How does Deer culling help deer?

Builderfromhell

In East Clare there have been reports of massive poaching and a resultant significant reduction in deer numbers. I have chatted with some local farmers about this and the views range from;
1. Kill as many of the f""ers you can the have wrecked my fences, eaten my grazing and killed trees.
to
2. It's a shame to see them being slaughtered. Miss seeing them around.

I am having difficulty making a case for controlled culling by responsible licensed deer hunters. I have searched this forum and google for information on how culling deer helps the herd as well as providing quality food and sport for hunters.
any advice and opinions much appreciated.

iwsf

too many deer would result of less food available which in turn would result in less healthy deer / weaker deer and prone to disease.
But by the way poaching is going it is unlikely to happen

poulo6.5

Builderfromhell wrote: »

In East Clare there have been reports of massive poaching and a resultant significant reduction in deer numbers. I have chatted with some local farmers about this and the views range from;
1. Kill as many of the f""ers you can the have wrecked my fences, eaten my grazing and killed trees.
to
2. It's a shame to see them being slaughtered. Miss seeing them around.

I am having difficulty making a case for controlled culling by responsible licensed deer hunters. I have searched this forum and google for information on how culling deer helps the herd as well as providing quality food and sport for hunters.
any advice and opinions much appreciated.

a controlled cull by responsible hunters will keep the numbers of deer in such that they will not over graze their available food source and will minimize the lightly hood that they will cause much if any damage to farm land and forestry.

HUNTING deer in a legal and responsible manner is the best way to do this.

however there are some out there that see deer as easy money and will lamp them while they are out in the open and they make an easy target. this is irresponsible and dangerous and will soon leave us with little or no deer of poor health as low numbers will cause in breading.

in short a controlled cull will keep the farmers happy and also the lad that likes to see them around from time to time.

Builderfromhell

Thanks for replies.

In the interest of sustainable hunting do deer hunters shoot some deer more than others. For example would you aim for a doe instead of a stag or other deer.

daithi55

Builderfromhell wrote: »

In East Clare there have been reports of massive poaching and a resultant significant reduction in deer numbers. I have chatted with some local farmers about this and the views range from;
1. Kill as many of the f""ers you can the have wrecked my fences, eaten my grazing and killed trees.
to
2. It's a shame to see them being slaughtered. Miss seeing them around.

I am having difficulty making a case for controlled culling by responsible licensed deer hunters. I have searched this forum and google for information on how culling deer helps the herd as well as providing quality food and sport for hunters.
any advice and opinions much appreciated.

poachers arent worried about deer numbers there just after easy money
i woudnt class them as hunters never mind responsible licensed deer hunters
theres many calibres out there that will kill a deer at 30 or 40 yards
id presume most people poaching arent using deer calibres or else they might have only applied for a deer license once to obtain a deer calibre
also i wouldnt be relying on google or forums like this to get your information
id be going to meets that deer groups have around the country
whats to say im not a poacher
or anyone else on here and advising you incorrectly

also why are you trying to make this case are you a deer hunter is it a project for college?

BryanL

Poaching will only slow down, when the price of venison drops, the recession is over and more guys with licences and permission start shooting more deer and keeping deer at lower numbers.

Too many guys trying to maintain big herds so they can harvest a Trophy every year or 2, or make money from producing trophies for clients.

Get shooting deer on your own permission, keeping female numbers low will keep herds and heads healthy

Longranger

daithi55 wrote: »

also why are you trying to make this case are you a deer hunter is it a project for college?

Good question! If you are a hunter BFH, then you shouldn't have to ask this

FISMA

Builderfromhell wrote: »

In East Clare there have been reports of massive poaching and a resultant significant reduction in deer numbers. I have chatted with some local farmers about this and the views range from;
1. Kill as many of the f""ers you can the have wrecked my fences, eaten my grazing and killed trees.
to
2. It's a shame to see them being slaughtered. Miss seeing them around.

I am having difficulty making a case for controlled culling by responsible licensed deer hunters. I have searched this forum and google for information on how culling deer helps the herd as well as providing quality food and sport for hunters. any advice and opinions much appreciated.

Please define: "massive poaching", state who is reporting this, and how the determination of a significant reduction in deer numbers was arrived at. I get the feeling that your statement is colloquial and not one backed up by facts. If I am mistaken, please show these facts.

