A deer yard is a product of the habitat (particularly the type of tree cover and the contributing soil and topographic conditions) not a product of feeding programs by humans. White tailed deer may have been yarding for the last 8,000 years (since sometime after the last ice age) in what is now known as the Loring area. While supplemental feeding by humans does occur in deer yards, it is not the reason why deer choose to yard where they do. Some good reading can be found here: http://www.wildliferesearch.ca/snow/...nservation.pdf