Moisture and Velvet Growth
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: APauls
15-Sep-22
Anyone ever noticed a correlation between years with excessive moisture and velvet growing period? Here in Manitoba we had a year of record setting moisture. Along with the wet spring and summer I noticed a pile of growth in the timber. You'll find tons of Forbes and Grasses growing readily in amongst the trees. It is rare to get a canopy here so the sunlight almost always hits the ground. Along with this green growth the early season scouting has been putrid I assume because of the readily available browse in the bush.
Now the interesting thing is I still have noticed multiple bucks in velvet. Today is Sept 15th!! Normally, I would expect bucks to be stripped by about the 7th. I don't remember seeing bucks in velvet much after that, and both my brother and I are still noticing bucks in velvet. It would make sense to me that in some way if a buck knows that there is readily available food, and that the food will continue for quite some time that maybe the antler growing period extends a bit? Is that a weird theory? Has anyone ever noticed something like this before?
From: Bearman
15-Sep-22
Same here in nw Minnesota. Still bucks with velvet. Odd.
From: t-roy
15-Sep-22
Did you guys have a mild winter, by chance? Possibly a correlation between bucks dropping their antlers later into the winter and delaying them regenerating new antler growth by a couple weeks?
From: APauls
16-Sep-22
Actually we had a bad winter Troy. Fairly heavy winter kill. Late spring. Maybe late spring late start? I've never ever seen them holding velvet this long.
From: t-roy
17-Sep-22
At least I’m still pretty consistent on my theories…..I’m usually wrong.
From: Zbone
17-Sep-22
Had read somewhere once, wetter summers promote better racks... Something about more nutrients if I remember correctly...