How Many Deer Can Your Hunting Property hold??
This question keeps popping up and its not really easy to answer. Lets take a look at some factors that help determine how many deer your land can hold.
Years ago it was determined that on average you can roughly have about 25-30 deer per square mile to maintain a healthy deer herd. What does a healthy deer herd actually mean? It means you have 4-8 pounds of food per day per deer available for them to consume. It means deer thrive and not just survive. It means you don’t have winter kill in the northern states or very little. It means you see deer that look healthy and there ribs aren’t showing.
In my opinion its extremely hard to determine how many deer you can actually have per square mile when they do these studies. What you have on your land and how many deer can thrive may be different 15 minutes down the road. You have to look at your land and look at the food you have.
There is 2 main ways to see if you actually have enough food on your land.
first thing is to actually look at the deer on your land and within the area. Do you see deer that look skinny and you can see there ribs? Then most likely you have to many deer per square mile and or not enough food on your land and on neighboring properties.
Look at the browse on your land is it lip high? If you can see browse pressure on the food on your land and its chewed down to the ground you most likely have to many deer and or not enough food.
Each property has a carrying capacity. How many deer can it actually hold. Most properties do not have enough food. This is related to poor habitat management and to many deer. Where I am at here in Maryland some areas have over 80 deer per square mile. When you walk through the woods you see a browse line as far as deer can reach. They look unhealthy and you can see there ribs.
When doing habitat improvements that will increase food value (tonnage) you can “hold” more deer. But there needs to be a balance. Deer need space they don’t want to be crowded together. When you get into ag settings there is usually more food then deer can consume and you have lower deer numbers per square mile.
When I consult on properties I see a trend of people that are trying to feed the deer with little 1/4 acre food plots. This simply is not enough food. Food plots are supplemental! Deer live off of natural browse> without browse you have nothing! When you get into 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 acres of food plots you can actually start to make a difference. But always remember natural browse is the backbone to all healthy deer herds. Deer need forbs, grasses, briers, bushes, woody browse, hard mass and soft mass. This is would be high quality diverse food.
So to wrap this up. I would say you can have more then 25-30 deer per square mile if you have enough food. Go back to the basics. Look at the deer and look at your food. If the ribs are showing and the food and woody browse is lip high you do not have enough food and or to many deer. Do not try and cram more deer on your land with just food plots. Most likely they will just wear them out as well. Increase actual food value with more browse. Select cuts, hinge cutting, TSI and edge feathering are all great ways to increase food value.