National Deer Association

Food plotters who live where it’s cold enough for the ground to freeze at night get an opportunity in late winter to “frost-seed” their food plots. Kip Adams recently froat-seeded a clover plot on his Pennsylvania hunting land. #foodplot #deerhabitat #deer #nationaldeerassociation

This week, we joined other conservation groups in the Foothills Collaborative to assist the U.S. Forest Service in restoring biologically sound habitat management practices on the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia. Practices like timber thinning, prescribed fire, daylighting forest roads, edge-feathering of openings, and more that will enhance biodiversity and reverse the decline in deer numbers and hunting opportunity. This is a small part of our Public Lands Initiative active in 20 states, which has impacted 1 million acres in four years. With your support, we will keep this number climbing! #deerhabitat #publicland #deer #nationalforest #nationaldeerassociation

Will fertilizing mature oak trees increase acorn production or make the acorns sweeter? Dr. Craig Harper of the University of Tennessee and his students tested 120 white oak trees over 10 years. Fertilized trees (based on soil tests) did not produce more or sweeter acorns than unfertilized trees. Meanwhile, trees that were given more room to grow by removing competing trees (“thinning” or “crown release”) produced 50 to 65% more acorns than trees that were not thinned and trees that were fertilized. So, put the fertilizer on your food plots where it can do some good. With oak trees, just give them more room to grow bigger crowns and you’ll get more acorns. #deerhabitat #acorns #deer #deerscience #nationaldeerassociation

Great deer habitat has tremendous value for other wildlife species. A great example is when you girdle and spray a low-value tree to admit sunlight into the woods, also known as Forest Stand Improvement. The dead tree, left standing, produces enormous value for cavity-nesting birds and small mammals, plus cover and food for reptiles, amphibians and insects. While you might be thinking of venison and antlers when you’re working on deer habitat, deer are only the beginning of a long list of species you’re helping! #deerhabitat #deer #wildlife #wildlifeconservation #nationaldeerassociation

Yes, you can use prescribed fire in hardwoods or mixed pine/hardwood forests to improve deer habitat. The key to avoid damaging overstory trees of any species is low-intensity fire that is backing into or flanking the wind, not a head fire that is burning with the wind. You also want to burn under the ideal conditions, including relative humidity, fuel moisture, wind speed, atmospheric mixing height, and other variables. See our Guide to Prescribed Fire on our website for more details. Always check with your state forestry agency for burning regulations and to acquire the necessary burn permits. #deerhabitat #deer #prescribedfire #whitetails #nationaldeerassociation

Prescribed fire is a fantastic deer habitat management tool, and nothing is more important when using it than ensuring a safe, effective and contained burn. By planning and waiting to burn under the right weather conditions, you’ll achieve desirable habitat benefits while avoiding undesirable outcomes like escaped fire, timber damage, or smoke problems. You can have too little or too much wind. The fuel can be too wet or too dry. You also need to choose conditions when smoke will rise quickly and disperse rather than hold low to the ground. This video provides a quick review of the weather and fuel factors that determine fire safety and effectiveness, and their ideal ranges for a safe burn. Of course, this is only a general guide! The ideal ranges for each of these factors may vary slightly by region, the type of cover being burned, and your goals. Therefore, combine this information with local training opportunities, especially any chance to help others while learning from experienced burners. Nothing beats first-hand experience. Before leading your own burn, write a plan, stick to it, and acquire the necessary prescribed fire permit. For more guidance, see our website and “NDA’s Guide to Prescribed Fire.” #prescribedfire #deerhabitat #asmrsounds #nationaldeerassociation #deer

What do deer eat in winter? They live off fat they stored when forage and mast was abundant, but they supplement that energy source with browse: The twigs and buds of dormant woody shrubs. The best way to supply winter food for deer is to manage the habitat for plenty of early successional, young forest cover like you see in this video filmed at @Kip Adams Pennsylvania hunting land. #deerhabitat #deerscience #whitetails #deer #nationaldeerassociation

