Outdoor Logic with BioLogic

Managing Small Parcels for Trophy Bucks

The Dilemma Next Door

Most people who own small parcels will use their available acreage to plant food plots to attract deer during hunting season. This may be the easiest tactic, but will probably also give you the most bang for your buck (pun intended). (Photo Credit: Charlie Alsheimer)

With a small property (< 80 acres), can you influence whitetail management or make hunting better? I have received many communications from beginner whitetail managers who have small properties – some maybe 20 acres or less. Is it worth it to manage these small tracts? Can you have an influence over buck size, herd dynamics and hunting opportunities? Absolutely! In this article, learn why and how.

With a much larger parcel, it is easier to control many aspects of your management efforts and better influence others, especially the “harvest” portion of the management equation. Even if you aren’t practicing other Quality Deer Management principles, “selective harvest” will have a huge influence. Killing the right deer and removing the correct amount of animals are both essential for numerous reasons.

Since whitetails jump fences and we have no control over our fellow citizens, if you aren’t working together with your neighbors, you can imagine “herd management” could compound into what seems a wearisome, unachievable task. However, you should always strive to attain a balance in the local herd.

The premise of most herd management scenarios is simple – let small bucks live to maturity (5 years old) and harvest an acceptable number of female deer to keep the density at healthy, stress-free levels. However, if your neighbors are killing the small bucks and they aren’t helping with the doe harvest, it can become very frustrating.

I often hear the jealous justification of, “I shot the buck because he was going to jump the fence. If he hops the fence, my neighbor is just going to shoot him anyhow.” I promise you if you have that rationalization, of “having to kill a buck before your neighbor does,” you will NEVER make hunting any better for ANYONE, including yourself. You must set your goals, stick to them and not worry about what your neighbors do.

Create a plan and lead by experience! This is how big buck hot spots come to be; look at what the Drurys or Dr. Grant Woods have done in Missouri, or what the Lakoskys and Kiskys have done in Iowa. I know they own farms larger than we’re talking about, but even with a small parcel, if you stick to this aspiration you will in all likelihood see noticeable results in only a year or two!

In most cases if your neighbor is a hunter, unless they are incredibly stupid, by watching you they will catch on to the fact that a sound management philosophy pays huge dividends. Talk to your neighbors, and again, lead by example!

By employing sound management philosophies, you can have a titanic influence over your whitetail herd and your hunting. Whitetails are “homebodies.” What you do “here” has an influence over every animal whose home range encompasses “here.”

Once an adult whitetail chooses the spot where they will reside (after their first year spent with their mother), hardly ever will they roam too far from that spot.

Males will typically take up a home range a fair distance from where they were born, not always, but most often, they will. Their journey to find an adult home range may be only a mile or two or up to possibly 50 or 60 miles away from where they were born. This depends upon many factors such as the type of terrain and habitat, densities at various locations, age structure, buck-to-doe ratios and other factors.

Females will establish an adult home range very near to, and usually intertwined with their mothers. This is why doe harvest is so important. A given

Once an adult whitetail chooses the spot where they will reside (after their first year spent with their mother), hardly ever will they roam too far from that spot.

Creating thick cover adjacent to a food plot is a great use of some of a limited acreage plan. Whether you create the cover with a chain saw by removing the canopy, by planting native warm-season grasses or some other means, it doesn’t have to be a big patch, just thick. (Photo Credit: Dolmar)

that spot. If their home range happens to consist of your property, you have an effect on that animal’s health, growth possibilities and how often it frequents your parcel. The further they move away from your property, the less influence your management decisions have. Basic management strategy tells us to let bucks live to maturity and harvest enough does so that the territorial tendencies of whitetails don’t make it virtually impossible for other bucks to move into your area to take up residence. Let’s put the two concerns in layman’s terms – “Dead deer don’t grow” and “If all of the rooms are all full, he’s got to live somewhere else.” Making smart harvest decisions are vital to small acreage success. Serious hunters know about the “Food, Water, Cover, Sanctuary” formula. All parts of the “recipe” are very important, so which should you start with? It depends upon what you already have. What are your property’s strong suits and what do your neighbors’ have to offer? With small parcels, it can be difficult to impossible to provide all the elements needed to consistently produce trophy bucks. Since you know With limited acreage to devote to food plots, small property managers may want to double-crop and plant a legume like clover, beans, peas, etc, in the spring, and then disk it under during the late summer that whitetails are using your property for at least a portion of their needs, to plant “hunting time attraction” like cereal grains and brassicas. (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud) you must take into consideration the entire surrounding area. Learn your piece of land will hold “X amount of deer.” If you re- property’s strong suits and weaknesses. You have to move one doe, there’s a 50-50 chance the space will do the best with what you have and the herd will unbe filled by another doe. Therefore, you need to re- doubtedly have to “borrow” or “share” some of your move more does than you may think for the chance neighbor’s resources. You need to manage your propthat a buck might move in to fill that spot. erty to mesh with the surrounding area.

Bucks may wander for a longer period before they On larger properties, you don’t want your herd to find a spot where they will become established and hop the fence for anything, but with small acreage you spend the rest of their life. Typically, this happens need to bet on the fact that they most definitely will be between the age of 12 and 18 months, but it can crossing your border. You need to have at least some take longer. If they have their basic needs met and part of the formula on your side of the fence to keep aren’t molested, they will likely reside on the same them coming back, but be imaginative and let your home range the rest of their life. Core areas within herd “use” your neighbor’s resources to your benefit. their home range will change seasonally to meet Managers of small properties will most often be their needs, but to a whitetail it’s “home sweet home,” lacking the space necessary to “house” many whitethey’re there to stay. tails. Because of both biological and social carrying

Since whitetails live in a defined home range, capacities, you just can’t fit that many animals into what you do even in a small area has influence over a small area without putting major stress upon them all of the whitetails whose home territories include or having degradation of the habitat.

Densities vary widely throughout the Midwest – anywhere from five or six, on up to over 50 animals per square mile. As an example, we’ll use the generous estimate of 30 deer per square mile. That means with 640 acres in a square mile, and 30 deer in that square mile, your 80 acres is likely to hold 4 whitetails. If you do things right, you most certainly can hold more, but you can see my point. Are you better off devoting ground to bedding or to feeding?

It’s also a fact that all small properties are not created equally. Because of certain characteristics, or combination of features, there’s no doubt that particular small parcels are much more appealing to whitetails than surrounding acreage – a property that holds something uniquely appealing that whitetails love, crave, have to have or have to use. Recognize these unique features and get the most out of them.

More than likely, on small parcels the one part of the formula that’s easiest for a property owner to deal with is the “food.” It’s also where you will likely see the biggest impact. “Attraction during hunting season” is the “food plot goal” of most, but on small parcels, you probably don’t have enough acreage to attract deer all season long. You may have to be very selective about what you plant. You want your food plot crop to reach its peak attraction when you want to hunt the site.

With small parcels, your neighbors can be a key as to how good your hunting will be. People working together can accomplish so much more than those who “butt heads.” “Whitetail management cooperatives” are becoming more and more popular. If you get five to 10 property owners with 20-to-40-acre parcels, you can have your own whitetail Mecca if you do things right. Even with larger properties, the best option is to always work with your neighbors rather than competing against them. It is amazing what a group of “like-minded” land managers can do.