Maybe all of you already know about the Texas MLDP Managed Lands Deer Program but I was not aware of it even though I am a landowner, a hunter and lease to hunters. So forgive me if the subject has been beaten to death here but I searched the forum and could not find anything. Here is my take away.

Since 2017, landowners could apply for the program online and print their own tags to use or give to licensed hunters on their property. Or the landowner may designate an agent, that could be you, the hunter, to apply for the program. The Harvest Option is easier and more popular. The number of tags is determined by the location and acreage of the land. Use the MLDP Harvest Option Tag Estimator to see what tags your property qualifies for. Adjoining low fenced land may be included with permission of landowners if hunting across property lines. The land map provided to TPWD with the application will determine the tags you can print.

For example, here are the types of tags that were available and season dates for 2019-2020.

Antlerless Deer
September 28, 2019 through February 29, 2020.
May be taken by any lawful means, including modern firearms.
Buck Deer
September 28, 2019 through November 1, 2019.
Bucks with at least one unbranched antler may be taken with any lawful means, including
modern firearms.
Any other buck may be taken only with lawful archery equipment.
November 2, 2019 through February 29, 2020:
Any buck deer may be taken by any lawful means, including modern firearms.

It's too late to apply for this year and seasons and tags may change in the future. The landowner or agent merely has to keep a log, file a report and reapply every year.

Seems like an easy way to add three months to Whitetail rifle season and fill your freezer. Good hunting.

Yes but hunting in February may lead to shooting bucks that have shed their antlers, seen it happen.

I have a buddy whose place is under MLD. From what I remember, it wasn't a particularly easy process and your place may or may not qualify. I believe you also have to give up a certain amount of decision making for your land in order to stay on the program. There are quite a few people here who know a lot more about it than me, so hopefully they will chime in.

I think the new process is much more user-friendly.

You have to keep records for two years before you can join, basically like a probation period. You also have to do habitat management to stay on the program. Then you do a camera or spotlight survey and they send you your tags off of that info. You can't use the tags off of your hunting license for the land under MLD.

You want to be MLD Type III under the Conservation Option. The reason being is your tag allotment will be geared specifically to YOUR property and not some county-wide swag under the Harvest Option.

This allows you to hunt bucks or antlerless deer from September 28, 2019 until February 28, 2020.

MLD Type III requires two years in a lower tier before you are eligible for the Conservation Option.

To qualify, you must
Keep accurate records
Engage in at least three habitat improvement practices/year as spelled out in the wildlife management plan (this does not include supplemental feeding)
Conduct an annual census (we do ours by helicopter). This gives us a good idea of sex ratios, age structure and fawn survival.
This data is then submitted to a TPWD approved biologist who submits the previous season's harvest data, the completed management practices and the census information to TPWD. TPWD decides how many buck and doe tags you get based upon the biologists recommendation(s).

Someone just tell me......but isn't there a minimum amount of land required.

You can go to their site for their permit estimator and plug in your acreage to see your tag numbers that will be issued. You might not like the numbers. When it first started I plugged in my acres and harvest numbers for tags was 2 does and 0 bucks for my place.

You can do camera surveys instead of helicopter as well....

IMO the benefit is having a longer season to access what your deer herd looks like each year and adjust according. Many think staring gun hunts in October is a big advantage but I have found it to be good for bucks still being in a regular pattern but movement can be much less do to warm weather and lots of browse......

When I mapped my 640 acres in northwest Houston County
it came up one "any buck" tag and three antlerless tags.
https://lma.tpwd.state.tx.us/tag-estimator

I maped my property in Cass County and it came up with:
Estimated Number of Tags
Any Buck Tags
0
Unbranched Buck Tags
0
Antlerless Tags
0
Total Tags
0
So, I think I will just hunt the old fashion way and buy a license with tags on them.

That changes everything. I did not understand that, in which case there is no real advantage to MLDP for me.
I thought the MLDP tags could supplement whatever tags hunters had with their licenses.
The first paragraph of the MLDP information page says:

Landowners enrolled in either the MLDP Harvest Option or Conservation Option
are able to take advantage of extended season lengths and liberalized harvest opportunities.

How is it "liberalized" if a square mile of land is limited to a single buck.

Looks like it is back to archery and muzzle loaders for an extended season.

The kicker is you have to have a hunting license anyway to hunt in the MLDP.

Have to keep in mind it is an estimator, without benefit of property specific's / counts & data that you will supply now & in future years.

I believe it is initially low on purpose, to eliminate those looking for an easy / simple work around for county bag limits & restrictions.

It is a starting platform / point for those that really want to improve their property & local herd, not for those that just want to kill more or kill what they consider undesirable deer.

It is a management plan, they can't possibly sound desirable or give an unreasonable starting point with an unknown base line.
So the base line is set low, then data is compiled and adjustments are made along the way.

Sounds like it worked this time.

In the immortal words of Emily Littella (Gilda Radner on SNL), "Oooooh. That's very different... Never mind."

One of our places is 550 acres and we got 7 doe and 2 buck tags, so they need info from you before they can assess anything. A biologist from the state will also do a site visit.

It said our Mills County place was 2 bucks, 1 cull, and 8 does (11 total) for 632 acres. We usually take 12-15 but our neighbors don't take numbers so we're taking some of their does. I think last year we took 2 spikes, 11 doe, and one 13" buck, so fairly in line with their number. We certainly don't need to take more than 1-2 bucks although we're seeing a bunch in good age classes.

I opted off of the MLD program when it changed in '16 or '17. We were MLD III and even with 10+ years of data, the automated system knocked our almost 1,000 acres down to two bucks and 5 does. January and February hunts were already slow for us, so it made no sense to stay with the program. I really liked our biologist and he retired at that time as well; when he left, so went the fun.

I miss the old LAMPS system. We lost half of our doe permits with the new Harvest Option program (we had over 20 years of LAMPS data) and the biologist was urging us to fill every doe permit on the old system.
One note on the Harvest Options is that you have 3 different options, only Buck, only Antlerless or Buck and Antlerless deer. We have the Anterless only since we are also Archer Only and it extends our anterless season and we were not going to get many buck tags. We still use the BUCK TAGS off of our hunting license and MLDP tags for Anterless.

We love the program for our place in County. For 640 acres we have 22 doe tags and 10 buck tags. Records do have to be kept and continual habitat management and improvement is required, but we’ve seen good improvement in our herd.

MELackey, If I remember correctly y'all are in Lampasas area? Definitely a high density area but wow, those numbers seem high. Our 300 acres would get 1 buck and 3 doe. I'm not interested in shooting doe. We don't usually shoot but 1 buck a year but it's in our control. I don't need someone telling me what I can kill on my land.

Coryell county. We had similar number of tags last year. Killed a good number of them and still have healthy populations. We turned in the surveys and requested 10 of each. The biologist recommended those numbers. Seems high to me also, but that’s their area of expertise.

Def covered up in deer.
Our 7 does on 550 acres is a high number. It's guesstimated that we're at 1 deer per 10 acres. Y'all's numbers are like a deer per 3 acres from what I understand