A year in the life of a farm

[GarGuy]

WE have shut down the season at the ranch. Got home and found this shed. The G2 has circumference of 7" Got a little video of him this season which is the first time I have ever seen him in hard antler. Will post later.

When you posted the pic I commented that he has 50 inches of mass . Looking at that horn in your hand and realizing that's the small side..... gosh how much mass you think fe has?

Granted all that mass on the tines dont score but .....well..gosh!

[breederbuck33]

That is unbelievable! I don't think I've seen a deer in person with 7" bases, and this one has a 7" circumference on a tine... This thread just gets better and better with time.

[elgato]

So, I've been thinking about this thread and how to keep it interesting. Doing a quick review unbelievably I started it in April 2014!!! The original intent was to explore how to improve property for all wildlife, improve our marginal soils, focus on mgt principles and practices we use to benefit the native homegrown deer we have, and see if we could transition the farm away from synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. Later I included ranch experiences in the thread.

After 2972 posts I feel that horse has been beat to death! To simplify and recap the totality of the experience, our approach to deer mgt. is very simple
NUTRITION--Create an environment where nutrition is in the 100TH% 365 days a year meeting all the deers needs. This accomplished with habitat mgt, food plots, supplemental feeding and where necessary abundant water sources. Nutrition cannot be overstated nor overdone.

AGE--We are now at a point where we are letting more deer die of old age than get harvested including many top end bucks. Fascinating experiment considering we are doing this in 2 different countries with 2 different sub species, in 2 entirely different ecosystems .The takeaway is, especially in the brush country, deer on a high nutritional plane can live much longer than conventional wisdom proposes and sometimes have their best rack much later in life than commonly believed.

Genetics--We work with the genetics given in both locations and are happy with the results. No question genetics can be introduced to improve a herd when done wisely with proper controls. Thats just not the approach we have taken .

The outcome of this is that we are growing 200"+ bucks every year in two very disparate environments both high fence and low fence.

The other main focus of this thread was to explore soil improvement , how to positively impact the total ecosystem with a bias towards minimizing synthetics and herbicides. This primarily on a farm in the poor soils of central La. The approach at this point includes multi specie plantings both summer and fall, using no till techniques to always keep the soil covered preferably with living roots year round, and have as much plant diversity as possible.Using this approach, synthetic fertilizers have been completely eliminated. Herbicide use has become minimal though still present.

The results have been that organic matter has increased from a bit over 1% to nearly 4% on most of the cultivated areas. But being an impatient man I feel the results are evolving too slowly. After intense in depth research, as mentioned before, I believe the only way I can accelerate the rate of improvement I am after is to transition the entire farm to a sustainable agricultural approach. So that is the direction I will begin shifting this entire thread. I'll chronicle all the steps from ground zero forward recognizing this is a path with no end.

I have always been a believer in serendipity and a couple of things have happened that support and mandate this transition. First, I met Dr. Allen Williams, who is as knowledgeable about what I want to accomplish as anyone in the country.I had been looking for someone like him to help me since I bought the ranch in the late 90's and was studying the work of Alan Savory and intensive rotational grazing. The clincher is that Dr. Wiliams is southern born and raised guy having spent many years in La. thus intimately familiar with the local ecology. Secondly, hurricane Laura came along and destroyed a tremendous amount of the timber I had so meticulously managed for decades. The result being if I do nothing the forest will turn into a giant impenetrable briar patch with overall diminishing value over time.

SO the outcome of introducing multi specie grazing herbivores will be to manage the explosion of growth on the newly opened woods, improve the soil through out the forest and fields, and achieving a 'savanah' result with the preponderance of vegetation in the forest kept knee to waist high at an improved nutritional density and more available to everything.I would have never thinned the woods to the degree Laura did but looking at it now it has created a tremendous opportunity.

All that said I will continue posting deer pics and stories. Cause after all growing big deer is the fetish that fuels the fire for continuing improvement . Enough for now. The next couple post will share results and experience from this past season . I'll be working on new video soon.

Hopefully this expanded approach keeps things interesting

[Droptine3030]

Can’t wait to follow your progress.

