In early June I got this picture from our friend Dan: Gonna keep an eye on this one… 1,300 pics from 2 cams,  15 different bucks so far, this one is the biggest… 3 others have potential, a lot of growing to do in the next 2 months.  Most bucks likely more to show up here to their summer range later… Later on in June Dan wrote: He might be a younger deer. Straight back and belly.  What are your thoughts on age? I wrote back and said that judging bucks in summer in tough, they look lean and have skinny necks…  Long Brow's rack had a major growth spurt! In July: Weekly update of Long Brow. His G2s are finally above [...]

Today’s guest blog from our friend and habitat-management specialist Matt “Flatlander” Cheever: Hey Mike: Here are some quick thoughts on how to save some money on food plots if your budget is strapped, or you don't have the ability to move large equipment from property to property. Seed depth is critical for quality deer food plot success. Recently I didn’t have the ability to take all the equipment that I normally would to a property where I planted a plot. I had no way to sufficiently drag in the seed. I wanted just a small amount of topsoil over the brassicas. Rule of thumb is all seed gets buried at twice the depth of the size of a seed (I.E. [...]

Above normal temperatures--say a string of 90-plus days with high humidity--cause whitetails to stress. The amount of stress is dependent on the quality of the habitat. Deer consume more water than any other mineral (water is a mineral, a naturally occurring substance). The amount of water deer need increases during hot and dry periods in summer. Where good water is abundant, no big deal. But where water is limited either by quantity or quality, some of a deer’s bodily functions are limited, such as transferring calcium to growing antlers or milk production for fawns. Deer travel to find water. But if they are forced out of their home range in search of H2O, bucks and does expend huge amounts of [...]