I have about come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a cull deer. When you have a chance to watch a deer grow and see how it progresses, its pretty amazing. From what I have observed on my lease, which I started on in 2018, improving the nutritional quality in food plots goes a long way. I have some very nice younger bucks on camera, that would be shooter bucks in any hunting club short of a well managed one, and we never used to see very many. I used to see 1 or 2 rack bucks a year. This year I have seen 9.

There are factors that could influence that, like curtting members, but I think it has a lot to do with feeding them year round. When I watch how the deer respond to a whitetail clover plot, spending hours a day feeding in them, and I know its on limed and fertilized ground, I know that is the best nutrition on my lease they can consume.

Clover has been the backbone of that program, but the last 2 summers are forcing me to adjust some.

I can't do the habitat management Mbrock and a couple others talk about, so, this is the main thing I can manage. Even if a deer only eats in one of my plots 1 time a day, that is 1 time a day that deer is eating the best forage on the property. That moves the needle based upon what I have seen over the last 6 years.