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Best Management Practices

2K views 13 replies 14 participants last post by  BigBuck 
#1 ·
I know the sky is the limit with deep pocket books; however, I am looking for some thoughts/opinions on management practices within reasonable parameters and budget.



I am on a lease (family/friends) that I have been hunting with my entire life. Leases have taken us from the Rice land in Magnolia, to Madisonville to Franklin to Menard now the Hill Country. We have been on the present lease for the past 9-years. We are in the final year of a three-year lease and ready to renew. However, we have been trying to lease an additional pasture for the past 6-years and the property owner is a bit hesitant to lease the entire ranch to one camp. There are 10 guns on our lease of about 1200 ac. The addition of the second pasture would add 1200 ac and we would add no more than 5 guns. We do not hunt hard, it's more of a family lease with the exception of opening weekend. We have been managing our pasture with protein from January through September, culling out spikes/cull bucks, providing water sources through-out the property, and thinning pigs. The ranch is partially high-fenced with a low fence splitting the two pastures. The efforts of the neighboring camp, to our knowledge, is more of a shoot to kill, antler hunting, and no protein feeders. They are basically reaping the benefits of our management. For example, a member of our lease who hunts near the common low fence, have let a few number of quality young eight walk crossing the low fence. Within 10 to 15 minutes later we hear a shot or two then conversations on the good ol' two-way radios that one is down.



Speaking with the ranch manager we asked him the possibility of leasing the entire ranch. The manager indicated though the property owner is reluctant to lease to one camp, the owner would entertain leasing to our camp since we are a "hassle free" outfit. The owner is asking us to submit a proactive management program for the entire lease in which the owner and manger would entertain for the lease of the whole ranch.



I would like some thoughts on management practices and procedures. All thoughts/ideas are welcome and greatly appreciated.



Thank you in advance.

 
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#3 ·
My suggestion would be to hire a private wildlife consultant who works closely with the state. Follow his or her recomendations to the letter and ask them queestions. Check into MLDP and see if the landowner would be willing to allow it. However if you are really looking to manage the place you are in for a ton of work.
 
#4 ·
1200 is to small to manage with the neighbors hunting the same deer not managing. But it can get better by being a good example. You should start by asking your local Wildlife Dept of TPWD and ask about how many deer per acres with that area and what they manage with other properties. Where I hunt 10 people per 1200 acres would not make it. We got about 1 buck per 800 acres for harvest in the past. Call the local office of TPWD wildlife.
 
#5 ·
One thing that comes to mind on a mangement plan that I believe is the most important is to manage the hunting. While supplemental feeding is good, you must be strict about what gets taken. All the feed in the world cannot replace age and the time needed for deer to mature. This takes a lot of restaint to let very nice (trophy deer in somes eyes) just walk. You must also have a plan in place to remove culls and a surplus of does.

Have you any idea what the owner has in mind as far as what they think a good plan should look like? A good plan to you may not be that attractive to someone else. Do some homework before submitting a plan. The internet is full of infomation. Not all works for every place or condition.

Just my thoughts,
Shallow
 
#6 ·
call TP&W and find out who your area biologist is and meet with him,,you may need to get on a LAMPS or MLD program

set up X amount of deer/year to be taken and stick w/ it to get your ratio right.

shoot the culls especially and extra does off early as poss.

set up a reasonable feeding program

meet w neighbors and all get on the same page.... horn size / min age etc....

biggesthing that ever screws up a lease program is some yahoo bringing his guest/buddies out and they all blast everything that moves and then everyone is mad for years...
 
#7 ·
Sounds to me like the land owner would be convinced to turn over the entire ranch if he likes your management plan.

You can do some searches on the Internet including TPW's site and get some good basic information.

Taking care of the property and the game on the property is critical on any plan. Allowing deer to reach the right age will do miracles to any land holding in addition to establishing a 1:1 buck to doe ratio.
 
#8 ·
since you have been hunting there awhile, you should have a real good idea about the deer herd. put together a sound plan that would benefit the deer, the hunters and land owner(s). emphasize the importance to your fellow hunters about taking cull bucks and harvesting enough does to keep the ratios in line. it is very hard to manage property, that is low fenced, knowing your neighbors are not on the same wavelength. i would think the landowner would rather deal with one group and not 2. it sounds like you have some work ahead of you to try and get the deal resolved. one thing about land owners - they have their own idea about what they want and sometimes nothing can change their minds (have been on several long term leases and found that out - regardless of how good you think you know the land owner). some land owners only care about the type of hunters they have - not game. you know more about your situation. good luck
 
#10 ·
Looks to me that you are already doing right by the land owner if you have been there for 9 yrs & he is getting ready to let you sign a new contract. I would think if he had a problem with your group he would have let yall know by now. If this where my property I would lease the whole ranch to just 1 group vs multi groups less pain.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Everyone here is right to recomend that you get in touch with the local TPW guy, but be sure to challenge his knowledge. I've been a part of a situation where we were forced to employ a "Wildlife manager" who was using extrapolated kill counts to compile our kill quotas. Well he was not allowing for the fact that the majority of the animals being shot, were all being shot in the same grazing areas (which were the best grazing areas), which if applied to a 50K acre ranch where most of the acreage has a lower carrying capacity than the most prime grazing acreage, could largely overstate quotas. Turns out that was the case, we could never reach our quota, kept blasting and blasting all the while being told we needed to shoot more and that our buck to doe ratio was too large which was why we weren't seeing any improvement in our herd. Then one day landowner comes to us and says, "You guys are over-harvesting, and BTW, your lease is no longer up for renewal."

