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Marty's Whitetail Management plan

Started by jeff, February 18, 2001, 09:32:23 AM

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Jeff

Marty has been manageing his property and woodlands in an effort to improve whitetail Deer Habitat.

He sent me this picture to show how things are going...  
"WHITE TAIL DEER HABITAT"

Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Ron Scott

That looks like artificial feeding. The turkeys are all for it.
~Ron

Jeff

Nah, you can't feed over there. Somebody just threw some outdated Orville Redenbacher's poppingcorn in the burning barrel.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

marty

Feeding turkeys is ok in 452. That feeder is a DNR approved turkey feeder. Those birds stay on my place year around. In the spring and summer they cruise the food plots for bugs. I plan to move that feeder and see if deer come back in. I'm thinking that the turkeys keep the deer away.....marty:P

Jeff

I am sure they do Marty, although others will disagree. I lived in Hatton Township in Clare county form 1979 to 1984. Some of you may remember the Old Michigan outdoors episode from that Time period where they used the explosive propelled nets to capture turkeys for transplant in other parts of the state. That was just a section or so from where I lived.

I spent a lot of time watching those turkeys run deer off of our rye field. Maybe the deer are more tolerant now, but they certainly were not back then.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

marty

As soon as the ice and snow is gone I plan to move that feeder up behind my house. I think turkeys have something to do with not seeing deer. Have to see this year.........marty  
                            8)8)8)

Ron Scott

Yes, the turkey will run the deer off the feeder. The deer don't care to hassle with them as long as they have a food source somewhere else. That may be the case if you are not seeing any deer in the feeder area. Also if the feeder is only approved for turkey use. They will keep the deer away from "their tuff" and food. They will develop a pecking order with the deer. Big deer eat first and small deer later or not at all.
~Ron

marty

With the amount of turkeys I have on my place maybe the deer stay out till after dark. Going to move that feeder and see if things get better....marty

timberbeast

Any thoughts on if this really causes Bovine Tuberculosis?  I feed them myself,  but don't want to cause any trouble with the herd.  Where my place is,  by Sept-Oct or so,  they're more interested in in the cedar slash I have on the ground.  The does come to the corn before dark,  don't know about after,  but haven't seen many big tracks.  By the way,  I just joined,  and I'm pleased to meet you all.
Where the heck is my axe???

L. Wakefield

   Hi- I'm a bit confused on the bovine TB. Do you mean the turkeys can give it to the deer, or the deer bring a strain of TB to cows fed off the corn? I am aware of problems with poultry (chickens and roosters) mixing with turkeys and or pheasants- the turkeys and pheasants usually die. Can you clarify this? I have wild turkeys, deer, moose, and bovines running around as well as a flock of hens safely segregated for the moment.   Louise W.
L. Wakefield, owner and operator of the beastly truck Heretik, that refuses to stay between the lines when parking

Jeff

L. I think the question refers to the practice of feeding or "baiting". The theory is that the deer are spreading Bovine T.B. because of the nose to nose contact at feeding or baiting stations.

In natural circumstances A deer that had T.B. would have limited contact of this type with other deer, and would expire faster then the disease can spread.

In Michigan baiting had become huge, and the arrival, and growth of T.B. seems to correlate.

I have heard the theory that deer acquired the disease initially from eating the corn from cow manure piles, where the warmth of the composting manure allowed the T.B. to live and infect the deer. That sounds logical to me. But I am a believer in the fact that baiting is the vehicle in which the disease has spread.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

marty

It's hard to tell how TB got started or whether it does spread by baiting/feeding. I just read an article by Richard Smith who feels that TB is mostly spread through mothers milk and the "nose to nose contact that deer do to each other. There's also part of the article where testing was done at Ames Iowa with the National Animal Disease Center that transmission seems primarly through the air rather than food sources.

A fellow I know who use to farm here in DMU 452 told me that TB was in the cattle herd back in the 1940's. The turkeys that I feed use a feeder where deer can't get to the food source and so far no turkeys has be ever found to have TB. However several meat-eating animals coyote,racoon and even a bear have tested positive from the disease which experts say most likley from a dead animal or a gut-pile. Just my 2 cents........marty ::)

timberbeast

Marty,  I wasn't implying that turkeys spread TB to deer,  but don't know.  It just seems that feeding and baiting is being blamed for this disease spreading at the time.  I don't know if it is true or not.  Personally,  I just throw out a few sacks of corn in strategic places during the summer to keep the trails established.  If the herd was to be decimated by TB,  I wouldn't like myself if I knew I contributed to it.  Hunting season I just throw out a couple of buckets every other day at main stands.  In Marquette County,  we have a poor buck to doe ratio,  and I'm of a mind to shoot the does,  but usually cannot get a doe license.  The big bucks stick in the swamps in daylight.  This problem is excacerbated by the night hunters.  Lots of spotlights at bait piles at 3 AM when I'm asleep.
Where the heck is my axe???

Robert_in_W._Mi.

  I have deer and turkeys on my farm, we see then all most every day.  
  I plant food plots, as we enjoy seeing the animials, and we all so hunt.  If there are turkeys in my field, the deer get very nervous and move away.  What they don't like is all the movement.  If a couple turkeys are out, and stay fairly still the deer will come out near them too.
  Robert
 
  My Saw Mill Pictures,
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=1331114

SwampDonkey

Cattle can contract T.B. and spread it even to humans. T.B. in wood buffalo or bison and African water buffalo came from cattle, but the buffalo are destroyed. It was a disease not native to North America. T.B. can infect any part of the body, not just lungs or mucuos membranes although that is likely the first entry point. I've had the disease myself, at 2 years of age. Actually, there is no 100 % cure from the disease, it just goes into dormancy as some bacteria do. New strains are being discovered that are immune to the antibiotics discovered in 1969.

Some papers:
http://www.montana.edu/~wwwcbs/tbbib.html
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Corley5

TB in our Michigan deer originally came from cattle.  It was through artificial feeding and over-population that it spread in the deer herd and then back to cattle.  Bear, bobcats, coyotes, possums, feral house cats, foxes, raccoons, and elk have tested positive in addition to whitetails and dairy and beef herds.  It's thought that the disease reaches a dead end in predators and scavengers.  It only infects there guts and isn't believed to be transmissable through them unlike elk, deer and cattle that transmit it through their respiratory systems.  I know several people who test positive for TB but are not infected with it.  At sometime in their lives they were exposed to it and their bodies produced TB antibodies.  One guy in particular worked for us collecting deer heads for TB testing.  He told the Dept that he always tested positive and he did.  It took a $1,500.00 chest X-ray to prove that he wasn't infected.  Some of the videos I've watched at our training sessions are pretty graphic.  TB lesions can occur anywhere on or in the body :o
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