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The Golden Nugget
Article by: Ron Jolly; Photo by:
Tes Jolly
A cold north wind prompted me to
adjust my neck gator to cover my nose and ears. The
temperature was near freezing at 1:30 in the afternoon. The
sky was totally void of clouds and as blue as it gets in
east-central Alabama.
Three careful steps put me in
position to scan the green-field for any deer that might
have arrived for an early snack. After several trips around
the field edge with my binoculars I was convinced it was
safe to walk the remaining 30 yards to the shooting house I
planned to hunt.
As I closed the door to the
shooting house, I was comforted to know that the small
propane heater I had put there earlier was still in place.
It just might come in handy on this cold winter day.
This particular shooting house
was located on my favorite green field. It was situated on
the south end of the field so the north wind was perfect. To
the north of the field was a swamp and good bedding. To the
west thick cover offered more good bedding areas for deer.
I had broken the ground and
planted this plot in September. My wife Tes and I had taken
great pains in planting and preparing this field. Now,
almost four months after the mixture of clover, rape, wheat,
turnips, fertilize and lime had been put in the soil the
field radiated the message “deer smorgasbord.”
It was a perfect day for hunting
a food plot in Alabama. The wind was right; the temperature
should make the deer eager to fill their bellies. My
confidence was high as I rested my .308 Thompson Encore in
the corner of the shooting house and settled into my
comfortable chair.
When dark forced me out of my
cozy shooting house with the comfortable chair and cute
little heater, I had not seen a single deer. Not even a
fawn! I chalked that hunt up to LESSON LEARNED!
The Problem
If you hunted in the southeast during the 2007-2008 deer
season you were no doubt disappointed in what you saw in the
green fields. I have talked to countless hunters who had
hunts like mine described early in this article. Everything
was perfect but the deer did not show in the field.
The basic elements for a
successful deer hunt are: know where the deer are bedding,
know what they are eating, play the wind and determine the
line of travel. The problem last season was that many
hunters did not realize how important acorns are to
whitetail deer, hogs and turkeys and the 2007 acorn crop was
of biblical proportions!
Typically in any given year
there will be one species of oaks that produces well. On one
year the Red oaks will do well and the White oaks will not.
Another year the White oaks flourish and the Red oaks are
weak in production. Water oaks produce to some extent
annually but never do all species produce bumper crops in
the same year. Never until 2007! In 2007 every species in
the quercus genus produced banner crops.
On our farm in Macon County,
Alabama, the acorn crop was enormous! In early September our
Sawtooth oaks began dropping. The deer immediately began
hitting them.
In October the Water oaks
started raining acorns. In January I actually saw squirrels
feeding on hanging Water oak acorns. In January! Acorns
still on trees! Unheard of!
In November the Swamp Chestnut oaks, White oaks, and Red
oaks began dropping and this continued well into December.
By Christmas the ground was literally covered with acorns
and life was good for wildlife in Alabama.
Fat Deer
Whitetail deer are opportunists. Easy food is always
preferred. Acorns, when abundant, are both. They are easy
for deer to find and preferred as a food source. In fact
acorns are THE preferred food source of whitetail deer.
Acorns are low in protein
content but high in carbohydrates and fats. They are easily
digested, their nutrients readily absorbed, and they are
processed and passed through a deer’s body quickly. Because
deer digest acorns so easily they eat lots of them each day
and the shear numbers eaten by individual deer provide the
protein needed for healthy deer.
One lease I hunt in Alabama
keeps records of deer weights harvested on the property. For
the 2007-2008 season the average mature doe weight was up
five pounds and the average mature buck weight was up 8
pounds.
Chris Cook, a biologist with
Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
reports that the average deer weight on Alabama’s Wildlife
Management Areas that had a bumper acorn crop was almost a
reflection of the weights reported the year before.
That report is significant
because available browse to deer in late spring and summer
had to be short and probably caused lower body weights in
late summer. The fact that deer on Alabama’s WMA’S was near
normal reflects the availability of some favorable food
source. I believe that food source was acorns.
The deer I harvested in the
2007-2008 season were fat! The bucks had heavy layers of fat
on their rumps, brisket and ribs. The does were also
unusually fat. Their stomach contents all contained acorns.
All Acorns Are Not Created
Equally
Just because you find acorns on the ground does not
necessarily mean you have found a deer hotspot. Whitetail
deer prefer certain varieties of acorns to others.
All acorns contain certain
amounts of tannic acid. Deer prefer acorns with the least
amount of tannic acid. White oak acorns contain the least
amount of tannic acid and are the number one choice for
deer. Next in preference is the Pin oak or Water oak,
followed by the Red oaks, Black oaks, Burr oaks and finally
Live oaks.
As the season progresses, deer
consume the White oaks and move on to the less desired
varieties. In areas where there are no White oaks deer will
key on the acorns available with the least amount of tannic
acid. When scouting, look for nuts and caps on the ground.
If deer are feeding on acorns there will be numerous
droppings and tracks on bare ground. If you also see rubs
and scrapes there, you are in business.
Another advantage acorns offer
deer is that they fall where the deer live. Deer, especially
mature bucks, are hesitant to enter open places. That is why
most mature bucks are killed on green fields at last light.
Deer feel comfortable in timber
and feed on acorns at any time of day. When you hunt deer on
acorns your productive hunting time is extended because deer
do not feel exposed and you are hunting where deer live.
The Good News
By now you probably think I am suggesting that you no longer
spend all your time and money on green fields. You may even
think I am telling you not to hunt green fields. That is not
the case.
2007-2008 was the exception to
the rule of normal acorn production. Acorns were everywhere,
but what about next season?
It is widely believed the severe
draught across the southeast last year was the trigger
mechanism for the enormous acorn crop. Many biologists
believe that draught stress caused the desperate production
of acorns as a propagation mechanism. Another explanation is
that in March when oaks were blooming and pollinating the
lack of rainfall allowed pollen to cover more blooms and
grow into acorns.
If everything returns to normal
this year acorns could be a scarce commodity in Alabama.
White oaks produce a crop every other year and a heavy crop
every third year. Red oaks, Pin oaks, Swamp Chestnut oaks,
and all the rest produce a crop every second year. If this
holds true there will be fewer acorns for deer to key on in
the timber. The key here is to identify which species of
oaks produce acorns this fall and concentrate on hunting
those trees. You may have to give up your cozy shooting
house and hunt from climbing or hang-on tree stands but the
rewards will be worth the effort.
If the draught continues it is
possible that oaks will produce another record crop. I
really hope that does not happen this year. If mature oaks
that were stressed last year by drought have to endure that
situation again there could be a die off of mature oaks. In
order to propagate the species under stressed conditions
trees put every resource towards production of fruit. Those
trees may not recover from two years of draught stress and
all-out fruit production.
I plan to put extra effort into
my green fields this fall because if the acorn crop is short
this fall you can bet that deer will be back on the green
field smorgasbord this fall.
Permission to reprint the article obtained from Southern
Trophy Hunters www.southerntrophyhunters.com
Ron and Tes Jolly have produced outdoor videos on various
hunting subjects as well as a television show for Alabama’s
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. They are
active in conservation projects and their articles and
photos have appeared in numerous publications such as Deer
and Deer Hunting, Turley Call, Petersen’s Bow Hunting,
Quality Whitetails, Women in the Outdoor, Bowhunter Magazine
and many others. To view more information and photos by Tes,
click on to www.jollysoutdoorvisions.com
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