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“Herded up” question

Rous14

PMA Member
seems like this time of year it’s common to see deer in much of the Midwest herded up in big groups. On my farm in IL last weekend me and my daughters had a group of 70 (literally counted each of them as they went through) and they were all together in the same large bedding area of my farm. The bedding area is a large chunk of crep ground and so they could have easily been dispersed all throughout it instead of grouped up all together. I’ve always been a bit of a skeptic or doubter is maybe a better word for the whole social stress concept and have always thought that it was just another way to justify shooting does and the reduction of deer herds in most states.
Guess my question is, what’s the theory on why deer do this if social stress (especially at the toughest time of year for them) is a legit thing?
 
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I’ve seen it in winter. That’s about it. Or with bachelor groups of bucks. This time of year I haven’t noticed it. But I guess I haven’t paid super close attention. Was there some sort of desirable food source nearby?
In winter- usually grouped up due to a desirable bedding location that’s safe with a hot food source they want. A lot of other food is likely gone & deer are hitting the remaining food or the best quality food. When I watch the big groups- the does are still kicking at eachother for space & bucks are lightly sparring or squaring off with other bucks. So- u can see “stress” to some degree. Their need to bulk up for winter and eat best food sources trump anything. I also think around that time of year- they group up to stay alert for hungry predators. Few deer make the alert and the whole field clears often times.

I had one part of my farm a couple years ago with hardly a deer track (food was long gone) & other side had piles & piles of deer but had food left. Was insane how they herded up with that winter of feb-march 2019. Thankfully that was a rare year and food got wiped out by majorly concentrated deer fighting brutal conditions.
 
I’ve never seen deer in MN grouped up in late spring. Winter many times. We had 300+ in a field of cover crop brassica/turnips in late 2019. Incredible sight
 
Agree w you guys, it does seem like it happens in late winter more often but as I witnessed on my farm I think you do see it some in the very early spring too. And I get that if there’s a high quality food source in the area at that time of year then it will draw a bunch of deer in to it but in my case while I have about a 6 acre standing corn plot I also have somewhere around 150 acres of very good bedding cover. So once they get done feeding in the corn I’m not sure why the majority of them would essentially all go bed down together in the same area ( the bedding is all nearly exactly the same, crep bottom, flat land, stem count, etc...) instead of dispersing out IF the social stress concept is truly a legit thing.
Seems like the “best years” of hunting in IL, and I’m assuming this is true for Iowa too, where the most old/big bucks were walking around were in years where the overall deer numbers were at their all time peak levels.
 
Here comes the downer guy loneranger with his observations from his part of Iowa. I have Never seen large groups of deer together in my area. This may be a good thing with CWd. Most I’ve seen together maybe 8.
 
lots of field work bing done here so everything getting pushed back into timbers until mushroom hunters push them out
 
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