How weather impacts deer summer antler growth
In the next month or so, many whitetail hunters could be gearing up with the hopes to start scouting for this upcoming deer season. The months of June and July are very important as we'll see bucks go from nothing, to a full rack which we'll see this upcoming fall for the hunting season.
Jason Isabelle is the cervid program supervisor for the Missouri department of Conservation and explains more about this specfies, "White tails are an extremely popular species in Missouri. We have nearly half a million people that hunt them every year."
Jason also goes into detail about how deer fair during the hotter months of the year, "That can be certainly a secondary stress period for deer. By the time you transition from late summer to early fall, starts to get dry, the forage is taller. It's not quite as digestible at that period of time. You've got the intense heat."
Deer during the summer months are focused on green forbs or broadleaf plants for their diets to sustain the proper nutrition to survive and grow their antlers. Jason Isabelle, "So when in early June, the majority of the antler hasn't been formed yet, but by the time you get to where we are now into July, things are really kicking into high gear. The beams can grow even a couple of inches in a week."
Because of a short time period, drought and high heat can cause a reduction in nutrients that deer are forging on, meaning more nutrients are going towards the survival of the deer as opposed to antler growth. This leads to not as healthy antlers.
Jason Isabelle explains, "Ideally you'd have, uh, like you like you suggested, average to above average rainfall just so that the growth of the the forage during the summertime is ideal." This means increased rainfall and near average temperatures would favor better antler growth production during two crucial months.
The good news is, Columbia in the month of June alone saw nearly 8"of rainfall, putting us close to 3" above average. When looking into the extended forecast 6-10 days away, Mid-Missouri is going to be looking wetter than average, which could be helping boost the antler production for this upcoming year
