Growth this year

[miniwhitetails]

I know last year a lot of guys said they thought antler growth was down. Most of them pointed to the late green up in the spring as the cause. I thought it was hocus pocus as I had multiple shooters and deer that took big jumps. Last year was phenomenal for me. However, what are you guys seeing for antler growth this year? For me it does seem slightly down. Less big jumps in general. Just curious as to what others are seeing.

 

[northcedar]

The one good buck I know about so far just took a pretty good jump from 4.5 to 5.5.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Way better than last year across the board. Spring was 3 weeks sooner. No coincidence imo

 

[Sligh1]

75% made good jumps. The drought from
may into June had to have some impact. But lot of other factors helped most the bucks. Still getting cams up & matching bucks up so I might change thoughts on this with time.

 

[Buckscrape]

Very early spring here similar to '21. There will be some good deer coming out of Saskatchewan again this yr, much better than '22 when it was quite wet. The key here is drought. The deer here never run out of food in the summer and the nutrition jumps unbelievably during drought. High protein and packed with vitamins and minerals.

 

[miniwhitetails]

Very interesting. So your belief is that the drought actually helps with antler growth? I've always heard that years it is unusually wet are the best growing years. It is certainly interesting to hear different theories and opinions. I am also still getting cameras up and figuring out who's who. There's a few that show up in late august that I am very eager to see. I will say I do have one buck that is almost unrecognizable from the jump he made, so I shouldn't complain.

 

[T_Max]

Very early spring here similar to '21. There will be some good deer coming out of Saskatchewan again this yr, much better than '22 when it was quite wet. The key here is drought. The deer here never run out of food in the summer and the nutrition jumps unbelievably during drought. High protein and packed with vitamins and minerals.

There was a theory centered around this argument that explained why the biggest bull elk were found in desert regions. Something to do with the limited growth of plants under drought conditions led to each bite containing more nutrients and less water thereby making a stomach full of plant matter more nutritious overall. I'm not a scientist, so someone should really study this...

 

[Buckscrape]

In a wet year here wheat has a hard time hitting 13.5% protein. In a drought wheat will be high teens.
Used to test our hay every year ... dry yrs had 15 to 25% more tdn (total digestible nutrients) and protein was close to double that of a wet year.

 

[203ntyp]

So your belief is that the drought actually helps with antler growth?

I think it does from my observations over many years.

 

[CottonwoodCanyon]

In a wet year here wheat has a hard time hitting 13.5% protein. In a drought wheat will be high teens.
Used to test our hay every year ... dry yrs had 15 to 25% more tdn (total digestible nutrients) and protein was close to double that of a wet year.

Super interesting...I'd never heard that before.

 

[YtailFreak]

One of the B&C scorers in the state also swears that drought years produce bigger deer and claims he has the data to prove it.

Some say that on drought years, roots have to reach deeper and pull up more nutrients out of the soil which transfer to the deer when eaten.

 

[newfarmer]

Well if its a drought that makes big deer- I should have several 300" deer running around this year