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Baiting Bill HB1618/SB1942

Should baiting be allowed on private land?

  • Yes

    Votes: 181 39.5%

  • No

    Votes: 204 44.5%

  • Don't care

    Votes: 73 15.9%
  • Total voters
    458
DoubleRidge said:
Sure...and there are healthy sources of food that are good and beneficial....and there are other sources of food that do the body no good and can actually be harmful...but yeah I guess any edible material could be called food by definition.
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Sugar is "food".
But we don't want our kids just eating candy.
Corn is sugar.

holstonangler said:
Show me one deer that has died of alfatoxin poisoning.
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Show me one child who has died from eating candy, yet we know too much sugar harms health.
But wet corn can develop a poison (aflatoxin), not just a case of sugar.
None of us would feed our children rotten food, which is exactly what aflatoxin corn is, i.e. rotten, molded, poison.

Aflatoxin poisoning usually doesn't kill deer, just makes them less healthy and sometimes very sick. That in turn makes them weaker, and more susceptible to being caught by predators. This is particularly the case with buck fawns. You just never personally see it, but the losses from feeding corn (in a pile or from a feeder) often exceed the benefits. It is a very different situation with a field of corn vs. a pile of corn.

But aflatoxin poisoning is mainly a killer of birds, all birds that eat it. I believe it has been a significant driver of periodic low turkey populations, as well as the near extinction of bobwhite quail. Corn in a pile is candy to birds. When it develops aflatoxin, the birds still eat it (although deer may not). Birds then fly or walk off to die no where near the corn pile, so those pouring out the corn rarely are aware of the dangers of aflatoxin (nor do most seem to even care).
 
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DoubleRidge said:
. . ... show me one deer that benefits from eating toxic food?
Point being there are so many other healthy options to actually help wildlife...but they require more effort than opening a bag.
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Good point.

"Feeding" will remain "controversial" simply because there are both good & bad points to it.

And either side of the controversy can selectively point out the good or the bad, while selective ignoring the opposites.

But the argument that food plots & corn fields are the same as "feeding" are bogus.

Same can be said for the argument of widespread corn feeding in the arid Texas climate vs the humid TN climate. Humidity is a driver of aflatoxin, and corn fed in Texas is not nearly as dangerous to wildlife as corn fed in TN.
 
timberjack86 said:
No I think improving what nature has already provided is completely different than planting a half acre kill plot. I think planting an apple tree with the intention to kill deer from it later is baiting as well.
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So creating a small woodland meadow and seeding with native clover, AKA a food plot, should be banned? But removing undesirable trees because they're not worth much money or have and allowing that space grow back in native weeds such as clover is ok? If you're going to ban plots and fruit tree planting then it would be hypocritical not to also ban TSI. Food is food, right?
 
timberjack86 said:
You can't tell me a half acre or less food plot isn't the same as baiting. 1 acre or more yeah that'll definitely benefit deer and turkeys
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A food plot, no matter the size is not baiting. Putting food out, corn, fruit, candy, etc. is not the same as preparing ground, planting or sowing seed, and waiting to see if it grows or not. 2 completely different things. Yes I can tell you it isn't the same, well common sense tells me it isn't the same.
 
Headhunter said:
A food plot, no matter the size is not baiting. Putting food out, corn, fruit, candy, etc. is not the same as preparing ground, planting or sowing seed, and waiting to see if it grows or not. 2 completely different things. Yes I can tell you it isn't the same, well common sense tells me it isn't the same.
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Planting a half acre or less food plot with the intention to draw deer into a area of your choosing for killing is not baiting? Sounds like disease central if you got many mouths feeding and defeacting in such a small area. I did it once and it felt the same as sitting over a corn pile in Georgia. Also did that once. It is legal so i dont care either way just not my style of hunting. Keep telling yourself it's different if that helps you sleep at night.
 
timberjack86 said:
Planting a half acre or less food plot with the intention to draw deer into a area of your choosing for killing is not baiting? Sounds like disease central if you got many mouths feeding and defeacting in such a small area. I did it once and it felt the same as sitting over a corn pile in Georgia. Also did that once. It is legal so i dont care either way just not my style of hunting. Keep telling yourself it's different if that helps you sleep at night.
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I don't need any help sleeping, thanks for being concerned about it though.
 
