's corn, acorns, etc. 
btw.. no I did not know that about akerns.
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S-10
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/18 15:56:22 (permalink)
I just finished a 2002 white paper on the issues surrounding deer feeding/baiting  in Michigan and Wisconsin. It must be said that their DNR biologists are quoted as being against feeding just like ours and cite all the same concerns in the articles Silverkype posted. Sick and dying deer, etc,etc. What made the article interesting, and I don't know why they inserted it other than just being brutally honest with the issue, even thought it counterdicted what they had just said, was the following-----Feeding deer not only increases the winter survival rates, it also increases the productivity of does. This results in higher fawning rates and can lead to problems of artifically high deer densities. Wisconsin DNR biologists have indicated that feeding and baiting have significantly negated the effects of harsh winters on deer in the Northern forest region.----So in one paragraph we are concerned about deer dying and in the next paragraph we are concerned that not enough deer will die. Sounds about like our PGC except they won't admit it.
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Dream Catcher
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/18 16:02:26 (permalink)
Cutdown them **** no good oaks I need em to keep warm until the gulable warming kicks in. Hopefully soon ... I gotta go burn some tires & spray some aerosol later . Does anyone have proof of this great deer kill from feeding ???????????? I do agree that a patch of winter wheat , alfalfa is better than deer candy.
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SilverKype
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/18 22:13:52 (permalink)
No one said anything about a big deer kill DC.  Mix in a diease, then may be so.  Whether a deer gets killed by feeding, car, whatever, it's still a shame. 
 
S-10, I don't know, probably more to the story than what you posted.  No saying they didn't contradict themselves...
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DanesDad
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 00:21:29 (permalink)
I'll tell you this, last years dry conditions killed more deer (thru contact with the bug that transmits EHD) than any of us will ever kill with our feeding.
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DanesDad
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 00:24:11 (permalink)
S-10, if what those guys in Michigan say about feeding increasing the productivity of does is true, and given your beliefs regarding the way the PGC is managing our herd, I'd think you'd be putting corn out by the ton!
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 08:12:42 (permalink)
Not by the ton but I do put out enough corn and cut enough browse in the areas I hunt to keep both deer and turkey in feed. The worse the winter the more I do. This winter has been easy enough so far the turkeys haven't bothered the feed and I only have a few deer working it. The bear were even out before this last cold snap.
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SilverKype
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 09:11:31 (permalink)
ORIGINAL: DanesDad

I'll tell you this, last years dry conditions killed more deer (thru contact with the bug that transmits EHD) than any of us will ever kill with our feeding.

 
 
hmmmm..   maybe.  You or I don't know.
 
One thing we BOTH can agree on is that the dry season was something we could not control while feeding is.
 
#38
duncsdad
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 18:41:32 (permalink)
I can't rightly say what corn does or does not do for deer, but I know that I don't digest it well.

Duncsdad

Everything I say can be fully substantiated by my own opinion
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DanesDad
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 22:19:37 (permalink)
ORIGINAL: duncsdad

I can't rightly say what corn does or does not do for deer, but I know that I don't digest it well.

 
I have some experience with the fascinating world of septic tank repair that bears this out for me too!
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DanesDad
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 22:22:55 (permalink)
ORIGINAL: SilverKype

ORIGINAL: DanesDad

I'll tell you this, last years dry conditions killed more deer (thru contact with the bug that transmits EHD) than any of us will ever kill with our feeding.



hmmmm..   maybe.  You or I don't know.

One thing we BOTH can agree on is that the dry season was something we could not control while feeding is.


 
Well, I dont know for sure but going by body counts on the farms I hunt in Greene county vs. the body counts around where I feed, I feel safe to say that I'd bet a paycheck on it.  Indeed, we cannot control the weather, but I'm not convinced that feeding (at least on the limited basis I do it) is that bad.
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SilverKype
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/22 23:21:03 (permalink)
That bad isn't the point at all.  It's proven to do more harm than good. 
#42
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/23 07:20:23 (permalink)
If you consider increasing winter survival rates, increasing the productivity of does resulting in higher fawning rates as bad then I guess you are right. I happen to consider that a good thing in all but the very few areas of the state that really do have too many deer.
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SilverKype
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/23 08:45:10 (permalink)
I find this to be impossible to increase survival rates considering all the other data going completely against it.  I think one study said this.  We both know fawns are the least likely to survive.  Every step they take burns energy.  Our winters haven't been a problem for a decade, making this meaningless.  Last big storm I can think of was in March of 1993 and 1995.   They melted away relatively quickly.  The deer I hunt live in thick stuff in the winter.  Like, sight maximum of 25 yards or so.  Meaning, two things.  Less predator success (open woods has got to be a killer here) and more browse (open woods probably bad here too).   Pull them from their bedding with feeding, not only could predator pressure increase but far more energy would certainly be used.  

Let's take my buddy for example that used to feed 300-400 pounds af corn a year, stopped as of this year.  No reason for deer to be there in the winter, he has 17 acres of relatively open woods.  Let's assume corn DOES increase survival rates AND does increase the productivity of doe resulting in higher fawning rates.  Next year, you got more deer at the feeder.  Probably more predators in the end, what if deer spend their daylight in a sancturary across some road, there may be an increase in vehicle accidents.  A decrease in browse, causing less deer in the area or undernourished deer.  In the end, the results end up the same, or could be worse.
If you do enough reading on feeding deer ,you'll come across deer with growth defects as well.  Although this may or may not only occur in extreme feeding cases, I don't think the deer deserve that.



Saying feeding does increase survival rates and produce more fawns (assuming this to be true), is only looking at the immediate results of it and not looking at the consequences of those results. 
#44
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/23 09:14:08 (permalink)
DEER FEEDING FROM A DEERS PERSPECTIVE-----I'am cold, the snows deep, I can't find enough to eat to keep me alive. Wait, what's that--- it looks like my buddies have found where someone put out some corn. I'am saved, i'am saved, food at last.  But wait, If I go down where my buddies are it's possible one of them might be sick. It is possible i could catch what they have and get sick too, maybe even die. But if I stay up here I know I will die. What to do, what to do.
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SilverKype
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/23 09:32:00 (permalink)
Alt told me they like jumping out in front of cars too.
 
#46
SilverKype
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/23 15:30:08 (permalink)
What he didn't tell me was that HE pushes them in front of cars.  What a meanie.
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DanesDad
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RE: Feeding over the winter months 2008/01/23 16:08:34 (permalink)
You seem to be referring to large blocks of woods with a ton of mature stands.  That's not where I live at all.  Here, it's small woodlots with some fields and mostly houses in between.
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