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DNR Banning Mineral

Unnaturally concentrating deer to small specific area, such as a mineral lick/and or baiting does,places urine, saliva, and droppings in a very concentrated area. Makes perfect sense that by concentrating animals with this practice, they are very likely to pass any disease in a herd more quickly. If one coyote had the mange, and all coyotes were hanging around a carcass pile day in and out, one could easily assume that many coyotes are going to get mange. If one human in a house gets the flu, and everybody eats and drinks off the sick persons plate and glass, you can assume that everyone in the house will probably get sick. I am glad I never got into trail cams. Now I know I made a good choice.:way:
 
Kaare - It is not illegal to place food or minerals, but it is illegal to hunt over either of them. This law is about making it illegal to place food or mineral whether hunting over them or not.
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I realize how the law is. I was just thinking that it could be a step in the direction towards Illinois in that I believe all of the above mentioned are not legal. Still if banning minerals and feeding deer period have to happen as opposed to allowing hunting over both then it's still a win for you guys.
 
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Lets get real about this ,deer will seek out salt and mineral . Even if its in your front yard at night. You would have to ban putting salt out for cattle & horses because thats where they will go next. I'm guessing a break out will come from pen raised deer or elk . The safest way would be ban captive deer in iowa with a state buy out.Probably be the cheep way to stop a break out before one starts .
 
bloodhoundhandler said:
that sounds like a movie we had to watch in high school on stds your school must have shown the same one
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Did you even have TV in Highschool??? :grin:

sheesh, that had to be a hundred years ago!
:moon:
 
I think a deer has a better chance of getting hit by a car than getting infected by a deadly disease from a mineral pile. Farmers have used salt licks for years and so have the deer. We haven't seemed to have a problem before. I could honestly care less or more if this one passes or not. One thing is for sure, if it does pass, no more carrying 50lbs of salt a mile and a half into BFE in July!! :)
 
Ok. I propose we ban deer from making scrapes and rubs because all of my trail cameras I have on scrapes during October, November, and December will have 300+ pictures every week of bucks, does, yearling does, and button bucks all coming up and touching and licking the same licking branch. Do you know that they all urinate on the same spot on the ground and that bucks will drag their hoofs through it mixing all that urine together. Then the next unsuspecting deer will step into the middle of this spot. I'm sure that the poor deer that stepped into this urine/dirt mixture doesn't realize that it now has the mixture on its hoof. Sometimes it's even muddy and the mixture oozes between their hooves. Then when the deer lays down the mixture gets onto their hair. Then the deer licks the hair to groom itself. Uhhh. Oh and the worst part is those darn roaming bucks that seem to show up for one or two visits to the licking branch then moving on to the next farm 5 miles away. I wonder how many licking branches these players are working in that five miles? The worst part is the shy/reserved does on the farm don't realize how many other deer that they just swapped spit with because these players used that same branch. Uhhh.

Seriously, how many States allow baiting, mineral sites, and supplemental feeding that have no cases or trouble with TB or CWD. Now having said that I understand the logic but don't believe for a second that it will stop TB or CWD from coming to Iowa. tslc said it right "Banning minerals is not what is going to keep CWD and TB out of Iowa. Nature is going to take its course one way or another." I would also add that I doubt it will even slow the spread of the disease. I can say from my trail camera monitoring that I have a much larger population of "different" deer visit the primary scapes/licking branches during the three months of the Fall than I have visit mineral sites during the summer. The deer are more dispersed during the summer with the crops still in and I believe the does are more territorial during the summer when their fawns are young. I would also make the arguement that the benefits to the overall health of the deer from mineral supplementation would out weigh the risk of possible disease tranmission. I would also argue that food plots and mineral supplementation actually leads to healthier deer and therefore less disease in the herd in general. I concede that some diseases like TB and CWD will not be stopped by a healthy deer herd but don't feel that banning mineral sites will even slow the spread of the disease once it gets here. As was brought up in previous posts I also wonder how you will regulate farmer's from thowing a half dozen salt/mineral blocks out in their cow pasture during the summer months. I'd like to hear Farm Bureau's position on stopping/regulating "livestock" licks. I'm sure FB would be in favor of banning them. Well maybe the deer will stay away from any designated "livestock" licks. Well maybe "livestock" licks are really a non-issue becasue there aren't any cow/calf operations in Southern Iowa where we have the highest deer populations. ;)
 
is it really worth the risk of damaging, or possibly dessimating the herd, for some stupid pictures?!!?

its somewhat a moot point, in that the disease isn't even in iowa....yet. but if mineral licks are still in rampant use (as they are now) then when the disease enters the state, its spread will be all the quicker
 
It all depends on what you buy into. I do not automatically swallow everything I am fed. Anyone who has watched deer at all know they are constantly making contacts with their mouths front and back. I think eating or licking salt is irrelevant. I do not use trailcams. I don't even have to lay minerals out for them. The multiple cattle operations around me do that. I am just somewhat amazed how fast people take what is put out. Sometimes bait is put out for hunters too.
 
