Fatty deer

[Eric Wettschreck]

Our group butecherd up a bunch of deer on Monday. Every one of them were flat out loaded with back fat. Not the thin patch I'm used to seeing, I'm talking 3/4 inch thick.

Anyone else noticing the deer are way fatter than normal?

[eyeguy 54]

the doe I did 2 weeks ago had tons of fat. Did a nice buck for a friend Monday and hardly any fat. both central MN.

[Kyle]

I cut up my brother's deer and have never seen that amount of fat in a deer before. I'm thinking a hard winter is coming...

[pikestabber]

Same here. Copious amounts of back fat on our deer. Apparently, the deer say a hard winter is coming--but at least you saved money not having to buy a Farmer's Almanac

[CANOPY SAM]

My daughter's buck, who was taken while following a doe, was pretty lean, understandably during the start of the rut. The doe my eldest son shot last night, which had seen zero pressure of any kind via mating activity, or human pressure, was loaded with fat inside and out.

The long term forecast is now calling for colder than average temps, with slightly less than normal precipitation for the year. Of course this is basically a roll of the dice. The good Lord will have the final say in all that.

I think a deer's fat layer is pretty much defined by it's diet and overall activity level...much like a human. If your deer is harvested from a primarily agricultural area, doesn't have to travel far to feeding, watering, and bedding areas, and it has rich resources for food such as soybeans, corn, and or sunflowers, they'll lay on much more fat than animals that have to travel long distances for food that has much lower calorie content.

I don't know for certain, but I don't think a deer's fat layer is a concrete indicator of the severity of the coming winter. However, I have heard that when beaver and muskrat make VERY large dens you can pretty much count on tough winter weather.

Now, this begs the question, how can a rodent predict the weather better than a meteorologist? Perhaps there is real scientific evidence offered each spring by an east coast Ground Hog?

[mainbutter]

The guy who processed my deer said something similar when we were talking about the deer he'd been getting lately. My doe didn't have that going on and was pretty typical.

[John478]

Haven't had the plessure of butchering a deer yet this year. But the deer we got last year had more fat on them then I had ever seen before and we all know how harsh of a winter we had last year

[JeffB]

My guess is its a combination of last years mild winter and an early spring making the herd plump and healthy.

[leech~~]

Our group butecherd up a bunch of deer on Monday. Every one of them were flat out loaded with back fat. Not the thin patch I'm used to seeing, I'm talking 3/4 inch thick.

Anyone else noticing the deer are way fatter than normal?

Sign that we are going to need to dress warmer and are going to have great ice this winter!

[CrewJones]

yes the deer seem not to have gone into there fat reserves last year and have just packed another year on, thats good for the heard

[walleyeman1]

Butchered 7 of them on Monday and all of the deer did not have much fat on them at all. We hunt in central Minnesota and I thought we were in for a mild winter, maybe I am wrong!!

[Pinusbanksiana]

Lack of fat doesn't mean we are going into a mild winter, it means the deer didn't have the browse needed to lay on fat. Deer don't have a farmers almanac.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Less deer in the woods = more food for the deer that are = easier to get fat.

Deer were as fat as ever last fall and I was bracing for a cold, harsh winter. We all know how that turned out.

The deer know hard times are on the horizon and it's time to pack on he pounds. Lots of food available to them the last few years.