Dr. Bronson Strickland

Role: recurring guest
Appears in 4 episodes

Dr. Bronson Strickland, of Mississippi State University’s Deer Lab (with colleague Steve Demarais), appeared on the show four times between fall 2020 and spring 2024. He discusses deer nutrition, genetics, and habitat management, arguing that maternal nutrition and soil-driven forage abundance shape antler and body size more than genetics, and that culling or restocking programs rarely shift population-level genetics. He also covers CWD, calling it a serious long-term threat since infection is fatal, and addresses dispersal patterns, food plots, supplemental feeding, and baiting.

Appearances

What they said

breeding-value

• Strickland reports that a South Texas culling study found a buck’s ‘breeding value’ is not correlated with his own antler size. 57:54 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

cwd

• Bronson cites survival data showing only about thirty percent of CWD-positive tracked deer are alive twelve months later, versus eighty percent of CWD-negative deer. 77:23 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class

deer-diet

• Bronson says a story of deer bypassing a lush food plot to eat briars demonstrates that browse is simply what deer are meant to eat. 51:10 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• Bronson says deer voluntarily restrict their diet by about half even with abundant food, because their metabolism and focus shift in fall and winter. 65:20 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class

deer-feed

• Bronson says it’s a bad idea to feed animal byproduct to an herbivore like deer since they aren’t designed to eat it. 67:11 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class

deer-university

• Strickland announces plans to expand the Deer University podcast into related shows like Habitat, Fire, and Fish University featuring other wildlife specialists. 80:31 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

dispersal

• A University of Georgia study by Carl Miller and Larry Marchington found that when a doe is harvested, her yearling buck fawn often stays in her home range instead of dispersing. 37:27 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

dnr

• Strickland credits state DNRs and wildlife agencies for the historic restocking efforts that successfully reestablished whitetail deer populations across the landscape. 26:14 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

doe-hunting

• Bronson recalls that before killing his first deer he badly wanted to shoot any doe he saw, since it represented a rare hunting opportunity. 9:07 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class

fetal-programming

• Strickland reports that fawns from does native to Mississippi’s nutrient-poor Lower Coastal Plain gained only about one pound more than wild deer despite unlimited captive feeding. 13:30 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Strickland reports that after two generations of well-nourished mothers, Lower Coastal Plain buck antlers nearly matched the size of bucks from the fertile Delta region. 16:26 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

food-plot

• Bronson recommends blending both perennial and annual food plots together rather than relying on just one type. 15:37 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class

genetics

• Strickland says a genetics simulation showed restocking enough large-antlered bucks to meaningfully shift a county’s population-level antler genetics would be logistically and financially unattainable. 56:44 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

habitat-management

• Strickland says that improving cover in food-rich but cover-poor landscapes reliably and immediately increases the number of deer and bucks a property holds. 34:12 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

hunting-strategy

• Bronson observes that Don’s success comes from extremely measured, intentional decisions with no slop in his system, rather than sheer hunting frequency. 73:12 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland

nutrition

• Bronson Strickland says he fundamentally disagrees with limiting summer food to control doe numbers, arguing compromising nutrition only hurts the herd. 6:27 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland

soil

• Strickland finds poor and rich soils produce chemically similar forage, but rich soils grow roughly ten times more forage biomass, which he says drives most body-weight differences in deer. 48:51 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

supplemental-feeding

• Bronson Strickland explains that only feeding corn during hunting season with one feed type is baiting, not true supplemental feeding, which must raise diet quality year-round. 8:09 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland

website

• Strickland directs listeners to the MSU Deer Lab website as the best resource for learning more about his and Steve Demarais’s whitetail research. 79:26 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

youth-hunting

• Bronson argues youth hunters shouldn’t be allowed unlimited harvest of any buck for years, since only a limited number of quality young bucks exist before herd quality suffers. 10:03 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class