Liv4Rut said:
I think a deer has a better chance of getting hit by a car than getting infected by a deadly disease from a mineral pile. Farmers have used salt licks for years and so have the deer. We haven't seemed to have a problem before. I could honestly care less or more if this one passes or not. One thing is for sure, if it does pass, no more carrying 50lbs of salt a mile and a half into BFE in July!! :)
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:D:D:drink2:
 
Shouldn't be a big deal to anybody other than suppliers of the product. Their sales will decrease. I don't use licks anywhere I hunt and really don't see why I want one. I have seen other places with lick areas and in the wet times it looks like a big muck bowl, kind of gross.
One guy I know had several deer dying on his property, called the dnr and they really couldn't tell what was causing it. I believe they ended up spraying the mineral spots with diesel and covering them up to destroy them. He hasn't had the problem since.
Tough call but we should be able to enjoy hunting and harvest deer with out these licks. Remember how simple it used to be just going out and climbing in a tree with your carharts on?? We had real problems then when we couldn't get an arrow to fly straight for 30 yards.......
 
Not trying to start anything with you Tracker, but you said you don't use licks, but is that a baitpile in the picture of your avatar?
 
This post has been educational to me with everyone having reall good points. I'm glad I asked the question. Just wondering how many of you will continue to use mineral if it "doesn't" get it banned. I'm not sure if I really would want to now.
 
I am a firm believer that the mineral has been helping the quality of deer I have seen over the years. Could be a coincidence but talking with other landowners whom also have mineral they have seen the same thing.
The pictures are just a bonus IMHO.





teeroy said:
is it really worth the risk of damaging, or possibly dessimating the herd, for some stupid pictures?!!?
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I think I'm going to remain on the skeptical side of this one. I don't believe banning the use of mineral sites is going to prevent the spread of any infectious disease. If your concerned about speading by use of the site, that means the problem is already there. The majority of the deer that are using the mineral site are does and fawns, and I'll gurantee that they've already licked/groomed/greeted each other in a way that is just as likely to spread any infection as a mineral site. Licking branches, rubs, scrapes and water holes are just as likely draw in the same deer and give any disease the same opportunity to spread. I'm assuming they will also want to ban the use of feeding areas in the winter during harsh weather??? Does Iowa have any regulations preventing the import/export of captive deer and elk across its borders?? Would a deer travel twice as far to visit a salt block in a horse pasture that wouldn't be banned as opposed to using the one a deer hunter puts out for them in their own core area?? As I said before, if you're concerned about the transfer through the use of the mineral site, it means the problem is already there.
 
I am sure that there will be dissenting opinions but maybe this will help put all this in perspective a little.

What if you have tickets for an Iowa State basket ball game and when you get there you find out that everyone must enter through the same door and lick a mineral block before you can get in. Probably every person is feeling ok, or else why would they be going to a basketball game? Since colds and flu are going to occur any way why worry about it? How comfortable would you be considering all the other disease risks such as herpes, AIDS, HIV, hepatitis, TB, measles, and so on? Would you enter? Now suppose that you could use those same tickets next week for a Hawkeye basketball game and not be able to lick any thing. Which would you do?

With our rapidly declining deer herd it just doesn't make much sense to me to take any risk of even possibly helping to spread diseases that could pretty easily eliminate 30 or 40 or even 50 percent of the few deer we have left. Yes there will still be salt and mineral stations for cattle and other livestock, but these kind of sites have multiplied 100 fold with the commercialization of deer hunting in Iowa. How many such stations were in use before trail cams and easy scouting, and cataloging bucks came into vogue? I can easily answer that, only those set up by poachers to hunt illegally!!:p
 
bowmaker said:
I am sure that there will be dissenting opinions but maybe this will help put all this in perspective a little.

What if you have tickets for an Iowa State basket ball game and when you get there you find out that everyone must enter through the same door and lick a mineral block before you can get in. Probably every person is feeling ok, or else why would they be going to a basketball game? Since colds and flu are going to occur any way why worry about it? How comfortable would you be considering all the other disease risks such as herpes, AIDS, HIV, hepatitis, TB, measles, and so on? Would you enter? Now suppose that you could use those same tickets next week for a Hawkeye basketball game and not be able to lick any thing. Which would you do?

With our rapidly declining deer herd it just doesn't make much sense to me to take any risk of even possibly helping to spread diseases that could pretty easily eliminate 30 or 40 or even 50 percent of the few deer we have left. Yes there will still be salt and mineral stations for cattle and other livestock, but these kind of sites have multiplied 100 fold with the commercialization of deer hunting in Iowa. How many such stations were in use before trail cams and easy scouting, and cataloging bucks came into vogue? I can easily answer that, only those set up by poachers to hunt illegally!!:p
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First off......your analogy isn't fair.......nobody attends Iowa basketball games anymore, you'd be the only one walking through the gate.:D As far as the ban goes, I wouldn't have an issue falling in line with it, but I don't see a reason to shoot the cat because the dog crapped on the floor. Mineral sites and trail photos have been popular for at least ten years. In that time span whats kept CWD and TB from spreading already?
 
Critter said:
First off......your analogy isn't fair.......nobody attends Iowa basketball games anymore, you'd be the only one walking through the gate.:D As far as the ban goes, I wouldn't have an issue falling in line with it, but I don't see a reason to shoot the cat because the dog crapped on the floor. Mineral sites and trail photos have been popular for at least ten years. In that time span whats kept CWD and TB from spreading already?
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Okay Critter he needs to put Northern Iowa in there. :D

Good point though about the last ten years.

If our population was at a high you would think it would of surfaced if
there was going to be a problem.
Now since the population is starting to shrink it should be less of a concern.
 
pwrgraphics said:
Just wondering how many of you will continue to use mineral if it "doesn't" get it banned.
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I've always felt "dirty" doing it as it seemed too much like baiting even though I wasn't hunting it. Kind of the same way I feel about spot lighting........ :grin:
 
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