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Helping out the deer.

I always wondered what happens with deer in extreme snow. Heard about 4-5' in New York... deer cant possibly move can they?
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
I always wondered what happens with deer in extreme snow. Heard about 4-5' in New York... deer cant possibly move can they?
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I saw some videos from the Dakota after this last storm if deer with snow/ice glazed over their eyes and a giant snow/ice ball on its mouth. The deer was on a road and couldn't see where it was going so the person cleared it off so they could breathe/eat/see
 
This is what happens when there is a big snow followed by a week straight of below 0 air temps. Found this one shed hunting in March, there were numerous signs of bark eaten off the trees. Massive mainframe 8 point. Wasn't the only one found

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A bunch of deer are wintering near my 40 in Minnesota that borders a huge block of timber . They love the cover and all the farm ground was wheat and they did cover crop of turnips and rye on 400 acres of crop ground around it.

There is probably 150-200 deer in there now. Pic from earlier in the fall of the cover crop ! Really helps the wildlife in these cold temps !74BF5D61-0431-4AC6-9AED-0709A30021E4.jpeg
 
Deer have been dealing with and surviving horrible winter storms since the beginning of time and are very resourceful. They know how to gather together and create warmth with each other. Do some die? Yes the weak, the injured, the sick may die because it's called survival of the fittest for a reason. I'm not quite sure we could ever do enough after a storm nor during it to make any significant difference in their survival outcome. They have a place to go in those conditions and we probably don't have a clue where that is and by randomly doing something somewhere may not help at all.
 
The things that truly “help them” are listed above. Cutting trees with lots of buds on top is probably #1. Like super thick hickories that need thinned anyways. Spend a day thinning them and it will help. Same with alfalfa bales.
Clearly we all know that deer without corn around - throwing corn out is very bad for them.
Woody browse vs an area without any is a HUGE difference in winter survival. Along with thermal cover like cedars, switchgrass, etc.
When snow is 2-3’ deep- yikes, ya, back to betting on deer being survival machines to come through like they have for many years. But it sure has to wipe a lot out if they never do reach that good woody browse & thermal cover. Which- those 2 things can be fixed. I’d suspect those areas in N where clear cuts are coming back for example - have a far better survival rate for deer vs the open forest that’s never been touched with nothing on bottom for deer.
 
Sorghum is not a preferred food source in Minnesota for deer, but the deer and pheasants are hammering it now, with the snow !
 
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