How Spring and Summer Drought Affects Whitetail Deer
As you can see by this map, much of whitetail country, from Texas to Michigan to Pennsylvania, is abnormally dry to moderate drought. A few pockets in the Midwest are extremely dry. Here in the Virginia Piedmont where I live and hunt, we’re 7 inches short of normal rainfall, and the corn and beans are parched and only inches high in many areas. How will these dry conditions affect the deer herds, and how might it affect the hunting this fall? First, in areas where there is insufficient moisture, crop and native plant growth is stunted, and the plants lack the nutrition that deer need for prime health. Biologists point out that drought conditions make new growth on shrubs harden [...]