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Deer numbers aren’t continuing to rise though…..just the opposite. Since 2012 they’ve done nothing but go down significantly. As Skip has said the harvest in IA is half of what it was in the 2000s. In IL you have to go back 33 years to when there were less deer vehicle accidents.

Love it! Spot on and damn I wish there were more of ya out there Skip! Much respect for you and the battle you are spearheading

Well said Skip. As always love the passion and commitment. Would just say a couple things as it relates to your post as well as the huntr podcast w Jeff Lindsey that was brought up. On your post, I would say that bc me and the folks on this board know you relatively well that as a result I’m...

Probably some truth here no doubt. Although it seems like they could find a way to do it without risking anything. Pointing out how the deer numbers are half of what they used to be in the “good ol days” and that they are choosing to not shoot does for awhile doesn’t seem super controversial or...

Yea I don’t pay close enough attention to him to know the details or to judge so I’ll take your word for it but regardless, all of the well known “celebrity” types that have thousands of hunters as an audience (vs me or your circle of 30-50 or whatever) can make a massive influence on what...

The Politicians yes, but what’s 100 times worse is that 90% of the hunting industry hasn’t realized the decline in numbers and still think they should be killing does too! Need guys like Lee Lakosky, Don Higgins, Drurys, Bowmar, etc….to really start hammering this issue and getting the masses to...

I’m listening Skip as I think we’re all searching for the “answers“…..but I can’t help but feel like 95% of your list has always been the case hasn’t it? Few if any were doing tsi in the 2000’s compared to today. Food- with popularity of food plots today vs 2000’s there HAS to be more food and...

The math makes things a little confusing for sure. Have often wondered why, when my soil test calls for 40# of p or k, why I can’t just go buy 40# of it like I do at the co op. Take the math right out of it for folks.

I kinda lost track of what the Winke farm was producing after he sold it….has it not really been all that great in the last 5 years you saying? I didnt think it was ever all that great for those 5-8 years or whatever after the ehd outbreak. Which seemed odd to me as does the farm in the podcast...

EHD for sure but seems like a high % of the time you know at age 5 whether a buck is a great genetic buck or not. We try to shoot as many of the 5yr old bucks as possible on our farm that are 150 or below thinking that they have the lower end genetics so wouldn’t think that’s an issue but maybe...

Pretty fascinating discussion too on that large tract of land that the owners are having a hard time getting a buck bigger than 160” on. Said that he and Winke both consulted, gave vastly different recommendations (which is interesting in and of itself) but that basically they are both stumped...

Yes! I’ve been banging this drum relentlessly for the last 8 years and 95% of the time it’s met with indifference or even doubt. Most hunters do not realize how significantly smaller the herd numbers are and worse, when presented with data that illustrates it, they just don’t seem to care or...

Exactly right. Thats why I’ve said that if it’s after the season is over it feels ok to me. Not trying to use it as a real-time locator of a target buck to go in and try to kill him. In fact I’d love to see the states make any sort of drone usage for management/surveys/data collection unlawful...

When you say “accurate” you’re probably referencing the deer density part of the info it would give you. Just as interesting to me is where and how the deer are bedding regardless if I have a handful more or less deer than an average day bc of the potential scenarios you describe. On my farm...

No doubt about it. Doubt you’ll get anyone to disagree with ya here.

Definitely hear what you and trapshooter are saying and it’s something I’ve thought a lot about too. I think on this very forum I’ve said that I’d be happy if the states made cell cameras illegal during season and it wasn’t a very popular opinion (which is fine, everyone has a different view on...

Saw that too. Guessing thats how they are estimating mature bucks. Not exact science but can probably get close. If a guy did it before they dropped their antlers though then you’d have a pretty good gauge of age structure on a given farm which would be pretty valuable info especially for a...

Agreed, not sure how they’d know that. Guessing if you did it while antlers were still on in winter you might have a decent idea based on the rack and personal history possibly

Suprised other states aren’t doing it (at least MI & IL anyway). Glad they’re not but suprised.

Could definitely see where it would be helpful for designing a farm. Would also be really neat to do a before habitat improvement analysis and then again after a guy had made a bunch of changes to see how many more deer you are holding, benefits of the habitat improvement etc. Also for realtors...