[dope hunter]

So, I've been thinking about this thread and how to keep it interesting. Doing a quick review unbelievably I started it in April 2014!!! The original intent was to explore how to improve property for all wildlife, improve our marginal soils, focus on mgt principles and practices we use to benefit the native homegrown deer we have, and see if we could transition the farm away from synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. Later I included ranch experiences in the thread.

After 2972 posts I feel that horse has been beat to death! To simplify and recap the totality of the experience, our approach to deer mgt. is very simple
NUTRITION--Create an environment where nutrition is in the 100TH% 365 days a year meeting all the deers needs. This accomplished with habitat mgt, food plots, supplemental feeding and where necessary abundant water sources. Nutrition cannot be overstated nor overdone.

AGE--We are now at a point where we are letting more deer die of old age than get harvested including many top end bucks. Fascinating experiment considering we are doing this in 2 different countries with 2 different sub species, in 2 entirely different ecosystems .The takeaway is, especially in the brush country, deer on a high nutritional plane can live much longer than conventional wisdom proposes and sometimes have their best rack much later in life than commonly believed.

Genetics--We work with the genetics given in both locations and are happy with the results. No question genetics can be introduced to improve a herd when done wisely with proper controls. Thats just not the approach we have taken .

The outcome of this is that we are growing 200"+ bucks every year in two very disparate environments both high fence and low fence.

The other main focus of this thread was to explore soil improvement , how to positively impact the total ecosystem with a bias towards minimizing synthetics and herbicides. This primarily on a farm in the poor soils of central La. The approach at this point includes multi specie plantings both summer and fall, using no till techniques to always keep the soil covered preferably with living roots year round, and have as much plant diversity as possible.Using this approach, synthetic fertilizers have been completely eliminated. Herbicide use has become minimal though still present.

The results have been that organic matter has increased from a bit over 1% to nearly 4% on most of the cultivated areas. But being an impatient man I feel the results are evolving too slowly. After intense in depth research, as mentioned before, I believe the only way I can accelerate the rate of improvement I am after is to transition the entire farm to a sustainable agricultural approach. So that is the direction I will begin shifting this entire thread. I'll chronicle all the steps from ground zero forward recognizing this is a path with no end.

I have always been a believer in serendipity and a couple of things have happened that support and mandate this transition. First, I met Dr. Allen Williams, who is as knowledgeable about what I want to accomplish as anyone in the country.I had been looking for someone like him to help me since I bought the ranch in the late 90's and was studying the work of Alan Savory and intensive rotational grazing. The clincher is that Dr. Wiliams is southern born and raised guy having spent many years in La. thus intimately familiar with the local ecology. Secondly, hurricane Laura came along and destroyed a tremendous amount of the timber I had so meticulously managed for decades. The result being if I do nothing the forest will turn into a giant impenetrable briar patch with overall diminishing value over time.

SO the outcome of introducing multi specie grazing herbivores will be to manage the explosion of growth on the newly opened woods, improve the soil through out the forest and fields, and achieving a 'savanah' result with the preponderance of vegetation in the forest kept knee to waist high at an improved nutritional density and more available to everything.I would have never thinned the woods to the degree Laura did but looking at it now it has created a tremendous opportunity.

All that said I will continue posting deer pics and stories. Cause after all growing big deer is the fetish that fuels the fire for continuing improvement . Enough for now. The next couple post will share results and experience from this past season . I'll be working on new video soon.

Hopefully this expanded approach keeps things interesting

Rusty, this has been one of the best threads on TBH since 2014, and it is my favorite each year. What you are doing is amazing, and can only be attributed to your passion for growing big healthy bucks, naturally! However you continue this thread, I will follow along.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Mexico]

In the mean time here is a pic of the 211 from earlier this season. No DD was consumed in the making of this picture

Unreal buck!! Congratulations to the hunter!

[HighwayHunter]

So, I've been thinking about this thread and how to keep it interesting. Doing a quick review unbelievably I started it in April 2014!!! The original intent was to explore how to improve property for all wildlife, improve our marginal soils, focus on mgt principles and practices we use to benefit the native homegrown deer we have, and see if we could transition the farm away from synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. Later I included ranch experiences in the thread.

After 2972 posts I feel that horse has been beat to death! To simplify and recap the totality of the experience, our approach to deer mgt. is very simple
NUTRITION--Create an environment where nutrition is in the 100TH% 365 days a year meeting all the deers needs. This accomplished with habitat mgt, food plots, supplemental feeding and where necessary abundant water sources. Nutrition cannot be overstated nor overdone.