Questions they answered

• An audience member asks how Don and Terry calculate carrying capacity and set doe harvest numbers on their farms and consulting clients’ land.
  Bronson Strickland says his team judges recommendations by tracking average doe body weight and carcass condition over time. 34:06 — Episode #211 - Live from RWWP Dealer Event - BINGO
• How can a hunter’s mindset change with trail camera data to not only pick which buck to shoot?
  Bronson says he and clients build both a hit list and a do-not-shoot list to protect bucks with future trophy potential. 5:27 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• Was Bronson’s family into hunting when he was growing up?
  Bronson says his parents’ generation hunted quail and rabbits since deer barely existed in the area at the time. 18:52 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• What role do worms and parasites play as stress on a deer herd, and should hunters worry about it?
  Bronson says parasites naturally fluctuate but have never been documented to regulate a free-ranging deer population. 19:42 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• Could a herd’s wide-but-thin-tined genetics and an eight-point dominated herd combine to eventually produce a dream buck?
  Bronson says it sounds like either nutrition is limiting antler expression or the best bucks are being systematically harvested. 24:01 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• What does the term “high grading” mean when applied to a deer herd or local hunters?
  Bronson defines high grading as taking the best and leaving the rest, borrowed from forestry, applied to systematically removing the best bucks. 24:31 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• What causes part of a buck’s skull to break off along with a shed antler?
  Bronson’s educated guess is that fighting-related injury weakens the skull structure, causing bone to come off with the shed. 27:29 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• What are the survival chances and antler prospects for a shed-hunted buck with a gooey, infected antler base?
  Bronson says the infection likely means the buck will develop a brain abscess and may not survive to the next season. 38:18 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• After a CWD-positive test led to an earlier rifle season, is that something hunters should worry about?
  Bronson says CWD is something to be concerned about but not worry about, since impacts take a decade or more to appear. 70:44 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• Do harsher winters play a role in CWD-related deer mortality?
  Bronson says tracked CWD-positive deer have been found to freeze to death during cold snaps, a new mortality source. 85:23 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• What percentage breakdown of browse versus forbs makes up a whitetail’s diet?
  Bronson says summer diets run about 30-40% browse and 30-40% forbs, shifting to 50-60% browse in fall and winter. 35:23 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• How much water does a whitetail need per day, and does that change seasonally?
  Bronson admits he can’t recall the exact figure from a physiology class decades ago and will look it up. 32:24 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• If you could go back and pick anyone’s brain about deer management or hunting, who would it be?
  Bronson would choose Aldo Leopold, considered the father of wildlife management. 83:41 — Episode #160 - Live with Dr. Bronson Strickland at Whitetail Master Class
• Alan asks whether doe fawns stay and get bred by the same buck, or get pushed off, or remain in a family group.
  Bronson says data shows doe fawns typically do not disperse from their mother’s home range, unlike yearling bucks. 30:42 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
• When do bucks typically shift into their fall home range, referencing a buck that appears mid-November two years running?
  Bronson explains most bucks don’t shift ranges seasonally, but shift timing for those that do clusters around pre-rut, so a buck appearing near the rut likely stays through most of it. 40:42 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
• Has anyone considered identifying and removing a specific doe to prevent her from passing on an unwanted gene?
  Bronson says you cannot manage genetics that way; culling a doe is only justified for behavioral reasons, not genetic control. 49:18 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
• Are the black wart-like growths on his buck’s face and body genetic, will they return, and what causes them?
  Bronson explains the growths are cutaneous fibromas (warts), never fatal, non-contagious in a concerning way, and safe to eat since they don’t penetrate the meat. 63:25 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
• Alan asks the best way to get corn-pile baiting banned in a state, since he’d like to eliminate it.
  Bronson says ending baiting takes grassroots hunter support petitioning the state wildlife agency, noting many hunters privately dislike it but feel pressured by neighbors. 75:28 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
• Can removing bucks without brow tines realistically alter that trait across the herd?
  Bronson says removing a few deer virtually cannot change a population’s genetics, since does carry the trait too without any visible indicator. 79:40 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
• Does research support that weather fronts matter more than moon phase for daylight deer movement?
  Bronson says they see no measurable moon-phase effect on deer movement, a stance that draws angry pushback on social media. 25:46 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
• Terry asks Bronson to give a quick summary of his education and research background.
  Strickland says he earned an undergraduate wildlife biology degree at the University of Georgia before pursuing graduate deer-management research that became his career. 3:46 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Don asks Bronson to explain the Mississippi State study on pregnant does and what it revealed about prenatal nutrition’s importance for fawns.
  Strickland says the multi-generational study revealed the mother doe’s own nutritional condition, not just genetics, largely determines how much of a buck’s body-size and antler potential gets expressed. 16:56 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Terry asks whether the research discredits DNR practices of relocating ‘good genetics’ bucks, since a stressed pregnant doe would still limit fawn expression.
  Strickland agrees: environment caps expressed phenotype for survival, so a 350-pound Illinois buck released in South Florida would gain no advantage and couldn’t thrive there. 24:44 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Don asks whether specific genetics could be better in one small, isolated ‘hot pocket’ location, referencing a spot that produced trophy bucks two years running.
  Strickland says isolated genetic hotspots are possible but unlikely; more probably the spot’s landscape and cover act as a magnet drawing mature bucks rather than growing bigger genetics. 30:00 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Terry asks Bronson to explain, for newer listeners, what he means by yearling buck dispersal and his cited 75% statistic.
  Strickland explains mother does typically drive off yearling buck fawns before the next breeding season to reduce inbreeding risk, a pattern called yearling buck dispersal. 36:37 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Don asks whether it’s accurate that worse soil conditions mean a good mineral supplementation program can have more impact on deer.
  Strickland says the logic holds in theory, but no rigorous study has isolated minerals from confounding soil and forage factors enough to prove the effect. 43:25 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Don asks whether selectively culling the smallest-antlered bucks in each age class on a single property can meaningfully improve its buck quality.
  Strickland strongly agrees, noting he and Steve Demarais wrote a book on this ‘strategic harvest system’ endorsing culling below-average bucks old enough to predict they won’t become trophies. 60:23 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Don asks Bronson whether CWD’s danger is overblown or truly the serious threat some organizations and state agencies portray.
  Strickland says CWD is a serious long-term threat: infection is 100% fatal, and though other causes often kill infected deer first, CWD accelerates that mortality and shrinks deer populations. 70:41 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD
• Don asks whether Bronson knows about deer breeders selecting breeder bucks for a gene believed to confer CWD resistance.
  Strickland says a CWD-resistance gene is being studied but unproven, and warns that relying on a rare mutation risks total extirpation if the gene turns out too scarce. 76:58 — Episode #31 - Special Guest Dr. Bronson Strickland - Fetal Programming, Deer Dispersal, Minerals, and CWD

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.