Are Deer Food Plots Legal

Planting food for deer is a popular activity among many hunters and landowners in Virginia. Forage areas are valuable in attracting deer, turkeys, rabbits and other wildlife to some areas for hunting or observation, but they are not a substitute for management activities that improve habitat in large areas. Wood management, prescribed burns and other activities that promote the growth of young and plants can improve the health and quality of deer more than forage land. Habitats throughout your property and adjacent plots are like cake, and food plots are like glaze! In food plots, deer tend to look above the ground rather than directly on it. This is a big problem from a health and health point of view. Many carriers of diseases and parasites live at ground level, and deer that feed on the ground, such as bait sites, are more susceptible to it. Conversely, if deer look for food on plants well above the ground, they are much less likely to be affected by discomfort. Some believe that feeding deer is an unethical way to attract deer. And during the hunting season, it is called bait, which is considered bad not only in the sporting sense, but also taking into account game management and the health of the deer herd. Karl Miller, a professor of wildlife and ecology at the University of Georgia, said he was not against baiting or feeding, saying that food can even be useful as a last resort when forests or forests cannot be managed for the benefit of deer. Still, he sees forage plots as a more natural practice that shelters more animals on larger areas without pushing them into narrow places to compete for food. Due to their size and the amount of food produced, forage plots distribute deer over a much larger area than bait sites, and therefore mimic natural food in forests and fields. This reduces stress for animals, minimizes aggressive behavior, reduces direct contact with individuals, thereby reducing the possible transmission of diseases and parasites, provides subordinate animals with better access to food, and allows more people to eat at the same time.

In contrast, bait sites tend to gather animals in a very small area, which exacerbates stress, aggression, exclusion, disease transmission and habitat deterioration. States that do not allow deer feeding include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. Ruth said deer become «fat and happy» when baiting turns into prolonged extra feeding that keeps the horse`s belly full. When deer are not motivated to roam or graze in daylight, they spend more time in the shelter. They simply vomit food in a stomach chamber and chew their stick before swallowing it and passing it on to the second of their four stomach chambers. Semantic rhetoric aside, food plots are largely planted to condition deer, pick up deer, and change deer behavior to the benefit of hard-working boys and girls who occupy those blinds, towers, suspensions, and ladder cages in the fall. If they see a blue Karner butterfly, they`ll probably say what I say, «Huh. Cool. But I guarantee you that the excess weight of them does not plant the plot of food for this result or a similar result. As I described in my introductory paragraph, forage plots provide food to deer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until the food fades or is completely consumed with a change of season. In very small plots it can be consumed after a few weeks, while in large plots it can take several months.

I know bait pages are regularly charged, but they usually don`t even provide a week, let alone a month, 24/7 food for deer. This period of availability is important because deer have well-defined pecking orders and subordinate animals may be denied access to food if their availability is limited. The feeding plots offer equal access to all the deer in the neighborhood. Winter plots are by far the most important and beneficial type of food plots you can plant, as they offer late-season hunting opportunities that you might not have without them. The main reason for planting a plot of winter food is to provide wildlife with an easier food source than is usually available in the depths of winter. «It is illegal to feed wild white-tailed deer in New York State. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has banned feeding wild white-tailed deer to prevent the introduction or spread of chronic wasting disease (6 NYCRR Part 189). Pet food or wildlife sold on this site is not intended to feed or attract wild white-tailed deer.

Anyone caught feeding wild white-tailed deer will be prosecuted by the DEC. However, the debate over Tantillo`s disease stated that concerns about the disease outweighed all debates. They need to enable real-time management decisions when conditions change, whether it`s illness or winter death,» he said. «When a disease appears, wildlife managers cannot ignore it. I understand why they don`t want the deer to share the snot, urine, feces and saliva of the same pile of sugar beets. Saturday Night Deer Camp is a prime-time program block that kicks off each week with award-winning Deer & Deer Hunting television. Hosted by Dan Schmidt, Gordy Krahn, Mark Kayser and Steve Bartylla, the show is in its 14th season and covers everything from deer hunting, from tactics and strategy to equipment, biology, big hunts and more. When planting their plots, each owner or manager must have certain objectives in mind, taking into account their access to equipment and buildable hectares.

Baiting and feeding are prohibited in the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula CWD Surveillance Area. In areas where baiting is prohibited, odours intended to attract deer, whether made of natural or synthetic materials, must be placed in such a way as to be inaccessible to deer consumption and placed in such a way that physical contact with deer is prohibited. This does not apply to urine products that comply with current regulations for the use of urine-based fragrances. Hunters can still use these urine-based products for fake scratches, tow ropes, wicks, etc. The possibilities offered by the different types of food plots are endless if you have the desire and the will to create them. Food plots and bait differ in more ways than you initially thought. In my opinion, the argument of incitement versus food conspiracy is simple. They differ because of effort, time, and external factors that influence their success.

I compare it to blowing a destination into a GPS that shows multiple routes. While the result ends up in the same place (food hunt), the way you got there is very different. One route may be shorter and take you on the highway, another may be slower and keep you on county roads with different terrain and steep curves. Another reason why I believe they are different is because of the places where the baits can be placed. If you can walk to a place, you can place bait. This is not true for all desired food plot locations. Food plots depend on the weather and a variety of other factors, bait requires nothing more than money and effort to place and replenish them. Of course, bait requires the deer to find it and use the supplement, but it does not take much more.

In my opinion, trivializing the argument between food plots and bait is really a matter of time, effort and external factors. For comparison: a deer consumes 1.5 tons of food per year. That`s the equivalent of 300,000 red oak acorns, or 9 million soybeans. And with a deer density of 15 to 25 per square mile throughout the Midwest, feeding an entire deer population (without even including other wildlife in the equation) with the hunter`s average feeding land is nearly impossible. When you hear the phrase «thermal blanket,» what is the first thing that comes to mind? If you`re like the majority of deer hunters, you`ve probably imagined a south-facing hill that collects the winter sun, or one. Do food plots help create additional food sources for deer? Absolute. Are they better than pouring thousands of pounds of peeled corn into the landscape? Certainly. For those who own their food equipment such as a tractor, disc or tiller, sprayer and mower, this can become a massive investment that requires financial considerations. Your budget can quickly get out of control if you don`t do your research and arbitrarily pay too much for the equipment.