Thanks fellas....The enviornment has a lot to do with it and type of year.They all don't weigh the same either age wise but generally the older the heavier though.There's big deer up north here in other areas too.It's all about opportunities and poundage over here for me.Usually I can get close to around 50% of the dressed weight to eat in the freezer.
Had a fella from the DNR come over to CWD test this doe.All indications look good on this deer but we'll see anyway.He can age deer very quickly and he himself has boughten a number of Dean Torges made bows but does'nt make bows himself.
A lot of this deer aging knowledge really is for those who want to raise deer.For the average hunter like me it's pretty much a nonconcern but kinda handy to know anyway.I have my own opinions and concerns about the deer farms.
From what he says and has seen is that the larger bodied bucks and possibly does dressed weight will be higher with less percentage of guts compared to most other deer.He has tested a lot of deer.He only lives 15 to 20 miles away.
He says the area I'm in here has been clean for CWD.It was very interesting talking with him.I guess the deer take quite a while like 2 to 3 yeas to die from it degenerating in condition before dieing.
I asked him saying how does a person really know that CWD has'nt been around a long time here with humans eating these deer as they think the prion could be in the meat humans consume.He said OHH...no Ed we've tested 1000's of deer in Iowa and around here too.We know!!!.He was pretty emphatic about it.Noone really has any info on what this prion will do to humans after consuming the meat.
A side note here......This baiting pile routine many try to do increases infection as saliva is a high contributing factor spreading this.The companies selling these are only contributing to the spread of this disease.
He appreciated me involving my deer in the survey.I watched and he took 2 glands from the back of the skull where the spine connects.He aged the deer then quickly by it's molars also.Now after butchering though I freeze the deer and wait till the results come back.Freezing does not kill this prion[they call it]of CWD though.It's a crazy stubborn type bug or virus or whatever for sure.They wait till many tests are accumulated before sending off.They all get sent to Iowa State University for testing.A near 3.5 hours from me.He covers a large area of Iowa doing this and stays pretty busy.He said their quota of tests were about enough to send now which is good.With bow season here the quota of tests does not rise as fast as say during the shotgun season here in Iowa in december as many deer are shot at once during those gun seasons.He also said that they test many road killed deer also of which there are many in my area I know.I will get back here when word of the test on my deer gets back to me.
The deer harvested here turned out to be negative.
