Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Location
Saratoga Springs, NY
Start Date
4-5-2009 12:00 AM
Description
Warm-season food plots provide supplemental nutrition to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Large-seeded legumes such as soybeans, lablab, cowpeas, and others are a common component of warm-season food plots that deer prefer to browse early in development, preventing the food plot from reaching the highest possible nutritional value. We tested a Gallagher® Animal Management Systems 2-layer deer-exclusion fence design at two 400 m2 warm-season food plots in Madison County, Georgia. Each food plot contained a mixture of cowpeas and Lablab Plus, marketed by Tecomate® Wildlife Systems. We enclosed a 125 m2 (31%) portion of each food plot with Gallagher's 2-layer fence design and randomly established 9 1 m2, sample plots within each food plot which included 3 that received no protection, 3 protected by the Gallagher fencing, and 3 control sample plots enclosed in wire fencing. We measured browse percentage and maximum plant height over a 6-week period and tested the effectiveness of fence treatment over time. Unprotected sample plots received more browse pressure (range 19%-72%) than did sample plots protected by the Gallagher 2-layer deer-exclusion fencing (all values< 7%). Fenced sample plots attained plant heights greater, at the 6th week of measurement, (mean= 31.5cm) than did unprotected sample plots (mean= 22.7cm). Our data indicated that Gallagher 2-layer deer-exclusion fencing could reduce unwanted deer browsing and allow plots of these species to establish and tolerate deer browsing pressure.
Recommended Citation
Parris, J., Mengak, M., & Miller, K. (2009). Use of gallagher® 2-layer deer-exclusion fencing to temporarily deter white-tailed deer browsing in food plots. In Boulanger, J. (Ed.), The Thirteenth Wildlife Damage Management Conference (263). Saratoga Springs, NY: Thirteenth WDM Conference.
Included in
Use of Gallagher® 2-Layer Deer-Exclusion Fencing to Temporarily Deter White-Tailed Deer Browsing in Food Plots
Saratoga Springs, NY
Warm-season food plots provide supplemental nutrition to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Large-seeded legumes such as soybeans, lablab, cowpeas, and others are a common component of warm-season food plots that deer prefer to browse early in development, preventing the food plot from reaching the highest possible nutritional value. We tested a Gallagher® Animal Management Systems 2-layer deer-exclusion fence design at two 400 m2 warm-season food plots in Madison County, Georgia. Each food plot contained a mixture of cowpeas and Lablab Plus, marketed by Tecomate® Wildlife Systems. We enclosed a 125 m2 (31%) portion of each food plot with Gallagher's 2-layer fence design and randomly established 9 1 m2, sample plots within each food plot which included 3 that received no protection, 3 protected by the Gallagher fencing, and 3 control sample plots enclosed in wire fencing. We measured browse percentage and maximum plant height over a 6-week period and tested the effectiveness of fence treatment over time. Unprotected sample plots received more browse pressure (range 19%-72%) than did sample plots protected by the Gallagher 2-layer deer-exclusion fencing (all values< 7%). Fenced sample plots attained plant heights greater, at the 6th week of measurement, (mean= 31.5cm) than did unprotected sample plots (mean= 22.7cm). Our data indicated that Gallagher 2-layer deer-exclusion fencing could reduce unwanted deer browsing and allow plots of these species to establish and tolerate deer browsing pressure.