Deer management and cull plans

Taff

Well-Known Member
What is the minimum Area required to have a management plan and cull plan, a lot of stalkers seem to bang on about them, but with fallow and reds be transient between estates and small parcels of land how can you make a selection. Roe are different but even with 600 acres of mixed woods and 300acres of grass, we see them traveling off the estate, so what is the minimum area needed.
 
To my reckoning you can only manage resident animals as you cant allow for a nieghbours plans , so in reality if you leave what you think is a prize beast and then it steps over the boundary into a nieghbouring property you are no longer in control and there is a good chance the nieghbour will shoot it .

I shoot over lots of permissions which total over 2000 acres , on the smaller permissions i leave young roe to mature hoping to increase the population only for the nieghbours to shoot everything on site . so in theory when i obstain they gain .( BIGGER FOOL ME ) but we can only do what we think is right .
i also shoot a couple of shared permissions but there is never anything left at the end of each season , in fact the shared grounds are barron of dear and the only shooting on them comes from deer travelling through , which is rare
 
I dont think there is a minimum area even on a large estate deer seldom respect boundaries and the nieghbours may have different management objectives. Personally i could not shoot a healthy young 10 or 12 pointer red regardless of what may or may not happen across the march.
your roe does and bucks will each have territories some wholey in your ground some shared with nieghbouring grounds. It is still worth having a plan. Get to know your residents and there areas . A lamp at night is a good way of getting a handle on what numbers your working with, observing dawn and dusk you will start to recognise territorial individuals and thereby transients moving through. To my mind transients are fair game
 
one of the best questions asked for along time Taff , it would be nice to see neighbours working together instead of "if i dont shoot that big buck next door will" . Look after the ones you have in the middle plant some willow and dog wood for them to brows on and put a couple of mineral blocks out
 
Well I think my question has been answered by the few responses,you cannot have a management plan for fallow and reds unless you have a very large acerage, anything less than a couple of thousand acres in one block. This is not to say you cannot abstain from shooting a certain deer, roe I would suggest need at least a thousand acre block if you have shooting neighbours. A lot of management on the southern estates and the new forest seem to be based on numbers and how much would someone would pay to shoot that good head. Debate
 
Unles thay sre in a fenced farm, or on an island, thay will expand thier range, as dominance changes and youngsters are chased out, but you can manage a pair of roe by taking the young each year, until a biger buck or more powerful doe decide that that area should be thiers.
In other words if you dont controle every thing your managment will be subjected to all of mother natures little whim's.


ATB Barry
 
Correct me if I’m wrong but are they not potentially two different things (although reliant to an extent on each other). Your deer management plan would set your medium / long term aims along with all the options to meet these aims, not only shooting the deer. Your aims could be to protect crops, re growth, newly planted trees, SSSI’s and or to maintain a deer population for venison or paid stalking. Your Cull Plan is the way you meet your aims. If a farmer with a couple of hundred acres on which he has some newly planted trees and is concerned about the crop damage might want a Deer Management Plan. This might include a recommendation by you for fencing to protect the new trees and the sighting of high seats to deal with the deer coming from the adjoining farms.
Your subsequent cull plan will then be designed to meet your aims. Most of us have come across farmers who just want the deer gone. What and when you shoot it, from a management point of view, needs to reflect what you need to achieve.
If the land owner wants a management plan, I would, within reason do one even if it was very basic.
 
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