DMAP opinions

[mlj300]

I read i study done by the king ranch a few years ago. They determined that proper buck:doe ratio being 1:1, 2:1 respectively should be achieved first. Once ratio is achieved it is necessary to provide proper nutrition through all stages of antler growth, which basically equals high quality forage and supplements year round. Only after the first two steps are achieved should any buck be considered a "cull buck". These are the steps they determined necessary to get maximum antler growth.

There are a lot of people who will shoot the 3 year old spike,4,5,6 ect. point out of the group of 8 does that walk out into a field under the "cull buck" rule.

There is another group of people who only like to plant fall food plots to hunt over and complain when mature bucks don't walk out into the open presenting a easy shot.

Then there is quantity verses quality question, you have to ask yourself would you rather see lesser quality deer every time you go hunting or mature trophy bucks once or twice a year.

I believe that dmap biologist throw these large numbers out there because no matter what they recommend most properties will never achieve proper buck to doe ratio. In mississippi this is not necessarily the club or property owners fault, all neighbors need to be on the same program to achieve success.

[Deltaquack]

[kb7722]

How is the biologist accessing your particular area? Wouldn't some study have to be performed to estimate the herd numbers before determining how many does need to be killed to achieve X deer per acre and that would be based on the availability of food in the area? I think that this would require the biologist to visit the property or at least a select few club members collecting accurate data for the biologist. Without the data on the property, I don't see how a real plan could be developed.

[JaMak84]

[SNEAKER]

You can tell if your population is going up or down by the % of does 3.5 and older. And you can start to see overpopulation when your weights begin to drop. Or it could just be a major change in your habitat where you have the same number of deer, but for some reason your carrying capacity has dropped. It will be seen in the 1.5 yr old does first. If you've already seen a weight drop then your racks are already getting smaller. Period. You'll have to get it back in check, then wait for the healthier fawn bucks to reach maturity to get back to normal.

Odds are the biologist already has a good feel what's happening at your place just because he works several places close by. I would recommend DMAP to any large club.

For the DMAP non believers out there..... How do y'all manage and gauge the herd?

[no fly zone]

I wouldn't say I'm a total non believer. I just think DMAP is one sided. If you simply look at the simplistic nature of a whitetail deer, you control and manage by the habitat that exists or what you can manipulate.

Throw all the science, lactation rates , horn porn etc and break it down to simplest form. A deer is cow scared $#!+ of everything. If "Bevo" the longhorn was some elusive creature that we all measured success by how long his horns are, we d all be standing around the feed lots waiting for one to slip up so we could let the air out of em.

Food.. Food... Food... Food.

A whitetail eats 3000lbs a year of mixed diet. A well managed habitat is estimated to produce 1000 lbs to the acre. With the highest density population of deer in the country being in ms, herds can exist that have 3 deer to the acre with most places it being around 5 deer to the acre. A deer eats 99.9% of the time and eats, $#!+, sleeps, and humps the other 1%.

I didn't sleep at a holiday inn last night but those simple numbers tell me that we re hunting a deer likely its entire life while they re trying to eat, whether there head is down or they're coming to or from eating. And with one deer needing roughly 3 acres of a balanced diet to survive, with an average of 1 deer to 5 wooded acres, I either have to eliminate 1 or manipulate my habitat upwards of 25% to feed Two. DMAP says to essentially eliminate 1 as it calls to knock down does. What about the guy who has 50 acres of good habitat? what about the 3 guys with 1000 acres, 40 guys with 14,000 acres.?. DMAP not going to be very effective, and where there is enough hunters to meet quotas legally, the deer gonna feel the pressure and go nocturnal to eat.

Feed them, when you think it's too much, give them more. A cattle farmer will put as many cows to the acre that he can feed. Only difference is he can control his herd with a barb wire fence and a gap. feed your herd to the point where the habitat supports the herd, then introduce heavy culling to get what you want.

just my opinion , at the end of the day, you can invite 10 buddies over and likely a few will leave early but when the beer runs out and the chips are gone, your wife s friend better be drunk and wanting to show her titties or EVERYBODY is still leaving.

[bigoak]

What percentage of huntable acreage does DMAP manage in Mississippi? I'm guessing it is less than 1%. There are several entire counties with zero clubs on DMAP. So how can a half dozen or so biologists know with any certainty what is going on with our deer herd when they only have data on maybe 1% of the deer herd?

I went to a meeting about 4 years ago where Chad Dacus was discussing this very issue. Said they needed something besides DMAP to help make decisions about seasons and bag limits. Said DMAP was not accurate enough. All he talked about was how we badly needed a deer tagging system. Said they had all the details pretty much worked out and was just waiting for it to be passed by the legislature. He explained exactly how it would work. We would have to tag the deer and call it in within so many hours of the kill. Have not heard anything else about it since. Something or someone obviously killed this idea.

[stang67]

[no fly zone]

Hahaha

My bad, somewhere in there is a valid point or two.. These bowl games last way to damn long these days.. I must have been over served considering I found myself starting to care whether mizzou could pull out a win or not.. I could care less in normal state..

Carry on... Topic was DMAP

Discuss............

[stang67]

You da man!