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- #21
I know Colorado did a study on feeding I think on one of the last severe winters they had was when it was done. I think it came out to roughly 1 million dollars in feed cost for roughly 2.5% increase in buck harvest the following fall. The study also showed flaws in feeding hay to deer in that they were dying with full stomachs since they don't digest food like Elk and cattle they need a more nutritious food source now this is all off the top of my head but it was an interesting read.
As far as whitetails go in farm country I would say almost all are exposed to pesticides at some point in my neck of the woods deer hit bean fields hard in the early summer plus whatever run off into water sources etc. It gets even worse with guys pumping all sorts of nutrients and chemicals on fields in private leases planted for the sole purpose of antler growth and nutrition although not all of them use chemicals in the soil. I hunt primarily public deer with few ag fields around but they are still exposed at some point in the year to pesticides. Whitetail hunting is fun but its really taking a turn where a lot of guys are farming bucks for slaughter IE managing large chuncks of land with low pressure feeding them etc to promote prime antler growth then passing all bucks until they are worthy of shooting in other words said mature buck is really not exposed to much of any negative consequences of mistakes made until slaughter time making them a HECK of a lot easier to kill and IMO a 140" mangaed buck is not = to another 140" buck from a heavily hunted area but thats a topic for another day.
As far as whitetails go in farm country I would say almost all are exposed to pesticides at some point in my neck of the woods deer hit bean fields hard in the early summer plus whatever run off into water sources etc. It gets even worse with guys pumping all sorts of nutrients and chemicals on fields in private leases planted for the sole purpose of antler growth and nutrition although not all of them use chemicals in the soil. I hunt primarily public deer with few ag fields around but they are still exposed at some point in the year to pesticides. Whitetail hunting is fun but its really taking a turn where a lot of guys are farming bucks for slaughter IE managing large chuncks of land with low pressure feeding them etc to promote prime antler growth then passing all bucks until they are worthy of shooting in other words said mature buck is really not exposed to much of any negative consequences of mistakes made until slaughter time making them a HECK of a lot easier to kill and IMO a 140" mangaed buck is not = to another 140" buck from a heavily hunted area but thats a topic for another day.
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