drought and acorn production

any arborist know what we might expect this fall in the drought stricken areas?..........or anyone who remembers droughts of the past, and the efects they had.

[JPE]

Bryant;  I live in STE GENEVIEVE MO. and the white oaks close to  my yard are not doing much but the hickory is doing real well. Guess we will have to wait and see.
                            JIM PYLES

[Gen273]

I am not an expert, but here in the tristate area oj KY,TN and VA, we were warm early; so everything budded out early, then we had a few hard freezes late in the spring. That caused the acorn buds to freeze and fall off. Therefore I am expecting a very poor mast crop here.

[Brazos]

If you are in an area that has different types of oaks you will have some acorns.  Last year I started hunting some land I own in E TX after many years of hunting in south TX.  Last year they had a tremendous drought resulting in many fires.  I saw big sloughs completely dry, first in my lifetime.  I had a friend that had tried elsewhere the previous year but never saw a deer and was anxious to get his first deer.  I told him no problem.  We set up a couple feeders and put up stands well before season.  Plenty of sign on those 2 stands until it rolled around to the opening weekend of rifle season (first weekend of Nov).  We figured out quick there were acorns everywhere despite the drought.  Those deer wanted no part of our feeders.  I was amazed as I figured just feed corn and they would get up in the stand with you considering the drought of a lifetime.

[John Scifres]

We had a moderate drought a few years ago and the acorns were noticeably smaller but numerous.  This year we are in severe drought so I guess we'll see.  Much of our corn crop is going to fail.  Farmers could cut early for silage or just leave it.  At any rate, I am anxious to see how the deer are reacting in my hunting areas.  Some depend heavily on acorns.  Some are more ag land.  Just part of the puzzle this year I guess.

[JamesV]

Here in the Mississippi delta we had a very hot and dry summer last year, but we also had a bumper corp of acorns, so many the deer were really hard to pattern. Go figure

[TxAg]

Sometimes oaks will produce an excess of acorns in drought years as a survival mechanism. Mesquite trees do the same thing.

[jonsimoneau]

The less acorns there are the better hunting over acorns will be. Trick is finding some in the first place and then hoping like heck they don't hit the ground before season starts!  I'm going to be hunting a new piece of public land this year and I plan on looking for white oaks near wetter areas in hopes of finding a few trees that will be ready come season.