This  yearling buck shows the signs of two summers of lush forage. With summer rains and adequate
forage the wildlife in Hopkins County continues to thrive.

 

Wildlife Hardy in Hopkins County

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

In 2005 and 2006 we were talking about starving wildlife raiding hay racks and making every effort to stay alive in Hopkins County, as the area suffered severe drouth conditions. However, that certainly isn't the case this year, as plentiful rains and outstanding forage in the area has made the wildlife population extremely "fat and sassy." With hunting season "just around the corner," hunters can expect a season of plentiful game and well-fleshed wildlife.

With lush woodland forages and thriving crops of corn, sorghums, and cow peas, the wildlife doesn't have too far to travel for a meal, and if all else fails, there are the family garden plots that have tasty morsels of tender vegetables, as well.

 

 

With hunting season, the farthest thing from their minds, the deer, especially, are out moving from field to field and show the signs of plentiful browsing in the countryside. They are well-fleshed and lazily go from one field to the next, in anticipation of something even more tasty.

This fat doe pauses beneath a pear tree, where she is feasting on green pears and "making herself at home."

 

Wild hogs have been doing their own share of damages in local gardens and lush fields of crops. "Every morning you find hog tracks in the edge of the field and soon you locate where they have fed the night before," exclaimed one farmer. "And, a group of wild hogs can reek havoc in your field, if you don't attempt to encourage them to locate somewhere else!"

 

 

Many country gardeners have awoke to find that they aren't the only ones eating from the family garden plot. "It seems like the wildlife is getting more of my garden than I am," bemoaned one local gardener. "The crows and coons are after my cantaloupes, and the coons and deer have eaten more of my sweet corn than I have. Now the hogs have found it and we've had to put up a 'hot wire' in hopes of keeping them from completely destroying the entire garden!"

Two summers of lush forage has this young doe in top condition.

 

"You've got to get up early and stay up late, to beat the wildlife to the garden," expressed another local producer. "They'll definitely be there when you aren't looking!"

Born in the spring of 2007, this young buck and doe have found "life good" with plenty of forages in
local farmer's fields. Here they have discovered a lush field of cow peas to forage on.

 

Hunting season, in the fall promises to be plentiful, and with the price of deer corn at a premium, most hunters are thankful that the wildlife is eating on lush natural forages.

Two summers of lush forages have allowed the deer pictured above to become the deer in the other pictures
with this article. This photo was taken in July 2007, and is of the same deer pictured a year later.

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