Whitetail Deer Managing a whitetail deer herd and growing better quality animals is a goal of a lot of property owners or hunting lease holders, but how do you do this on a small piece of land? Biologists say you need several hundred acres to manage a herd effectively. What can you do if you only have a hundred acres? You can do more management than you think.

Lindsay Thomas of the Quality Deer Management Association says to manage deer on small pieces of property, one option is to set up a co-op with adjoining landowners, and this way you can get the big block of land you need for a good management program.

However, if this isn't possible, if surrounding landowners don't want to participate in a co-op, there is another option that can yield surprising results.

"A small property owner is never going to really, truly manage a deer population because those deer are sharing the neighboring properties," he notes. "If you can't set up a cooperative with your neighbors toward quality deer management, your goal should be to make your property the most appealing property in the neighborhood. And that goes both nutritionally and providing sanctuaries in areas that aren't hunted."

"By providing sanctuaries, the deer in the areas are going to be at your place. You may not be able to truly manage the deer population, but you can certainly have most of them using your property as the true deer magnet in that area. Your goal should be to produce a deer-haven in your neighborhood."