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Hot Summer= Big Antlers

CurtisWalker

CurtisWalker

Well-Known Member
I’m not sure if there’s any scientific evidence on it or not but my taxidermist who raises deer says that many of the deer farmers say that hot summers produce the biggest racks. So maybe having the rain and the heat will make for some dang good antler growth this summer. I know I’ve already seen some toads while out glassing.


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Not sure if the truth to that either, maybe a correlation to
1. Great rain and growing season
2. Some of the best crops I have seen in years to date
3. Cool spring and lower stress on the deer
4. Fairly benign winter at least in my parts

Hopefully this all adds up to a healthy herd, I have also seen some whoppers just not on my properties thus far
 
maybe this is part of it?... thinking out loud.... cold weather causes smaller/shrunken blood vessels. Which creates higher blood pressure. Heat would do opposite - opening blood vessels up. In theory, i would imagine that would/could increase blood flow to antlers. Obviously building bigger antlers.
Could be right & that would be my guess “how or why”.
Now- by far, imo, the biggest impact is rain. The forage, nutrition & stress from lack of water have huge swings based on rain. No rain- much less tonnage or browse, water & all nutrition needed. Causes stress to deer as well. No water & extreme heat (stress) cannot be good for deer & why many saw disappointing growth last year. I had total bean failures where there should have been lush protein rich beans. It was a disastrous year. This year- rain has been great. Hopeful!!!!
 
Sligh1 said:
maybe this is part of it?... thinking out loud.... cold weather causes smaller/shrunken blood vessels. Which creates higher blood pressure. Heat would do opposite - opening blood vessels up. In theory, i would imagine that would/could increase blood flow to antlers. Obviously building bigger antlers.
Could be right & that would be my guess “how or why”.
Now- by far, imo, the biggest impact is rain. The forage, nutrition & stress from lack of water have huge swings based on rain. No rain- much less tonnage or browse, water & all nutrition needed. Causes stress to deer as well. No water & extreme heat (stress) cannot be good for deer & why many saw disappointing growth last year. I had total bean failures where there should have been lush protein rich beans. It was a disastrous year. This year- rain has been great. Hopeful!!!!
Click to expand...

Agreed. ^^ FWIW, rainfall, or lack thereof, would be my strong lean as to the primary factor in lesser antler growth in a given year.
 
Not sure scientifically but I noticed years ago that when we had an above normal, very hot summers I would see bigger antlered deer and wondered if the hot summer was a part of that reason?
 
I have never heard of this but I think there could be some logic behind makes sense.
 
FWIW: Adequate rainfall to ensure quality & quantity of forage is the number one factor for antler growth in deer and elk according to the ranchers & outfitters in WY, CO and NM that I have talked to. Good groceries = good growth!
 
Skip, I was thinking the same thing last night about blood flow. We are a little dry here in NW MO but should have sufficient browse. I'm just starting to look around to see what antler growth is like but nothing popping out so far.
 
I don't know if I'm buying into HOT summers producing BIG racks. At least, not a single summer. Multiple hot summers, with adequate rain, can produce an abundance of food & water, and helps combat the disease carrying midge fly. Good genetics, mature age range, low stress, and good nutrition & water, will produce big racks. It doesn't happen all in 1 season though, unless it's the year an immature buck transitions into a mature buck, but that's due more to age, genetics and nutrition than it is HOT weather.
 
Here is an interesting question. Lets say we had one of those magical summers where one put on one of those crazy jumps like 40-50". It would be very interesting if the next year would they stay about the same with a wash in horn growth from the previous year or would you see another 10-15% jump again to be more in line for "average" growth? This is all assuming the second year was "average" for summer conditions.
 
In humans, fingers, toes and limbs act as radiators to cool the body in hot weather. Blood flowing outward to the antlers and back to the core of the body act as a radiator for body. The more surface area of antler exposed to air flow causes more cooling in hot weather. So maybe the hotter the weather, the more "radiator" (antler) the body needs to dissipate heat.
 
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