The Women in the Outdoors event scheduled to begin today at Roosevelt State park in Morton has been postponed due to possible weather issues related to Hurricane Ike.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to postpone the event, however, given the circumstances, we feel that it’s the right thing to do,” MDWFP Outreach Coordinator Amanda Mills said. “We’re going to move forward and hope to announce a new date soon.”

The event, sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks in conjunction with the National Wild Turkey Federation, was to feature clinics on sporting clays, archery, hiking, fishing, disc golf, Dutch oven cooking and more beginning today through Sunday.  

Beef up the soil, bring in the bucks

Can having healthy soil on your land lead to bagging trophy bucks? Apparently so, say scientists at Mississippi State University’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center.

MSU researchers are investigating the connection between soil fertility and antler size as an estimated 250,000 Mississippians prepare for upcoming deer hunting season, which opens Oct. 15 for most of the state.

Scientists compared three regions in Mississippi over the past 12 years to determine how soil affects antler growth. The results indicate fertile soil and a healthy habitat can help deer develop significantly larger antlers.   

“We collected data from more than 18,000 bucks harvested on 765 properties from 1991 to 2002 in Mississippi,” said Steve Demarais, professor and deer biologist in the Forest and Wildlife Research Center. “We found that different soil types, even in the same state, can impact antler size.”

The logic is rather simple: better soil quality leads to better growth of plants that serve as food and protection for the deer population, which leads to a healthier population with larger antlers.

Delta region soils are among the most fertile in the state, said Demarais, leading bucks in the Delta to develop larger racks at a quicker pace compared to other areas. In fact, scientists found bucks in the lower coastal plain of Mississippi take a year longer to reach their antler potential compared with deer in the Delta.

“Same-age bucks from the lower coastal plain soil region had Boone and Crockett scores of nearly 20 inches less than those in the Delta region,” Bronson Strickland, assistant extension professor in the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

The Boone and Crockett Club measuring system is the most common way to score white-tailed deer antlers in the country.

The study found improved nutrition helps antler size distribution within any region where nutrition is a limiting factor, especially those with low to moderate soil quality.

“While improving nutrition is important, hunters should remember that regardless of age, 60 to 70 percent of bucks will grow antlers similar to the average for that age class,” Strickland said. “A small percentage will be smaller than average, and an equally small percentage will be larger than average.”

Hunters should manage their properties for an average-size class and modify their expectations to conform to the fact that high-end bucks are not common, Strickland added, even under the best of circumstances.

“If you want to harvest big bucks, you should let deer reach maturity and provide proper habitat management and food plots,” he said.