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Big Antler Experiment and Results (Picture /Text Rich)

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    #16
    Awesome bucks, thanks for the thread.
    50% Northern is a lot to drop in the pasture in South Texas. I like 1/8th max. But 1/4 Northern would probably work too.
    Anyways, ya'll got it wooped now.

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      #17
      nice! Like the looks of them!

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        #18
        Thanks for the great read.

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          #19
          Originally posted by Bryan2014 View Post
          Great info. I wonder if the deer had been all natives if they would have been hardier. Would be interesting to see the results of that experiment
          My bet is they would have, 100 percent native deer are genetically adapted to the area from which they came. I'm sure there still would be mortality but nothing close to 50 percent in that environment. Just a guess.

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            #20
            Just curious as to the buck to doe ratio and deer density per acre. Great read, thanks for sharing.

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              #21
              No a guy in the wimberly are with good deer from native genes.
              170 -190" @ 6.5 and one broke 200
              He just shot stuff he didn't like and let the good genes grow

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                #22
                Originally posted by Walker View Post
                Imho, deer cant live on protein alone and the cows are eating all the natural food. Too many cows.
                The ranch is not overgrazed. There are about 20% less cattle on the ranch than it would normally support. Much care is taken to be sure the deer are a high priority.

                Originally posted by Hawkpuppy 1 View Post
                If you are experiencing more buck loss post antler drop, what are their body conditions post-rut? January and February are some of the hardest months for a buck to get through. Also, what is the estimated buck:doe ratio? Low numbers of does and high on bucks will almost always give you mortality loss due to fighting, and can even lead to lower fawning rates as bucks are fighting more than breeding at times.
                Bucks are in top condition going into the first of December and the rut, by mid-January there is what I consider normal weight loss, just as a WAG I would say 30# on a 200# live weight buck. The buck to doe ratio is 1 to 1.7 so shortage of breeding partners should not be an issue. We have noticed that dominance has been pretty well established prior to the rut, but that if a dominant buck happens to lose his antlers earlier than a lower ranking buck that the lower ranking buck becomes aggressive and the shed buck reacts as he always has even though he has lost his knife in the knife fight..!

                Originally posted by Black Gold View Post
                Just pure speculation based on absolutely no data, but it seems like hybridizing with the native deer that were there when it was fenced would have maybe produced hardier deer if the experiment was to ever be reproduced.
                Very cool info....Thanks for posting....
                I certainly would agree that hybridizing with native deer more attuned to the tough life would give better survival results, but those native does would not likely come close to the released does ability to produce buck fawns with top-flight antlers. The goal was/is to produce maximum antler in "pasture" deer and with what we have learned the hope now is that a few generations of pasture-raised fawns will be better survivors. In essence that is some of the uniqueness of this experiment. The genes are in the herd though obviously greatly mixed from what it would be in penned deer. It is not like some ranches where does are collected and the better ranch buck is put with them as in a DMP program.

                Originally posted by deerwatcher51 View Post
                Just curious as to the buck to doe ratio and deer density per acre. Great read, thanks for sharing.
                The relative high doe ratio is our attempt to get fawn production up. No one involved feels any great necessity to harvest deer as would normally be the situation on most places.

                Density is about 18 ac. deer; we think plenty of room to expand herd. (There are times that I go throughout the ranch and never see a single deer. So much for the "fish in a barrel" comparison that is occasionally made by the anti-high fence contingent..!)

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                  #23
                  Interesting. Thanks for sharing!

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                    #24
                    Good read.

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                      #25
                      Big Antler Experiment and Results (Picture /Text Rich)

                      Great info! I sometimes wonder what the difference would be on my family’s ranch with a high fence without introducing any deer.

                      It would be cool to see two different scenarios:

                      1. High Fence no new deer no feed other than corn
                      2. High Fence no new deer and protein feeding


                      Does anyone have any detailed info on the two listed options kinda like the OP posted?

                      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
                      Last edited by Black Ice; 03-28-2018, 09:09 PM.

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                        #26
                        Very interesting!!

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                          #27
                          Nice write up

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                            #28
                            Btw, I like "Holy Smoke" the best. Dang shame to loose him at just 4 yrs old.

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                              #29
                              Originally posted by bukkskin View Post
                              Btw, I like "Holy Smoke" the best. Dang shame to loose him at just 4 yrs old.
                              bukkskin, we agree completely..! As you might guess he was called HS and we really did not think "Smoke" but this is a family publication.

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                                #30
                                im gonna guess that transition date is critical. going north to south, id expect sept 15th-ish to nov 1st-ish to be optimal.

                                the next best option being in march i assume.

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