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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Hunting is absolutely necessary, since we long ago killed off most of the natural predators, and it's the only way to keep the deer population in check.
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Actually, the biggest problem isn't natural predation. There are only a few animals that will predate on the deer population. It's unfortunate that we have eliminated many of the natural predators, such as the wolf but the typical 'deer' (smaller mammals such as rabbit, vole, fox, etc., comprise 95% of wolf food) that a wolf pack will take will be the sickly ones, and that only improves the health of the herd.
The real problem is FOOD. The growth of civilization and expansion of cities, towns, and farms, have drastically reduced to available food supply for the deer population. Even a small farm will remove the available food for dozens of deer. Imagine what putting in a town did! There just isn't enough food to feed and keep healthy all the deer, and as soon as one gets sick, dozens get sick, and the herd thins out drastically.
For a while in the 1800's, clear-cutting timber impacted the herd's ability to migrate from food lot to food lot during winter. With the spread of cities and towns, roads cut off deer migration trails. Deer won't even attempt to walk through snow that touches its breast, so even if there is a food supply 20 yards away, the deer will starve to death before trying to cross the snow. New laws passed in most states now require 50-100 yard wide forest strips to be left between lumbering sites so the deer can travel under forest canopy and not encounter such deep snow. 'Winter Kill," from starvation, the factor that most affects the deer herd has dropped tremendously since the new laws were put into effect. In the early Spring, Fish&Game biologists go to deer feed lots and look at the femur bones of dead deer, cracking them open to examine the color of the bone marrow. From this color tracking, they can tell if the deer died of malnutrition or from some other cause. I have quite a few photos that I took for VT. Fish&Game of these feedlot examinations.
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A friend lives in rural PA, and was offering me a side of venison a while back - he knows a local who will butcher to order. I have no place to store or good way to prepare it, so I had to decline.
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Almost all rural butchers in heavily hunted areas will butcher and freeze in 'user sized packages' in exchange for the hide. A large number of them run 'freezer lockers' for hunters as well as folks who prefer to purchase hind quarters or sides of beef, pork, lamb, etc. The cost per pound when buying a side of beef is probably close to 1/4 of what you would pay in the stupidmarket, and many people don't have room to store that much in their home freezers. We always bought hindquarters of beef because of the savings, and the rural butchers usually run 'specials' where if you purchase and pay for storage, they throw in a dozen chickens, several slabs of bacon, some sausage, etc. It really is worth it financially to look into this, especially if someone is offering a FREE side of deer. Most deer meat needs to used as stew meat or burger, (more than half the dressed weight,) but you can get 2-3 good roasts, and 4-5 nice steaks from a side!
(Stick a couple of cloves of garlic into slits in the roast, put in a roasting pan surrounded by new potatoes and onions, top with a couple of sprigs of rosemary, then pour a cup or two of red wine over it all and cook!
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Stitchawl