As we head into “habitat season,” remember that an easy way to significantly increase deer forage and cover is to introduce sunlight back into closed-canopy forests. Dr. Craig Harper of the University of Tennessee and his students have studied the amount and quality of forage produced at varying levels of sunlight (this video was filmed at one of his study sites in Pennsylvania). Here, he explains that 20 to 30% sunlight reaching the ground is a minimum, but 50% will maximize pounds per acre of high-quality deer forage. You can do this through Forest Stand Improvement: selectively removing low quality or overabundant trees in woods by cutting them down, girdle-and-spray, or even a commercial timber harvest. Large or small acreage projects, there are lots of ways to do it. And then, regular follow-up with prescribed fire will prevent the return of shade and keep the understory in productive forage and cover for wildlife. Visit our website at the link in our profile to learn more about FSI, prescribed fire, and other deer habitat techniques. #deerscience #deerhabitat #whitetails #prescribedfire #nationaldeerassociation

These days, most of the “second rut” activity seen among whitetails is a result of doe fawns achieving estrus in their first fall. They do this if they reach about 70 to 80 pounds live weight before winter. If you’re seeing a flurry of rut activity about a month after the main peak, and the center of buck attention appears to be a doe fawn, that’s a good thing! It means ample nutrition, good habitat, and balanced buck:doe ratios. But if the focus of attention in the second rut is adult does, it means that doe wasn’t bred on the first cycle. Increasing doe harvest and lowering harvest pressure on bucks can help balance the buck:doe ratio and ensure all adult does are bred the first time around. #whitetailrut #deer #whitetails #deerscience #hunting

Do you enjoy watching bucks chase does or fight for breeding rights during the rut? Do you enjoy hearing bucks vocalize? Do you like to grunt or rattle them in while hunting? If so, then balanced buck:doe ratios have many benefits for you. But just as important is the age structure on the buck side of this equation. Balancing these population parameters increases competition for breeding, which improves your opportunity to witness vocalizing and chasing or fighting while afield, and thus increases the likelihood of seeing bucks within range of your deer stand. How do you adjust these parameters? To balance the buck:doe ratio, take equal numbers of does and bucks each season. To increase buck age structure, protect most or all yearling bucks (1½ years old) from harvest where you hunt. #deerscience #whitetails #deer #deertok #nationaldeerassociation

Is it safe to eat raw venison? We are not talking about medium rare – we mean RAW. Consuming raw venison puts you at risk of a number of parasitic and bacterial infections with symptoms ranging from mild to fatal. Though “rare,” the risk is real. Elizabeth Kligge provides a summary here, but for more details, hit the link in our profile. #venison #wildfood #deer #whitetails #hunting

For years many hunters have been told the moon could be used to somehow predict variations in rut timing. However, there’s no need. The timing of peak deer breeding is extremely consistent year to year in any location, while moon phase varies all over the calendar. Numerous scientific studies support day length as the rut trigger. And as we already reported in an earlier video, moon phase does not strongly affect the timing of deer movement, either. #deerscience #deer #whitetails #hunting #nationaldeerassociation

The timing of the whitetail rut varies across the map because the ideal time for fawns to be born varies with latitude and other factors. But the external clue that deer rely on everywhere to trigger estrus in does is photoperiod: the changing length of daylight over the course of the year. The moon and weather vary too much to be reliable clocks. Only photoperiod is a fail-safe trigger. #deer #deerscience #whitetails #deerhunting #nationaldeerassociation

Regular doe harvest helps maintain a naturally balanced buck:doe ratio, and when this ratio is balanced, the rut is more intense. Bucks have to move and compete more to find estrus does, so you get to witness more rut behaviors like chasing, fighting and vocalizations. Grunt calls and rattling work better. But if you skip doe harvest, bucks don’t have to move far or compete to find the next estrus doe, so they are less visible to you! The old idea that stockpiling does will attract more bucks is not only wrong, it has the opposite effect: You’ll see fewer bucks! So, get your doe harvest. And if you take care of doe harvest before the rut, even better! #deerscience #deer #whitetails #deertok #nationaldeerassociation @bassproshops

Here are five scientific studies that show deer move most around dawn and dusk, regardless of weather, moon phase, season, rut phase, or other factors. #deerscience #deer #whitetails #deertok #nationaldeerassociation