Winter kill
Contributors to this thread:South Dakota
From: Dakota
08-Jan-17
What are your thoughts and what are you seeing?
From: sdbowhunter
09-Jan-17
I have seen about 15 dead pheasants after some freezing rain but haven't seen any deer yet
From: leftee
09-Jan-17
A growing disaster in the NE.In many places they can hardly walk due to ice.Almost everything here covered with at least quarter inch of ice.LOTS of snow-more than most think.Sad seeing fawns slipping n falling in wind swept cut beans-about the only place they can feed due to snow depth.(other than browse) Pheasants hurt bad here also.If the cold n wind continues they will continue to fail and losses will be significant.While coyote hunting seeing a few dead deer already.Even coyotes are slipping n falling in places.Sadly not like the deer though.
From: leftee
16-Jan-17
The weather this week is what we needed.Things should be looking up if we get those predicted days above freezing.
From: sdbowhunter
16-Jan-17
Should take some of the snow pack down a bit also
From: grizzly
16-Jan-17
A guy told me he had seen 50 head on the soccer field in Spearfish, couple hundred on a field outside of town. He had heard rumor of 1500 head in one field by a smaller town out that way. This is all second hand info though. The modern farming practices do not leave a lot of waste in the field, quickly plowed under to get a head start on next spring. Kind of like a white desert some times. Hope for the best.
From: DR
22-Jan-17
Lots on the feed lots with the severe weather of early January. A friend had a nice buck come in and lie on his silage pile to warm up and died after about 10-days of doing same. We have a herd of about 100 on our place but we were hit hard by EHD so it should be 250. We planted lots of food plots and so have a few neighbors so I think our area will be OK.
From: Dakota
22-Jan-17
the warmer temperatures the last couple of days saved a lot of animals.
From: leftee
26-Jan-17
Yes sir,sure did.Have a couple groups nearby totalling over 100 and for the most part,they look good.Removed a bunch of coyotes around them the past week and that doesn't hurt either.
From: Dakota
26-Jan-17
I think the antelope are going to be fine now. This last bit of warm weather has either melted or settled the snow enough they can get some grazing and surprisingly enough, the deer looked pretty good. We did probably lose some of the younger and weaker yearlings but all in all not too bad.