Lampers are unlikely to have a significant effect on a population. Deer are prolific breeders. According to my sources in the agricultural sciences, you can take 40% of a herd with a net zero effect. That is culling 40% keeps the number of the herd constant.

I'll speak to the deer population in America. In the states, between 200 and 300 deaths occur in deer-automobile accidents. In some states, more deer and/or moose die as a result of automobile accidents than hunting.

Deer do not conserve. They overpopulate. This leads to two problems: inbreeding and habit destruction. Inbreeding leads to an unhealthy herd and inevitably to massive loss of life.

During the overpopulation phase, massive loss of habitat occurs. In the US, the Pennsylvanian hardwood industry is particularly hurt by too many deer. I believe the total losses in the US is $3,000,000,000 per year - that's three billion dollars a year.

So, in my humble opinion, cull away.

By the way, what farmers miss them? I've never met any dairy farmers that miss their grass being eaten.

My dairy farming family in Ireland spends a lot of time and money on grass. In fact, they send samples of grass to the US where it is analyzed. They are sent back "recipes" for custom tailored fertilizer.

It took a while for them to finally give this a shot. Especially, since it's not cheap and dairy farming isn't exactly the most profitable endeavor. However, the results were clear, especially around the calving season.

Now imagine how we feel when Bambi comes to feed!;)

Tackleberrywho

+1


Poachers only take handy or dumb deer.

All the clever deer go high up the mountain or deep into the bog.
The Deer hunting season determines what we cull. Come New years eve we are reduced to Does/hinds and Antlerless deer.

Every year we read of Deer populations on the increase from Government sources, and on the decrease from guys on boards.

Had I more free time I could have got 10 or 20 deer this season. I never saw as many deer as this year, in great condition considering the previous 2 winters.

Deer hunting licences are given out on Deer numbers, not just for the craic.

If you want to find deer, get off the net and out into the field at Dawn and Dusk and any time in between

meathstevie

In my opinion there's two things happening.

First is that there's populations establishing in areas where there weren't any residential populations until quite recently. That goes for red, sika, hybrids and fallow. To me that indicates that populations in older established areas have gotten too big to hang around and have branched out into surrounding areas often resulting in agricultural damage. If you'd see what five or six big reds can do to a field of winter barley or to a plantation of saplings you wouldn't want to be walking in the farmers' shoes.

Second is that in the more well known established deer areas - especially where there's relatively easy road access - a significant amount of poaching is going on. I don't have any hard evidence for stating that but the simple fact is that there's plenty of anecdotal information about and not all of that is based on fabrication and embellishment. When I talk to farmers in an area who I know to be serious folks and they tell me something then I'm inclined to believe them. The facts might not be 100% on the money but they won't be too far off either.

Builderfromhell

To answer a few questions;
I am not a hunter but interested in taking it up. For that reason I have invited some people from this forum over here to hunt. I have got permissions in excellent areas where I am told there are deer.

The locals have told me about massive poaching with refrigerated vans and jeeps driving in remote areas late at night. I have no reason to believe or dis-believe.

I do occasionally drive up the hills at sundown to see deer and look for poachers but have never seen anyone or even tyre tracks on the muddy roads I am driving on.

It was a farmers wife who said she missed deer. farmers are practical people and not so emotional, I think.

The question about the need to cull deer has been well answered in replies, thank you very much. If I thought, by taking up hunting, I would be decimating an already depleted stock of deer then I would not pursue hunting as a sport.

widespread

If you are going to get permission, and it is the duty of the responsible hunter as many here claim they are, to do a count of the deer in the area and from that calculate the number of deer that it is nessecary to cull. Which if you are a properly trained hunter you will know.

But in this country we have a get out clause. If a farmer complains about too many deer. we just go in and shoot the s$%t out of the place. So therefore a lot of licensed hunters can also be accused of overshooting.

If you have a Coillte lease for instance, How many people with lease's actually obey the cull numbers on the permit "very few".

So even through, lots of us here think we are pillars of the shooting community. We don't always get it right either and maybe a little to blame for the massive reduction in the deer numbers.

If a farmer in an area give out about deer on his land and give's lots of people access to shoot. then they are not poaching if they have there correct license's but how many people here sit down with everyone that has permission to shoot in there area and come up with a cull figure for the year.