La. Velvet buck 11

[elgato]

[ATTACH]524774[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]524775[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]524776[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]524777[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]524778[/ATTACH]

[Sparkles]

nice

[elgato]

In my original post the most asked question was if we were High fenced. While that is a valid question it is not THE question to best understand the bucks in the pictures. Certainly having a hi fence has an effect and creates opportunity. THE question is 'why are these bucks bigger than bucks anywhere else in our area'. And the answer to that question is NUTRITION! Historically mature bucks on our farm , this neighborhood, lots of La. and most of East Texas as well were 8 pts ranging from the 120'to 140's. It's easy enough to say that is genetics. I dont believe that.

I have managed deer herds in La., Brooks county, Jim Hogg county, King Ranch, and Mexico. My experience is bucks in all those areas were limited by nutrition. And it is very challenging to raise the nutritional bar high enough long enough to have a herd fully express its genetic potential.I believe maximizing nutrition over time has a cumulative effect that keeps building.And that may be the most powerful tool a manager can employ...assuming you let the deer live longer enough to grow up.

What we have done in La. is have an aggressive agricultural program providing growing cultivars year round. And we have been doing this for years. Increasing the nutritional plane for one yr. does some good. Doing it for generations can be profound. THats why some of the 3 yr olds like you see in some of these pictures are so large. I proffer that if we just had a fence and no ag/pellet program we would just have more 'nice' 8 pts like every one else. Granted the fence then assures that those outstanding 3 yr olds will have the opportunity to reach 6 or 7 or 8 or...

Just my .02 worth

[Downwind]

Nice looking critters

[KingsX]

Some things are better left unsaid!
Don't let the low fence guys bother you with the HF question. I'm a low fence guy but I acknowledge the hards work and effort of any type of operation. Sometimes it's obvious the difference on camera pictures that a place is HF. Some LF guys can't help but to ask and I can't help but to follow up read to see for myself if it was HF. Our ranch owner killed a 230" buck next to us and some real nice 160-180" bucks have been killed on our current lease areas. The King Ranch deserves a little more respect then you gave it in my opinion but I guess it depends on what part you experience. They seem to produce a few over 200" every year from what I hear. You have a great ranch going and that's something to be proud of for sure. Several guys on here with HF operations produce mega bucks every year. Encinal comes to mind! Mother Nature is where it's at for us LF guys along with age and it seems high nutrition agriculture/supplementing looks to be the ticket for most HF guys.
Very nice bucks and keep posting them.

[KingsX]

This is my favorite one so far. Very nice buck!

[TildenHunter]

Beautiful deer. Keep doing what you are doing.

[dc1986]

Beautiful deer. Keep doing what you are doing.

x2

[Springs]

very nice, thanks for sharing! do you have your mexico cameras up and running? looking forward to seeing those pics as well!

[LDB]

Very nice

[Arrowflinger84]

Nice and big