Brutal weather coming

[tall@wide]

I'd hate to be a deer the next week or so, especially the ones with limited food around.

 

[Sligh1]

Limited food is the HUGE one!!! The timbered areas that haven’t been managed with very little natural browse. Or the grazed cattle areas.
For those that wanna provide a little help: some do, some don’t…. Alfalfa bales. Cutting junk trees down. Etc. Very nutritious.

 

[Hardwood11]

It will help that it was pretty mild up until January and the deer are well fed and in good shape .

In Minnesota we had lakes open on January 5 . Which has never happened. My friend caught pocket gophers on Dec 28 (absolutely crazy ?)…

 

[northcedar]

I went heavy on the turnips this year, just for this scenario. Hope they can paw down to them.

 

[Pops]

Limited food is the HUGE one!!! The timbered areas that haven’t been managed with very little natural browse. Or the grazed cattle areas.
For those that wanna provide a little help: some do, some don’t…. Alfalfa bales. Cutting junk trees down. Etc. Very nutritious.

We have a variety of food in our immediate neighborhood. One thing I did this year was plant some sorghum in an area we were hearing
quails. We know the deer and turkeys have been hitting it. One thing I like about it is the deer didn't seem to have it at the very
top of their favorite food list. For that reason there's a good bit left now, hopefully can/will be utitlized by the birds. We're planning on planting more sorghum in 2024 in the neighborhood.
I've had a tremendous amount of help form my Iowa Private Lands Biologist when looking for ideas and comments of our farm.

 

[Hardwood11]

Sorghum is very underrated! It’s easy to plant and not a lot of maintenance needed!

 

[cybball]

I did alfalfa bales last few years and they mow them down. I had sorghum planted, but the seed heads were gone long ago. Something gobbled them up. Could have been a combo of deer and turkeys.

 

[letemgrow]

Cutting junk trees down. Etc. Very nutritious.

They'll pile in to eat the buds off trees such as elm/hickory that are cut down.

That's one reason why I wait to do TSI during the worst part of winter.

 

[Hardwood11]

How is the Iowa doe season going ? Anyone busting drifts !! Sorry I have to laugh at such an odd season !

 

[jflournoy]

Definitely getting pretty deep out there.

 

[bluedog69]

Brutal is for sure. Maybe the nice easy December will have helped some bucks get back in better shape before this hit.
How any animal survives is beyond me.

 

[Muskrat24]

Next couple days will be miserable. At least if they get out of the wind that will help.

 

[tall@wide]

How is the Iowa doe season going ? Anyone busting drifts !! Sorry I have to laugh at such an odd season !

It should be named the shed buck season and poacher season. I wonder how many giant bucks get shot in this season and no one ever knows.

 

[Thinkin Rut]

Above freezing at the end of the 10 day forecast. Bet your farm on that!

 

[Buckscrape]

Crazy! We (Sask) only have about 5" snow here. But it is about 40 below. Deer are tough!