Deer stumps and salt

[Art Eatman]

About midnight one night on a backroad highway north of Sanderson, Texas, I slowed way down for deer in the road. And in both borrow ditches alongside. A rough count was way above fifty. That's desert country.

On my way back from Luckenbach to Austin one evening, I stopped to count deer in an oat patch of maybe five acres: I counted to somewhere north of a hundred. Little bitty critters.

When I moved back to the small family ranch outside of Austin, I went jeeping around one night, spotlighting from general curiosity. It was jaw-dropping to run up a count of some fifty pairs of deer eyes. That was in an area of maybe a hundred acres of our land.

Damfino. If over-crowding is a cause, Texas oughta be overwhelmed with CWD deer, seems like.

 

[Blindstitch]

Wisconsin just opened up 15 counties to baiting which has been closed due to CWD for many years.

 

[reynolds357]

My experience with salt is that deer are addicted to it in the summer but pay it no attention in the cool weather.

 

[dahermit]

If over-crowding is a cause, Texas oughta be overwhelmed with CWD deer, seems like.

CWD has to be already in the deer herd for overcrowding to be a problem. Michigan had no CWD until it was introduced by deer that were shipped to a game farm from out West. Overcrowding does not cause CWD, it just helps it to spread.

 

[johnwilliamson062]

The exact method of feeding or administering salt blocks has an effect on how dangerous it is.

Use of the PVC gravity feeders is very bad as it often puts two or more deer in direct nose to nose contact. Broadcasting feed over an area not so bad.

The mineral blacks are usually water soluble. Place one or two in a 50 gallon drum until dissolved and then pour that somewhere. Enough of the mineral will stay in the ground the deer will be digging it up all season. Alternatively, place one high up in a tree so the minerals are brought down in the rain. By spreading the mineral over a larger area nose to nose contact is reduced.

If you use salt realize you are substituting salt for lots of minerals. It is not good for the deers health and will likely effect the size of their racks as they need other minerals to form the horns. If you leave a Morton salt block in an easily accessible area they will not forage for the other minerals.

 

[Mobuck]

"By spreading the mineral over a larger area nose to nose contact is reduced."

Nose to nose contact is NOT required to spread CWD. The prions can live on surfaces or soil for an undetermined length of time before being transferred to another animal. The prions can survive cold, heat, and even fire.

 

[reynolds357]

We dont have CWD around here so I put out blocks and dump bags in the dirt. What they really love are Trophy Rocks. I enjoy trying to find the Trophy rocks. They roll them around everywhere. Today, may be 100 yards away from where it was yesterday.

 

[Lucas McCain]

Just read and
Milwaukee Sentinal article about a CWD research project in Alberta, Canada that they feed some Macaque Monkeys CWD positive venison steak ( equivalents to a human eating a 7 oz steak once a month) and the monkey contracted the diease. This perhaps points to the possibility that humans could contact it by eating CWD positive meat.
It is a very interesting article to read. Google Canadian research CWD project on monkeys.

There is so much we don't know about this diease and that's the biggest problem of all. And it even makes you wonder about if it's anti- hunter driven.