Raising exotics, looking for advice

[MAP]

I've got a particular place that is a few hundred acres of open fields with motts of brush scattered around. I'm wanting to introduce some exotics and focus on one species. My goal is to live sale some each year without offering hunts for them. I have the option to plant large food plots plus protein. I'm thinking about addax, blesbok, or sheep. I also thought about blackbuck, I really like them, but I would have to sale 50 animals a year to make it worth while.

I'm curious what ya'll would recommend. I'm looking for an animal that has a high survival rate, produces lots of offspring, and has a high demand. Any advice is appreciated

[Beargrasstx]

In for responses, curious myself

[ClayW]

Wild hogs

[3DW5]

Goats would be the easiest I would think but Blackbuck are so awesome!!!! Looking forward to read what others say.

[Hooverfb]

50% of all us sheep farming is in texas. So if you're thinking that route, cant hurt.

[critter69]

Don’t quite get why you would have to sell 50 a year to make it worth while ? Sounds like maybe that land is just sitting growing weeds right now, any thing would be better then nothing would it not ? I don’t know how exotics and “ raising” them goes, so just curious. But I believe black buck would be the “ coolest” and I would imagine easy to sell. An animal that generally drops two or more young, seems as though you would only need half the animals. Following to see what is suggested, and what you do.

[Cull hunter]

Dama Gazelle---2 babies a year I believe.

Gemsbok always sell. So do oryx. Fallow sell well. Sable if you want to jump that high. Addax are kinda weird on the market.

[Edward54]

Look up wildlife partners out of Mountain Home they are helpful and also exotics can be 100% tax write off they have more details on there website


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[RatherBhuntin]

I'd say Black Buck because are easy to fence in and multiply quickly. They also look good on the wall and are high demand. You can also sell off most of the males since it only takes a few males to keep the herd fertilized.

When I first got on my lease we had a decent herd now we are over run with them. Can't shoot them fast enough. Most our members just find them annoying now.

[HOOKNBULLET2]

The Exotic Wildlife Association used to be a good source of information. Don’t know if they are still around though.

[MAP]

Yeah I'm really leaning towards blackbucks as the main animal, with a small but good herd of addax. I'm also not wanting to take these animals to auction, but prefer having a trapper come out and remove the yearly quote in a short time span and/or sale directly to a particular ranch.

I'm also leaning more towards animals with horns rather than antlers, because we have some county road frontage and I believe their is a higher risk of losing breeder deer to poaching rather than breeder antelope.

Do blackbuck eat protein? If so, what brands are ya'll using that they seem to like.

Don’t quite get why you would have to sell 50 a year to make it worth while ?

I'm figuring in does and bucks to sale each year, blackbuck does will probably only bring $250 apiece. Forty of those would only be $10,000, that's not enough for me to focus on black buck only.

[RatherBhuntin]

They will eat protein. We had to fence them out of our feeder's they would wipe out 300 pounds in a week.

[Austin]

I would research what animals will do best on the existing pasture as well as what they eat and how easy they are to keep. I would also try and determine average prices and demand to make sure that there was enough demand.

I like the blesbok idea I hear they are not fence jumpers either much like Black buck. You might also consider a grazer and a browser so they were not directly competing with each other

[buck_wild]

If your land is around Alice, coyotes love to kill whole herds of BB down that way if in a smaller pasture (20 acres too small, 200 might be OK). The BB tend to group up in the corners and the coyotes pound them !
Whatever you do, don't get sheep like corsican, dall etc. They are born looking for a place to die ! I had a pack of dogs or coyotes wipe out my herd of painted desert sheep in 2 nights near Victoria.

[OleTomTalker]

If your land is around Alice, coyotes love to kill whole herds of BB down that way if in a smaller pasture (20 acres too small, 200 might be OK). The BB tend to group up in the corners and the coyotes pound them !
Whatever you do, don't get sheep like corsican, dall etc. They are born looking for a place to die ! I had a pack of dogs or coyotes wipe out my herd of painted desert sheep in 2 nights near Victoria.

I second this. Yes, sheep have a large market but very dependant on what area of state you're in. Here in Victoria area, I've seen some properties do ok and yet a neighbor pasture couldn't keep any alive. Very hit or miss.