Show Notes
In this episode, Jon Teater (Whitetail Landscapes) and Bill Thompson (Spartan Forge) discuss when to hunt and predictive modeling. Bill upsets the idea that weather is everything when it comes to deer movement. Bill's business and application, Spartan Forge, utilizes Global Position Data (GPS) to analyze deer movement and related trends. Bill explains factors that are analyzed to understand deer as it relates to movement and what data trends he sees generally and regionally that impact his algorithm.
Bill's tools analyze trends related to herd status, seasonal status (i.e. breeding), drought and other factors to diagnose movement. Bill discusses when cold snaps matter as it pertains to movement patterns and breaks down regional differences that get deer on their feet. Bill discusses the range of movement for deer and why some deer have preferences to travel miles and various breeding strategies of each. Bill discusses the primary and secondary ruts and trends in breeding. Bill discusses deer weight loss after the rut.
Bill explains why he doesn’t prefer all-day hunting and how the movement he analyzes doesn’t fit necessarily into the all-day trends we anticipate. Bill explains why vegetation and related cover trumps terrain as it pertains to deer preferences during the rut. Bill weighs cover versus food as it relates to movement and priorities, especially as it pertains to daylight movement.
