Got deer?

[Hook]

With hunting season coming up I thought it was a good time to tease you all. We went to pick up 50 rolls of peanut hay today from a guy who also raises whitetail for genetic purposes. We got a nice tour of the place and I got this photo op.


Here's the kicker....it's a doe. 22 points , female outside and a retained testicle inside. Dead eye thought it was the best thing since being born to get to see and pet her. I keep reminding him how much of a charmed life he leads compared to a lot of kids, hoping it keeps him grounded. :mrgreen:

 

[M5farm]

That's cool , we got a deer ranch up here but you can't pet them.

 

[Jogeephus]

That's neat.

 

[skyhightree1]

Very neat.. Can you PM me the address. Don't ask any questions. :mrgreen:

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Very cool!

 

[HDRider]

Wowser!!

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Hey that's meat... I mean neat. :oops:


I've always wondered, since it has male gonads but female plumbing, does it chase itself around during the rut (you know, turn itself on)?

 

[TexasBred]

Hook just to the east of me is a small town of about less than 2000 people that has over 100 of those high fence deer ranches. Mostly owned by big money folks out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Amazing some of the deer they ahve on those places. I'm sure a hunt cost a lot of money and is little more than sitting you down somewhere that old "big boy' walks by everyday on the way to the feeder. I'd like to cut a few fences and let a few bucks get with the wild deer. :mrgreen:

 

[Hook]

These people just breed and grow out the genetic lines. The husband was down in the Miami area picking up a $40k buck. :shock: they were talking about starting with the black Hereford lines next :mrgreen:

 

[TexasBred]

These people just breed and grow out the genetic lines. The husband was down in the Miami area picking up a $40k buck. :shock: they were talking about starting with the black Hereford lines next :mrgreen:

:lol2: :lol2: Yep those "scientific breeders" (that's their official title) spend a lot of money. They do a lot of AI, embryo transplant etc. A lot of bucks as well as semen are being brought in from up north as well as from over in Mississippi. Some awesome bucks but most or non-typical. Looks they must have 100 pts. and score 300 on B&C...ugly to me...I like a nice big typical rack...10-12 pts. and long tines.

 

[Nesikep]

The white tail we have here are golden colored... Wonder if our Gelbvieh bull got to them... We used to have mule deer but apparently the whitetails are more territorial... I don't mind, the mule deer were ugly compared to these ones.. We have 2 does here, 1 with a single fawn, and 1 with twins.. The other day I was watching the two fawns playing together, running around the field much like the calves do getting each other riled up

There was a reindeer ranch up north I saw pictures of once, they were really nice too, and they looked like they were all a bunch of pets, coming for some range cubes. I've stumbled across fawns once in a while and wished I had my tagger with me to put an RFID tag on them.. scare the heck out of hunters.

In the springtime, you'd think my neighbors raise deer, I've often counted 50 animals in their hayfields

 

[kenny thomas]

Hook just to the east of me is a small town of about less than 2000 people that has over 100 of those high fence deer ranches. Mostly owned by big money folks out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Amazing some of the deer they ahve on those places. I'm sure a hunt cost a lot of money and is little more than sitting you down somewhere that old "big boy' walks by everyday on the way to the feeder. I'd like to cut a few fences and let a few bucks get with the wild deer. :mrgreen:

My orders when on wildfires in west TX is first to try to avoid cutting the high fences but if I must someone has to stay at that spot until it iss fully repaired. Luckly I have not had to cut one yet. Must be some powerful people owning those places if theiur fence is more important than putting out the fire.
Oh, tell Deadeye I will be waiting for pictures of one like that in the wild.

 

[boondocks]

Hey that's meat... I mean neat. :oops:


I've always wondered, since it has male gonads but female plumbing, does it chase itself around during the rut (you know, turn itself on)?

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[boondocks]

I think I am very slowly actually becoming a farmer. We have a field next to our house that we poly-wire twice a year and turn the cows out on. Used to, I would look out the window, see a mama deer and fawn just yards away, and think "Awwwww....cute." The other day I saw a mom and baby and my FIRST thought was: Get out of the pasture you ^%$#@! rascals!!!

