Fencing for Whitetails By Dr. James C. Kroll
I
bet when you saw this title, you thought I would discuss some aspect of high fences! High fences are used mostly to keep deer in, but I’m talking about fences to keep deer out. The four-plus decades of work here at the Institute for White-tailed Deer Management & Research has led to a host of technological advances in deer management, including food plots, feeds, minerals, trail cameras and many more. More often than not, our discoveries were way ahead of their time and not well accepted when we first released them. For example, would it surprise you the first two startup companies we worked with in developing trail cameras went bankrupt, because hunters saw no application for them? Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we conducted the first research on food plot varieties and preferences by deer for specific
plant varieties. Among these were cowpeas, which have been grown for hundreds of years for human consumption. There was a time when you could plant a patch of black-eyed peas and have few concerns about them growing to produce peas for the table. However, as deer populations grew, pea gardens came under attack. I never will forget the first time we tested peas in our food plot research plots. The deer never touched them, and I decided at least we would get a good crop of peas for the freezer. I remember checking the plots one day, confirming it was time to pick the next day. Arriving at the research plots, every pod had been carefully removed from our plants. My first assumption was someone had sneaked in and picked our peas. After examination, however, we found deer tracks all
Author photos
The author inspecting electric fencing. Such fencing makes for a good method of keeping deer out of food plots until the plants have had a chance to grow.
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January/February 2022
The Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters — THE VOICE OF TEXAS HUNTING®
www.TTHA. www. TTHA.com com
