Posted: 10/18/2011 5:47:27 PM EDT
| I went bow hunting last weekend and saw a fair amount of deer but nothing worth shooting. I could count their ribs and see the hip bones on most of them. The drought this year has certainly had a noticeable impact. This was in Nacogdoches and I am hearing the same from my buddies in other areas. I'm hunting west of San Antonio in a few weeks and expecting the same. Anyone else notice this? |
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Mine looked good until just about a month ago. I just looked through two trail cams and the deer look skinny. The ones that look decent have fawns, wich I found strange.
I wish this rain would have came a few months sooner, it may be too late. I got lots of fat ass hogs though so I guess I'll be eating pork this year. |
| The deer I have on cam seem to be fine health wise but we aren't seeing nearly as many as last year. We are pretty close to a lake and my only guess is they headed there when everything started drying up. I think they are eating the green vegetation that was growing on the banks as the lake goes down. There wasn't any other green around until we got these recent rains. Rye is popping up all over now. Acorns are falling at my house too. My tripod is in a pecan tree and it surprisingly has quite a few pecans on it. I think the deer around here will be alright. |
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I'm hearing the same thing. The price of corn isn't helping matters. Corn won't help them anyway. It's nothing more than candy. They need protein which is scarce right now. It will a little, corn is around 8% protein (IIRC) not as much as the 16% feeds and pellets. But then they have to break it down in the stomach, etc. But keep in mind that the cost of corn and drought conditions has pushed up demand for cheaper feed components too. We talked with a friend of our who runs a cotton gin and feed mill. He mixed up 80 tons of 16% feed for this fall at like $9 / 50lbs. He sold it all in 10 days. I bought a bag of roasted soybeans last week for $22.50 / 50 lbs. I got it home and it was full of weevils! At $22.50, it's getting returned. |
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we're outside lampasas a little.
started my feeders and put cameras out opening weekend of dove season. checked cards 2 weeks ago and all the deer were smallish (horn-wise) and thin looking. not many fawns. I've heard from several friends who say their biologists have all said a huge impact on fawns this year. some areas (not ranches, areas) have had 100% fawn abandonment/die off. scary and sad. I have noticed in past few days the oaks puking up acorns pretty strong, though. ETA: with the price of corn, I changed over the last of my feeders to the spring loaded spinner plates. cant afford to feed the coons too. |
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Up here in North Texas our deer are looking fine. Here's one a buddy of mine killed last week. http://www.wildhoghunters.com/vbtube/photos/original/38UjvZMe.jpg  Dang!
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we're outside lampasas a little. started my feeders and put cameras out opening weekend of dove season. checked cards 2 weeks ago and all the deer were smallish (horn-wise) and thin looking. not many fawns. I've heard from several friends who say their biologists have all said a huge impact on fawns this year. some areas (not ranches, areas) have had 100% fawn abandonment/die off. scary and sad. I have noticed in past few days the oaks puking up acorns pretty strong, though. ETA: with the price of corn, I changed over the last of my feeders to the spring loaded spinner plates. cant afford to feed the coons too. We have a suprisingly good fawn crop, so many infact that I can't find a good doe to shoot that doesn't have fawns. Lots of twins and a couple of triplets. We are in San Saba so we aren't too far from you. |
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That is a very nice deer. I actually live in Frisco and it seems like alot of the rain this last few months stopped just a few miles north of here.
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Up here in North Texas our deer are looking fine. Here's one a buddy of mine killed last week. http://www.wildhoghunters.com/vbtube/photos/original/38UjvZMe.jpg |
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we're outside lampasas a little. started my feeders and put cameras out opening weekend of dove season. checked cards 2 weeks ago and all the deer were smallish (horn-wise) and thin looking. not many fawns. I've heard from several friends who say their biologists have all said a huge impact on fawns this year. some areas (not ranches, areas) have had 100% fawn abandonment/die off. scary and sad. I have noticed in past few days the oaks puking up acorns pretty strong, though. ETA: with the price of corn, I changed over the last of my feeders to the spring loaded spinner plates. cant afford to feed the coons too. We have a suprisingly good fawn crop, so many infact that I can't find a good doe to shoot that doesn't have fawns. Lots of twins and a couple of triplets. We are in San Saba so we aren't too far from you. interesting (but good) I have a friend with a place in that area and he says they've got little ones, but not nearly as many as prior years. |
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Just an FYI on the corn, I just couldn't see paying $10 bag for corn, so I did some checking around and ended up at a grainery in Frost, TX.
I bought bulk corn for $13.95 / 100 lbs. I just put 3 - 55 gallon drums on my trailer and they filled it, weighed out at just about 1000lbs on the scales. Not as clean as bag corn, but pretty good. Nothing in it that won't go through a feeder. |
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Just an FYI on the corn, I just couldn't see paying $10 bag for corn, so I did some checking around and ended up at a grainery in Frost, TX. I bought bulk corn for $13.95 / 100 lbs. I just put 3 - 55 gallon drums on my trailer and they filled it, weighed out at just about 1000lbs on the scales. Not as clean as bag corn, but pretty good. Nothing in it that won't go through a feeder. We've been buying mostly bulk corn like this all year. 2 - 55gal drums will hold about 720lbs of corn. |
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thats a good idea, just the transfer to the feeders is a bitch. particularly if your feeders are penned to keep the hogs out.
buddy of mine has one of those hitch mounted augers. that thing makes easy work on filling big feeders.... I've got 2x 55gallon drum feeders and 2x 1200lb feeders. the big feeders rarely get filled to the top. 
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Just an FYI on the corn, Not as clean as bag corn, but pretty good. Nothing in it that won't go through a feeder. We've been buying mostly bulk corn like this all year. 2 - 55gal drums will hold about 720lbs of corn. I've done it before, but I've gotten some in the past with too much trash, and i've also gotten some from family that farms for a good price, but not this year, too dry. |