We were simply operating the rules dictated to us. We had been on the place 15 years, so clearly we were maintaining the facilities, etc. Moral of the story, it's incumbent on you as the lessee to make sure the game plan submitted stands up to scrutiny and protects your interest in the leasehold estate.
 
#12 ·
Convince him of the truth...you've got a "leave it better than you found it" mentality. He already considers you to be hassle free. I don't know if a private consultant is the best use of your dollars, but I would certainly work through the landowner to contact the local TP&W biologist. Based off the biologist recomendations I would spend your money on protein and habitat improvements. If you get the point accross that by leasing the property to you he will be making an investment instead of leasing it to someone who isn't looking to the future. Best of luck...
 
#13 · (Edited)
In managing a deer lease, the goal is to develop "Buck Habitat." In developing buck habitat, there must first be browse, water and bedding areas.

The first thing that needs to be done is get a herd inventory. Knowing how many deer your lease can support, the number of bucks and number of does is crucial in deeer management. There are several ways to getting an accurate herd inventory. Having several groups corning roads at the same time and videoing the deer coming to eat can be useful in determining your herd count and B:D ratio. Videoing in conjuntion with game cams work well. It is not 100% accurate but it will give you good numbers that you can work with.

Bucks are in competition with does for browse and bedding areas. So it is crucial to manage your doe population. Now that we have a fairly accurate herd inventory, we can set a target number of does to be removed from the lease and set a Buck:Doe ration. Depending on the area the buck:doe ration should be about 1:1. Many will disagree with this but remember our goal is to build buck habitat.

After we get the buck:doe ratio in check, our next item of business is to introduce protein to the herd. Protein can be introduced as field peas or soy beans mixed with the corn in our feeders 3 corn:1 peas. There are other protein supplements available but peas or beans are very economical and high in protien. We can discuss other products at a later time but the important part is to get the young bucks introduced to some protein.

The third part of a management plan is to promote the best genetics possible into the herd. So we must develop a plan by which we cull our inferior bucks. Only the bucks with the best genetic potential need to breed. How a cull is determined is subjective. Please take my analogies in proper context.

CULL ALL SPIKES. Yes it is true that many spikes will grow to be nice 8 pt. But do they carry the best genetic potential in the herd? Will they add or take away from the herd's future quality? If you see a 1 1/2 yr. old 4pt and a 1 1/2 yr old spike, the spike is carrying inferior genetic traits and needs to go.

At 3 1/2 yrs, all buck in the heard should be 8 pt+. If you see a 3 1/2 yr 6pt., he's carrying inferior gentetics and needs to go.

At 5 1/2 yrs, all bucks should be 10pt+. if you see a 5 1/2 8pt., he's carrying inferior genetics and needs to go.

At 7 1/2 yrs, a 10pt+ buck has reached his physical peak. He is the best he can possibly be. The odds are he was a dominant buck and had many oppertunities to reproduce, so his seed has been passed down to the next generations. It is now time for him to go on the wall.

The most important part is it has to be a team sport. Every member of the lease has to abide by the rules. There has to be individual sacrifice for the good of the over all lease. If everyone is not sold on the plan, it won't work.

For the small lease sinerios, Someone from another ranch will reap the rewards of your hard work. But if we build buck habitat, the odds are statistically better that we will see a buck with the greatest genentic potential. We can try to meet with our neighboring ranches but you don't want their hunters staked out on your fence line either. I would see if your ranch owner can talk to his neighbors but i would not push it.

By establishing a management plan such as this, we are also minimizing the pressure on the buck herd. Let the other yahoos shoot at everything that moves. It only increases the odds that our big boys will stay home.

Just my $.02,

Charlie

PS I am available for consultation. LOL
 
#14 ·
Management

I agree with trying to use TP&Ws assets (biologist) to establish deer densities, herd composition and ratios, and habitat carrying capacities. I think Chunkin Charlie hit it about right. One thing to consider is how does the landowner feel? Does he support sound management or does he have his own ideas. I have seen many times where the ranchers thought the biologist were idiots for suggesting one thing or another. I would tell the landowner your plans and feel him out to be sure he/she is in agreement with them. On managing small places: It is a bummer to pass a buck only to have someone over the fence shoot them, but what is the alternative? Shoot the young bucks on your side? If you are serious about management, and you are low fenced, these things will happen. We manage only 3,500 acres, and we have noticably improved our bucks. Then we hear the neighbor rancher bragging about his hunters killing 23 bucks over the Thanksgiving holiday, off the same size place. It does tend to pi** you off, but we will still manage because it is the right thing to do for us.
Good luck, sounds like you have a great group that takes care of the place. Ranchers really do appreciate that, unfortunately it is not always so.
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