Late Winter Buck Nutrition

This is about the time of year we start noticing bucks dropping their antlers. Some may have dropped their antlers quite some time ago. If a buck dropped his antlers a good while back, especially a large mature buck, that could be sign of poor body condition, high stress levels or injury. Antlers are secondary to a buck's overall body condition. In the previous blog I talked about "Maternal Effect", in a sense antlers are an indication of a bucks overall quality of health. Does when given the option will choose larger bodied bucks and those with larger antlers. Bucks that go into Spring in poor body condition grow smaller sets of antlers no matter their age that coming Spring and Summer.

Antlers take a back seat to body condition. A buck's body extracts minerals from its existing skeleton to supplement the minerals it is consuming in the Spring to form those antlers. If a buck goes into Spring in poor body condition those ingested minerals must first rebuild bone density that was lost during the rut and Winter. You will not see a buck in poor body condition grow the same size of antlers as a buck in great body condition. Bucks tend to begin growing new antlers around the end of March. Which means that body condition that was lost during the rut and through Winter needs to be replaced prior to that. While many of us do not have the land or money to devote to leaving large numbers of acres of soybeans and corn standing for a prime Winter food source, we do have the ability to increase the amount of woody browse on our property. Woody browse is primarily shrubs and woody forbs. Increasing the amount of woody browse is important if you want to help your bucks regain body condition in the Winter months. Outside of ag grain waste (intentional or not), woody browse makes up the highest percentage of a deer's Winter diet. Establishing good shrub growth in our forested areas requires adequate sunlight hitting the ground in those areas. Field edges are also great places for shrub planting. Shrub plantings can serve as turkey nesting sites as well as escape cover for quail. The following list is a few of the most highly browsed shrub species. Select varieties that are native to your area and do well on your soil types.

Rough-leafed Dogwood

The following list is a few of the most highly browsed shrub species. Rough-leafed, Red-Osier, and Silky Dogwoods, American Plum and Smooth Sumac. While considered invasive in some areas if you are able to maintain plants at a growth state where they are not seed bearing, Autumn Olive and Honeysuckle can also be significantly browsed. Depending on the site and plant type it is often beneficial to do a controlled burn or mow the shrub patches every few years to increase the abundance of young, tender stem/shoot growth. Again in heavily forested areas you will likely need to do some tree thinning in order to provide adequate sunlight for shrub growth prior to planting. Simply opening up the canopy may also be enough sunlight to stimulate growth of all ready present native shrubs.

Many states have conservation tree sales programs where these shrubs can be purchased at a relatively low cost. When planting shrubs it is often advantageous

to increase planting density and fencing might even be necessary to limit deer browsing until the shrubs can become sufficiently established to survive browsing pressure.

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