A year in the life of a farm

[elgato]

I like the way this guy is filling out. Handsome for a 4 yr old. I've yet to see him 'live'.

[BolilloLoco]

I like the way this guy is filling out. Handsome for a 4 yr old. I've yet to see him 'live'.

Oh yeah!!!!

[elgato]

It was a tough year for my soybean fields. I planted late April and was followed with a long cool wet spell. Germination was good but the beans just stalled. This allowed the deer to pounce on them and they never recovered with the deer ultimately wiping the fields out.

So late July in the middle of a drought I replanted 2 fields, 5 &7 acres with sunn hemp and cow peas. They popped up quickly even with 100' heat and no rain. A week later I got a little rain and 100% germination.

I think I will let them go till frost and overseed with rye to experiment . Of course may change my mind also but for now the fields should provide excellent late summer early fall nutrition.

More to come from this.

[JLivi1224]

I like the way this guy is filling out. Handsome for a 4 yr old. I've yet to see him 'live'.

Wow. Stud! And a monster in the making !

[elgato]

Finally got a daytime pic of this guy. Suspect he's done growing. 6 yr old native homegrown La. buck grown in lousy soils but on a high nutritional plane his whole life via plantings and pellets. He will get a pass this yr [ assuming I ever see him during the season ] just to see what he will do at 7.

[Nolove]

I’ve been a loyal follower of your efforts for several years now. I’m always impressed, inspired and love reading new activity on your thread with my morning coffee. Thanks for taking the time to share and pass along your knowledge and accomplishments.

Forgive me if this is buried somewhere in this thread, but do you happen to have any before pictures of your native LA deer before you began your nutritional efforts? If no pics due to the era, can you describe the herd condition and genetics? I’m not familiar with LA native genetics other than yours, but am curious what this last buck pictured may look like without your plots and pellets for his whole life? Thanks again

If this has been previously covered, please don’t repeat yourself, I’ll dig it up.


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[txoutdoorsman24]

Fantastic animals as usual sir!!! Keep up the good work

[lovemylegacy]

Lord, you have more bucks than you know what to do with.

[bukkskin]

I think this is the oldest buck I know of on the property. At his prime he was well over 170. I saw him several times last year and he was a very large 7 pt. I'm not sure exactly how old he is but certainly over 10.

I think most bucks around here peak at 6-7 though it is hard to tell because the biggest ones get shot then. The biggest buck we ever took from the farm was 5. Thats the problem with most age experiments...the big ones get shot so who knows when they would peak.Not all bucks age the same . Have seen some peak at 4 and others at 10. Lots of variables effect that such as nutrition, health, injury, genetics, paracites, etc.

No question in my mind that the brush country bucks tend to peak a little later at 7-9 , some older. We have let a lot of really big bucks die of old age there and that seems to be the trend. That said though with the bucks there being managed the way we do it 'seems' they are slowly peaking later in life than in the early days. May just be because we have so many more bucks in the uber age classes?

We have a buck at the ranch that was 15 last yr and probably one of the biggest 5 pts ever. When 14 he was a 7 pt with drop. I'd guess his main beams over 27". He was well over 170 at 4.

Wow, he is a Dinosaur. That's cool to see.

[dstrong]

Finally got a daytime pic of this guy. Suspect he's done growing. 6 yr old native homegrown La. buck grown in lousy soils but on a high nutritional plane his whole life via plantings and pellets. He will get a pass this yr [ assuming I ever see him during the season ] just to see what he will do at 7.

Phenomenal deer

[whackem and stackem]

He's a superstar

[systemnt]

Finally got a daytime pic of this guy. Suspect he's done growing. 6 yr old native homegrown La. buck grown in lousy soils but on a high nutritional plane his whole life via plantings and pellets. He will get a pass this yr [ assuming I ever see him during the season ] just to see what he will do at 7.

Big old boy... love it.

[elgato]

I’ve been a loyal follower of your efforts for several years now. I’m always impressed, inspired and love reading new activity on your thread with my morning coffee. Thanks for taking the time to share and pass along your knowledge and accomplishments.

Forgive me if this is buried somewhere in this thread, but do you happen to have any before pictures of your native LA deer before you began your nutritional efforts? If no pics due to the era, can you describe the herd condition and genetics? I’m not familiar with LA native genetics other than yours, but am curious what this last buck pictured may look like without your plots and pellets for his whole life? Thanks again

If this has been previously covered, please don’t repeat yourself, I’ll dig it up.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Thanks for your comments.I am appreciative.

When we first started with the property about 40 years ago I didn't see a deer for several years. Rampant poaching all but wiped the deer out. What we have now is the result of decades of enhanced nutrition habitat mgt,and intensive herd management. It needs to be repeated that we didn't raise a single buck in over 30 years that we would call a trophy today. It wasn't till about 3 years after we game fenced the entirety of the 2500 acres 8 yrs ago that we were able to realize the effects of decades of enhanced nutrition. FINALLY we were able to get deer to maturity. The moral of that lesson is just how much bucks move around. The deer we were feeding all summer were being shot all around the property some miles away. We couldn't get anything older than 3 or 4.