I've planted food plots the last two years and will again this fall. It's an agricultural practice i use to convert fescue pasture in the fall into crop land in the spring. It has nothing to do with wildlife or hunting although im sure they enjoy the food.

Going to the store and buying corn and dumping it out to hunt native wildlife over is a slob tactic by slob hunters imo. Planting a food plot to hunt over is hard work and totally different than being a slob.
 
timberjack86 said:
You can't tell me a half acre or less food plot isn't the same as baiting.
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Actually, even a 1/4 to 1/2 acre cultivated plot is very different from a pile of corn.

1/2 acre is 70 yards by 35 yards, hopefully of an ongoing variety of living plants. Doesn't even matter so much if it's "planted" by any store-bought seed, as Mother Nature will provide the smorgasbord when more sunlight hits the ground, and especially if that ground has had its native seedbed disturbed (light disking or raking).

Many of my "food plots" are nothing more than habitat annually or bi-annually mowed to prevent reforestation, and the "food" is "native" plants, simply allowed to spout & grow.

Sure, either can be hunted over, but the overall differences are pretty dramatic.
Baiting promotes disease, food plots promotes herd health.
 
Planking said:
I've planted food plots the last two years and will again this fall. It's an agricultural practice i use to convert fescue pasture in the fall into crop land in the spring. It has nothing to do with wildlife or hunting although im sure they enjoy the food.
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Since you mentioned "fescue",
that invasive grass is the scourge of the earth.

Not only is it of zero value to wildlife,
but it has displaced many native grasses & forbs that were highly beneficial to wildlife.

Few things can do more to help your local wildlife than the simple elimination of fescue grass on your property. But good luck with that. It's sometimes easier to get rid of Johnson grass.
 
TheLBLman said:
Since you mentioned "fescue",
that invasive grass is the scourge of the earth.

Not only is it of zero value to wildlife,
but it has displaced many native grasses & forbs that were highly beneficial to wildlife.

Few things can do more to help your local wildlife than the simple elimination of fescue grass on your property. But good luck with that. It's sometimes easier to get rid of Johnson grass.
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It's been shown to hurt milk production in deer
 
Ski said:
So creating a small woodland meadow and seeding with native clover, AKA a food plot, should be banned? But removing undesirable trees because they're not worth much money or have and allowing that space grow back in native weeds such as clover is ok? If you're going to ban plots and fruit tree planting then it would be hypocritical not to also ban TSI. Food is food, right?
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Where did I say ban it? We need less government. You are right food is food. To me It feels the same hunting over a small food plot planted to lure deer in for the kill same as it did hunting over bait in Georgia. Not my style of hunting. I don't want food plots banned. I don't even care if they legalize baiting. I just see it as no different. I think native habitat and even large plots are just as important as Agriculture.
 
It just seems to me if this baiting is so bad for wildlife then why are not the adjoining states banning it ?? They have biologists don't they ? Canada baits all the time basically they can't kill a mature animal without a bait pile . And the theory were a mature buck won't come to a bait pile isn't true either. Just watch a few videos hunting in Canada. Guess it'd too cold for the aflatoxins eh. Only thing is that to me some can't put out food plots for many reasons so if legal why can't they bait without being slammed . Key word " legal " but now it's not so I don't promote it....really don't anyway . I used to bait off season and yes had trail cameras to see what was frequenting my property but quit doing so because I heard it was bad for the turkeys .
 
TheLBLman said:
Since you mentioned "fescue",
that invasive grass is the scourge of the earth.

Not only is it of zero value to wildlife,
but it has displaced many native grasses & forbs that were highly beneficial to wildlife.

Few things can do more to help your local wildlife than the simple elimination of fescue grass on your property. But good luck with that. It's sometimes easier to get rid of Johnson grass.
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We converted about 50 acres from fescue to native grasses years ago through the old WHIP program and it is still holding up from fescue pretty well. The Johnson grass here keeps coming. My grandfather referred to it as "the enemy".
 

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