Watch how much forage a 150 lb deer eats each day

[MK111]

Good video showing how much a average 150 lb deer eats each day.
https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2017/05/18/video-true-false-deer-eats-much-forage-day/

 

[Spencie]

Very informative. After dealing with food plots for 6 years I have come to the conclusion that if you have 1/2 an acre you need 1. If you have 1 acre you need 2, two you need 4. They are going to eat it all. After they do they will find more somewhere else.

 

[MK111]

But good food plots are good drawing spots for deer hunting.

 

[Jackalope]

I wonder if that soft browse number goes down when higher protein and carb items like acorns, corn, and soybeans are consumed.

 

[Ohiosam]

This is why farmers get cranky when a herd of deer are in their bean fields night after night.

 

[Jackalope]

This is why farmers get cranky when a herd of deer are in their bean fields night after night.

Yet you don't see farm bureau going after groundhogs despite the following from Purdue University.

While white-tailed deer may damage more individual soybean plants than do groundhogs, groundhog damage generally results in higher yield loss per plant than does that caused by deer. Groundhogs concentrate their feeding around den sites and do not travel far from the safety of their dens. Thus, groundhogs feed more extensively on individual plants than do deer.

 

[finelyshedded]

I read somewhere in NAW/Deer And Deerhunting years ago that one groundhog consumes an average of 1(one) ton of grass a year! That was eye opening for me! Makes you wonder how much corn an average coon eats a year! Lol

 

[giles]

Ric, coons don't cause crop damage...coyotes don't hurt the whitetail population...and what's a groundhog?