 

[TexasBred]

Hook just to the east of me is a small town of about less than 2000 people that has over 100 of those high fence deer ranches. Mostly owned by big money folks out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Amazing some of the deer they ahve on those places. I'm sure a hunt cost a lot of money and is little more than sitting you down somewhere that old "big boy' walks by everyday on the way to the feeder. I'd like to cut a few fences and let a few bucks get with the wild deer. :mrgreen:

My orders when on wildfires in west TX is first to try to avoid cutting the high fences but if I must someone has to stay at that spot until it iss fully repaired. Luckly I have not had to cut one yet. Must be some powerful people owning those places if theiur fence is more important than putting out the fire.
Oh, tell Deadeye I will be waiting for pictures of one like that in the wild.

KT here's an article on one old fellow that got caught way over in the Piney Woods of East Texas.


http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/28 ... r-20120129

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Hook just to the east of me is a small town of about less than 2000 people that has over 100 of those high fence deer ranches. Mostly owned by big money folks out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Amazing some of the deer they ahve on those places. I'm sure a hunt cost a lot of money and is little more than sitting you down somewhere that old "big boy' walks by everyday on the way to the feeder. I'd like to cut a few fences and let a few bucks get with the wild deer. :mrgreen:

My orders when on wildfires in west TX is first to try to avoid cutting the high fences but if I must someone has to stay at that spot until it iss fully repaired. Luckly I have not had to cut one yet. Must be some powerful people owning those places if theiur fence is more important than putting out the fire.
Oh, tell Deadeye I will be waiting for pictures of one like that in the wild.

Just a guess Kenny, but I bet a lot has to do with not exposing the wild population to the captive herd. I don't think you can just dump a captive deer out. Bunch of regulations on those deals, I've talked to a guy that was thinking about getting in to it, but I can't remember half of what he was telling me.

Seemed like CWD was pretty rampid in the captive population a little while back.

It's my opinion that around here, the native bob white population of big birds with lot's of white meat , big thighs and mostly ran as a way of fleeing danger- has been forever lost to the guys turning out thousands of those smaller flighty quail with a redder breast.

 

[Taurus]

^ yup! We used to have lot of game farms here, mostly elk and whitetails. When CWD has discovered in several captive cevids, they add more regulations on deer farms, therefore many cevid ranchers got out of the deer ranching business. The huge elk ranch near us switched their elk herds to beef cattle and some wild horses. It is strange sight to see cattle being kept in high fences but I guess he doesn't have to be worried about fence jumpers at any time.

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Hook just to the east of me is a small town of about less than 2000 people that has over 100 of those high fence deer ranches. Mostly owned by big money folks out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Amazing some of the deer they ahve on those places. I'm sure a hunt cost a lot of money and is little more than sitting you down somewhere that old "big boy' walks by everyday on the way to the feeder. I'd like to cut a few fences and let a few bucks get with the wild deer. :mrgreen:

You may have heard this or you may not even be interested in it, but I was told that releasing a buck into a generic population wouldn't really do much because it gets diluted in the wild population so easily.

I mulled that over for a minute before I took the guys word for it. I was thinking, a bull is 50% of your genetic population... and that is true. Get a good bull for a 3 generations and you've significantly affected your herd genetics.

But, throw a single 100k buck into a herd of ~ 30% bucks, he's not the only game in town. And even if he bred a decent percentage of the does, it takes big rack genetics on both sides (from my understanding) to make a great one. And then you can't even come close to controlling the match up of the F1 offspring because it's a wild population. But I still want to argue with myself a little.


When I was young, I hunted a place on the South Canadian river where a farmer's domestic tom turkey mated with a wild hen. I recall a group of 7 toms that ran together for years that had more white in their feathers. They were the biggest turkeys I've ever hunted and smartest. But you couldn't tell that they impacted the population really.

 

[Caustic Burno]

TB I don't remember the percentage but the doe is more important than the buck
according to our biologist.

 

[Commercialfarmer]

TB I don't remember the percentage but the doe is more important than the buck
according to our biologist.

I thought that's what I heard too CB, but I just couldn't remember or make sense of why.


I do remember the guy telling me that it's a deep pocket person's game. They can end up using 5-10k a straw semen on a 10-40K doe and she just ups and dies. Said they lose something like 10% or better (I can't remember the exact figure but it was at least 10%) from complications of anesthesia, recovery (they're just so high stressed) and surgical complications since they surgically inseminate them.