I looked on here and the TPWD website, and couldn't find recommendations on how many acres are necessary for "effective" management under the MLD program.

Does anyone have any resources or experience they can point me to? Let's assume other surrounding land owners are NOT in the program.

IMO several thousand acres if the neighbors aren't involved.

Too many deer coming & going to make any impact on small plots of land... especially if you have knuckleheads posted up on the fenceline blasting anything over 13".

Just spoke with a tpwd biologist his morning about this. It would depend on what your goals are but it can be done. I only have 72 acres but the deer density is sky high. He said if the surveys support it, he'd have no problem giving a bunch of tags on a small property. Main advantages being no 13" rule and the expanded season dates.

If you get on the Harvest Option, you are limited in permits by the county average as determined by the TPWD spotlight line conducted in Aug/Sept. If you opt for the Conservation Option, you do all of the work on surveys but starting next year will be on the hook for an annual $300 fee.

Thanks.

I was thinking about this for ~1,000 acres in Mills County, approximately 50/50 pasture/wooded. I used the TPWD Land Management Assistance website for a tag estimate (just to see if it's something we'd want to do), and the numbers look about like I expected - we need to shoot more does.

I was just curious if we could have any real effect without the neighbors being in on it too.

I have no guidelines, but we high fenced and MLD'd our place 15 years ago. Did not want to, but crappy neighbors on 2 sides were day hunting their places like crazy (right on our fenceline). We had been managing the ranch for years but couldn't let anything age because we'd never see it again.

Fast forward- we have some big deer and we still have deer that are only seen occasionally on game cams. This place is pretty small, but MLD has been very effective.