One of the hunters on our lease in Comal/Bexar county was stopped by a game warden that was investigating a poaching complaint on a neighboring ranch. The warden checked our hunter and verified he was legal and visited with him a bit about hunting in the area. They talked about how slow things seem to be this year. The warden said that State biologists have been conducting population surveys and preliminary data is showing that between 50-65% of the deer have died due to the drought.

I find that staggering and made sure our hunter had heard things right from the warden...which he swears he did. The warden went on to strongly recommend we take it easy on our does and only shoot very obvious cull bucks for the next year or two. Said the biologists estimate it will take 6 years for the population to recover, IF we have normal rainfall during that time.

The only thing I wonder is if the numbers the game warden was talking about was for our region or if that is a statewide statistic? Anybody else hearing anything like this?

I still find it staggering that even considering best case scenario, HALF the deer have died according to this GW! I guess I just assumed they moved on. I would think that if that is really the case, we would have come across a carcass somewhere on the property? None of our hunters have reported finding any evidence of dead deer.

If the drought really did kill off that many deer, do y'all think it will be a benefit in the long run? Survival of the fittest kind of thing?

Cbar

Worst drought in 50+ years and $3.6 Billion loss, water levels depeleted, scorching heat.
The state's worst drought made the record books for its longevity, spanning a seven-year period during the 1950s. This drought, state weather officials say, is more notable for its intensity.

Del Rio had something like 65 days this last year with temps over 100. Very little rain and what rain did fall came at basically the wrong times or like up around Pandale set off an anthrax outbreak.

Heat stresses deer a lot. Just because your lease/ranch/range looks semi green doesn't mean the available food is nutritious.

If what the GW said is in fact correct, then to help nature restock, supplementing would not be a bad idea, in light of the fact that it does make your deer healthier.

man that sucks if it is true for ur place, i know my place isnt that bad, i think i have more deer everytime i go lol, maybe all ur deer came to victoria county???

It's hard to believe, but I can't argue. My ranch is part of a Wildlife Management Association, and we do a pretty thorough count every year. This last Fall our count was about 40% lower than the previous year. Our harvest thus far this year has been 75% lower than last year!

July 2009
"Summed up in one word: devastating," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said.

Nearly 80 of Texas' 254 counties are in "extreme" or "exceptional" drought, the worst possible levels on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's index. Though other states are experiencing drought, no counties in the continental U.S. outside Texas currently register worse than "severe." In late April, the USDA designated 70 Texas counties as primary natural-disaster areas because of drought, above-normal temperatures and associated wildfires.

Let's not forget we are still also seeing some of the results & effects of 2006 drought

Looking at some of the footage from sep and oct, our bucks looked a bit thin, so there could be some truth in there I'm sure.

The #'s the game warden told your friend are correct. Our area (cross timbers)is still feeling effects of the 2006 drought, sightings and and harvest were way down in '07, and '08, they have just started to come back this year but are still way down compared to pre 2006 #'s. Now take into account we did not have the severe extended drought the hill county has just recently had. I don't think this will warrent the state to adjust bag limits in the hill country, but if the population recovery seem to lag, or the drought continues you might see a change in 2011 or beyond.

Hmmm, when do the number of game that has been harvested reports come out?

I'd be interested in comparing the number of licenses sold vs the number of deer harvested.

how do they know how many deer are harvested?

I hunt in Kendall County. We have seen a huge drop in the number of does we ususally see. Based on that we dropped our culling of does from usual 10-15 to 2.
Our theory is that the bucks hit the protein feeders hard and nothing else got any. Our game cams back up the theory. We are seeing three bucks for every doe right now.

I wonder if it was also a case of lot less births and or miscarriages because of lack of water and food.

Thats certainly not the case out here, our population took about a 25% increase and looks to do the same next year. We were wet all year, the ponds went down but the surface remained fairly wet the whole year. Next year I'm going to have to do some serious doe culling.

We also had wet conditions in Montague County. We have a huge number of yearlings.

Dry in Coryell County, but exceptional herd of does this yr
in August, I saw 5 really good shooter bucks, and 2 came off of the place this year
Saw a really good 9 point chasing a doe yesterday
Rut back in? or just a late doe coming back in?
He was in full pursuit of her

We're in the southern Cross Timbers just north of the hill country and were in the exceptional drought area also. We do our best to take all the deer we're allowed during drought years to give the remaining deer a chance, and it seems to work. Our deer numbers, and quality, have continued to increase.

We have gone from a 3 deer county, to a 4 deer AR, to a 5 deer AR county just in the past 4 years, and this is our first extended season. We're actually having to bring in guests to fill our quota as we still have too many deer, both on the land and in our freezers!

We have had a good year in Mills county. The spring and early summer was dry but late summer and fall were unusually wet. The deer are still in good flesh going into the cold months so hopefully that will sustain them till spring. We still have enough ground moisture to grow a lot of winter grasses in the bottoms and protected areas. I know that is not the case in other areas. Some places just south, east, and west of us are extremely dry. You don't have a sell off of deer during dry times like you do livestock so supplemental feeding is the only option. Good luck and pray for rain.

We have done good not great in Palo Pinto was very dry all summer but received alot of rain in sept. our ground is still wet and the winter grass is doing good. Deer numbers appear to be the same or slightly lower than last year. I did however see alot more cull bucks this year.

I think the harvest is too large in some counties, bag limits too high.... maybe killing too many young ones in the past few years...

they don't, they just do a rough estimate from locker plant surveys.

extreme temperature, lack of rain, and poor nutrition can result in poor conception rates, short term pregnancies (i.e. fawning early which leads to LOW survival rates), late term abortions, and poor milk quality which is crucial those first few days of the fawns life...

You can expect to see "cull" bucks after an extremely dry year like this. If you take them out of your local herd you are only hurting yourself in the future. Deer, bucks in particular need to feed their body first (survival) before anything else like antler growth or embryo growth can happen.

September rain did nothing for antler growth or fawn survival or birth rates. However, it did provide them with nutrients to get into some kind of shape for the rut and winter.

It will be a huge blessing to your area if the soil continues to hold moisture and you all get a decent crop of winter weeds. Those weeds (forbs), if in sufficient numbers, probably pound for pound will do more for your deer than supplementing will do.

Hope that whatever cold snap we have this week doesn't kill those weeds.

Last year only one deer was shot on our lease near Sweetwater. This year only three. Definitely have been seeing a long term decrease in deer numbers on our place. The last tank dried up earlier this year. At least this fall/winter, we have received some beneficial moisture to help the wheat fields.

This year in Hardeman county was a good one. Tons of deer and plenty of good forage which led to good mass (antler and body) on our deer. Now we just need to work on our doe to buck ratio.

We saw a bunch early in Foard County, then it got thin. I think the neighbors know they are off the lease next year and shot everything that moves.... and we are dealing with a bit of road hunting on one place, not that much success just adds a ton of pressure. Overall out west was an OK year. Not the numbers that I like to see but decent sized deer in both racks and bodies.

In east texas.... not so much...