One of the most basic and simplest methods of determining fawn recruitment rate is by simple looking at the lactation rates of the does that you harvest. Each time you harvest a doe, look to see if she has milk running out when you gut her and make note of how many do and how many don’t. Keep track of that percentage from year to year and look at the trends. For example, let’s say for 5-6 years in a row, 70-80% of our does that were harvested were lactating (had milk). All of sudden we see lactation rates drop down to 40-50%. We can then assume that something has changed and therefore we may need to adjust our harvests accordingly. If we see this trend continue for several years then we may need to take a closer look at the root cause of the problem.

The limitations of just using lactation rates though is that it doesn’t give you any idea of how many does had twins and how many just had singletons. It only tells you which deer nursed fawns and which ones lost them. It does however, give you some baseline so that you could at least recognize if recruitment rates were really, really low. In order to really get a better idea of fawn recruitment its better to also look at some trail cam data as well as what hunters see in the woods.