Small yearlings VERY SMALL

I recently visited a farm that had close to 30 yearlings from last year. I noticed some were regular size and some were very small. I asked what the difference was in the yearlings. He said all the ones that were bigger were the fawns he had purchased over the winter. The remaining ones were ones he bottle fed last year. The yearlings all had spunk and looked fairly healthy. I did notice that alot of them still had more than average winter hair still on though. They have been wormed properly and are now getting some rice bran added to the feed to see if this will help them to consume a little more feed. The owner said they all eat well. None of them were ribby that I could tell so I don't think it was worms. Most were AI babies born in mid May. A little puzzled here.



My question is what do you think he could do to get the growth up on these deer? He used Fox Valley for bottle feeding last year. I have him using probiotics now but these fawns were just little. Not thin but little. The funny thing was looking at a Rolex yearling weighing 60 lbs with 6 inches of beams already. We are in Northern Indiana and we are just now seeing the horns start here. These yearlings are all top genetic deer and I would like to help him grow them to their potential.

The only deer I have seen like that didn't get the proper food or amount of feed to grow. I have seen deer in late summer with half of their winter hair yet from the previous winter and just forking at the G1 for the bucks. I have seen yearling bucks grow their first racks that only got 2 or 3 inch spikes. Not saying your friend did this but lack of protein in the diet to grow the season's coat will mean retention of the present one. If this person is just starting out , do as you are to help but if it is like my experience , the guy didn't want to spend the money for the feed or care. Sad to see and watch deer not realizing their potential. Jim

How good was the feed he used last fall and over the winter? If he is using top semen like Rolex I wouldn't think money for food would not be a problem? Are his adult does small?

Small fawns, especially later born ones, no matter what or how much they eat will take untill age two to catch up to bigger ( 3 lb. VS 11 lb. ) ,I have a doe that consistantly drops quads , her yearlings are small bodied but there is no much difference by two and they mature in the 350- 400 lb range. We have bottle fed and doe raised her fawns. From my experience it is usually an illness that stunts them if there womb mates are bigger, big yearlings and small yearlings in the same pen, feed will not be the cause, but puting an extra bag of milk replacer through them in the first 75 days will give them a better start.

CurtisLloyd said:

Small fawns, especially later born ones, no matter what or how much they eat will take untill age two to catch up to bigger ( 3 lb. VS 11 lb. ) ,I have a doe that consistantly drops quads , her yearlings are small bodied but there is no much difference by two and they mature in the 350- 400 lb range. We have bottle fed and doe raised her fawns. From my experience it is usually an illness that stunts them if there womb mates are bigger, big yearlings and small yearlings in the same pen, feed will not be the cause, but puting an extra bag of milk replacer through them in the first 75 days will give them a better start.

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Did I read that right? You have 2 year olds that are weighing over 350 lbs?

He is feeding ADM feed. The same as we do and our yearlings tower over his. We sold several yearlings to this farm last fall and ours were larger than his 4 year olds last. Our yealings were in the 175 - 200lbs late fall to early winter.



The fawns were all May born with the exception of only a few that were not AI babys. I will have to check on his bottle feeding program and see if he is lacking in the amount of milk given. Thanks for the replies, I like to brain storm when issues arise and this is the perfect place to do it.

I guess I wasn't really clear, no not two year olds, our deer mature their bodies at 3 or 4 years I do have the occasional two year old that will break 300, although we are the home of huge bodied deer here in Saskatchewan it took me 9 years to get my first buck over 200, the deer here are more interested in survival and the bodies demands must be met before the antlers get to grow. We did have a High Tide son in 2008 that was 183" so I think we may have achieved the body/antler balance we need. Because of the size of our bucks I can't cut antler after the deer are two, their large size and with no flex in the skull plate.... they just take turns crushing each others skulls. With the 400 pounders it was like watching two bighorn sheep.