And that tells a lot about buck quality in Rapides Parish as well as the whole state. While we have proved that genetics in our area can be quite good if bucks are allowed to age and on a high nutritional plane year round, that is not the norm for the state.The 'typical trophy buck ' in our are would be 120"-140".

What the game fence has done for us is given us the OPPORTUNITY to manage herd dynamics. That includes allowing bucks to age, balancing ratio's , and matching population to the habitat.Fences don't grow big bucks. It's what is done inside the fence that makes a difference. And with this what we have shown is what can happen if bucks are allowed to mature while on a high nutritional plane their entire life.No infused genetics, no TTT no DMP, just standard bucks like in most other places.

I think what we have also seen is the epigenetic shift in quality as a response to the environment. While most of the bucks were getting shot every year nonetheless the females were still on a very high nutritional plane transferring this to their off spring. This went on for decades even though we weren't able to see it in the bucks because the were shot prematurely on neighboring properties. Once the fence gave us the opportunity to let bucks age we suddenly captured those decades of year round nutrition.

So what would the buck in the pic look like elsewhere in La.? Impossible to say but several things come to mind: 1) Most likely he would have been shot much earlier in life. Last yr he was mid 180's12 pt. Think many would have passed him up? 2) There aren't many places that provide year round nutrition 365 days a year for 40 yrs. It adds up over time. Saying how much is beyond my scope. 3) Overall the quality of our bucks is better than elsewhere in the state. That suggests this buck most likely wouldn't have realized his full genetic potential without the environment he is in and would have been smaller. We did take 3 of the top typicals in the history of the state...in 2 yrs! I think that offers insight to the effects of long term nutrition and age.

[Nolove]

Thanks for your comments.I am appreciative.



When we first started with the property about 40 years ago I didn't see a deer for several years. Rampant poaching all but wiped the deer out. What we have now is the result of decades of enhanced nutrition habitat mgt,and intensive herd management. It needs to be repeated that we didn't raise a single buck in over 30 years that we would call a trophy today. It wasn't till about 3 years after we game fenced the entirety of the 2500 acres 8 yrs ago that we were able to realize the effects of decades of enhanced nutrition. FINALLY we were able to get deer to maturity. The moral of that lesson is just how much bucks move around. The deer we were feeding all summer were being shot all around the property some miles away. We couldn't get anything older than 3 or 4.



And that tells a lot about buck quality in Rapides Parish as well as the whole state. While we have proved that genetics in our area can be quite good if bucks are allowed to age and on a high nutritional plane year round, that is not the norm for the state.The 'typical trophy buck ' in our are would be 120"-140".



What the game fence has done for us is given us the OPPORTUNITY to manage herd dynamics. That includes allowing bucks to age, balancing ratio's , and matching population to the habitat.Fences don't grow big bucks. It's what is done inside the fence that makes a difference. And with this what we have shown is what can happen if bucks are allowed to mature while on a high nutritional plane their entire life.No infused genetics, no TTT no DMP, just standard bucks like in most other places.



I think what we have also seen is the epigenetic shift in quality as a response to the environment. While most of the bucks were getting shot every year nonetheless the females were still on a very high nutritional plane transferring this to their off spring. This went on for decades even though we weren't able to see it in the bucks because the were shot prematurely on neighboring properties. Once the fence gave us the opportunity to let bucks age we suddenly captured those decades of year round nutrition.



So what would the buck in the pic look like elsewhere in La.? Impossible to say but several things come to mind: 1) Most likely he would have been shot much earlier in life. Last yr he was mid 180's12 pt. Think many would have passed him up? 2) There aren't many places that provide year round nutrition 365 days a year for 40 yrs. It adds up over time. Saying how much is beyond my scope. 3) Overall the quality of our bucks is better than elsewhere in the state. That suggests this buck most likely wouldn't have realized his full genetic potential without the environment he is in and would have been smaller. We did take 3 of the top typicals in the history of the state...in 2 yrs! I think that offers insight to the effects of long term nutrition and age.

You are speaking my love language...thank you for such a thorough response. There is something that resonates with me about a high fence ranch with the native herd versus the same with imported genetics. Still feels natural, doing right by the land. There is 30 years of frustration behind my simple question and you answered it like you were inside of my head. The Legend of Elgato...thanks again.


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[EastTexasMan]

I wish the 13" rule was a 5.5 year old+ rule, but it's too hard to judge the age of a deer on the hoof by the average hunter.

We try to shoot 4.5+ bucks on our place, and we'd go for 5.5+ if that was actually obtainable, but in our part of east texas you see 4.5 year olds every year, but you rarely see a 5.5 year old (unless he's a cull). I'm not sure if I've had but maybe 1-6.5+ year old on camera in 9 years that would be a trophy.

We've only killed 2 bucks in 5 years as well (usually see about 15-20 per year), so someone's killing 'em.