AGE--We are now at a point where we are letting more deer die of old age than get harvested including many top end bucks. Fascinating experiment considering we are doing this in 2 different countries with 2 different sub species, in 2 entirely different ecosystems .The takeaway is, especially in the brush country, deer on a high nutritional plane can live much longer than conventional wisdom proposes and sometimes have their best rack much later in life than commonly believed.

Genetics--We work with the genetics given in both locations and are happy with the results. No question genetics can be introduced to improve a herd when done wisely with proper controls. Thats just not the approach we have taken .

The outcome of this is that we are growing 200"+ bucks every year in two very disparate environments both high fence and low fence.

The other main focus of this thread was to explore soil improvement , how to positively impact the total ecosystem with a bias towards minimizing synthetics and herbicides. This primarily on a farm in the poor soils of central La. The approach at this point includes multi specie plantings both summer and fall, using no till techniques to always keep the soil covered preferably with living roots year round, and have as much plant diversity as possible.Using this approach, synthetic fertilizers have been completely eliminated. Herbicide use has become minimal though still present.

The results have been that organic matter has increased from a bit over 1% to nearly 4% on most of the cultivated areas. But being an impatient man I feel the results are evolving too slowly. After intense in depth research, as mentioned before, I believe the only way I can accelerate the rate of improvement I am after is to transition the entire farm to a sustainable agricultural approach. So that is the direction I will begin shifting this entire thread. I'll chronicle all the steps from ground zero forward recognizing this is a path with no end.

I have always been a believer in serendipity and a couple of things have happened that support and mandate this transition. First, I met Dr. Allen Williams, who is as knowledgeable about what I want to accomplish as anyone in the country.I had been looking for someone like him to help me since I bought the ranch in the late 90's and was studying the work of Alan Savory and intensive rotational grazing. The clincher is that Dr. Wiliams is southern born and raised guy having spent many years in La. thus intimately familiar with the local ecology. Secondly, hurricane Laura came along and destroyed a tremendous amount of the timber I had so meticulously managed for decades. The result being if I do nothing the forest will turn into a giant impenetrable briar patch with overall diminishing value over time.

SO the outcome of introducing multi specie grazing herbivores will be to manage the explosion of growth on the newly opened woods, improve the soil through out the forest and fields, and achieving a 'savanah' result with the preponderance of vegetation in the forest kept knee to waist high at an improved nutritional density and more available to everything.I would have never thinned the woods to the degree Laura did but looking at it now it has created a tremendous opportunity.

All that said I will continue posting deer pics and stories. Cause after all growing big deer is the fetish that fuels the fire for continuing improvement . Enough for now. The next couple post will share results and experience from this past season . I'll be working on new video soon.

Hopefully this expanded approach keeps things interesting

Super excited to see the changes. I first saw your videos only a week or so ago and read through half of this thread. Can’t wait to see how things look in a few years!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[elgato]

I wrapped up the season at the ranch about a week ago and while fresh on my mind thought I would offer some insights gained from it. We started the season deep into one of the worst droughts the locals could remember. While the last few years have been very dry we saw no rain from September thru till June. Then only very modest rain. The ranch was parched and the dust was biblical. Our largest pasture which is low fenced also has cattle and with the drought the pasture was very overgrazed. Just couldn't reduce cattle numbers timely to keep the pasture from looking awful. No grass or ground cover and cattle eating the brush.

Our other two pastures are high fenced with no cattle for years and visually looked much better though still suffering from the drought. All the pastures have essentially the same feeder and water distribution and managed the same.

With the above preface then our results were very curious. Our low fenced pasture was terrific! The buck quality was excellent with several outstanding bucks including the 211 in a previous post. Older bucks did very well including a 12 year old that may have had his best rack ever over 200". Many of the known bucks made nice jumps. Why???

I can only guess but I think the answer follows two ideas. One is that because of cattle overgrazing the deer had to depend on the protein feeders more than normal. Secondly, a couple of years ago we increased the feeder distribution across that pasture to match the rest of the ranch with a feeder about every 150 acres. Also, and this is a wild swing, the new feeders were Outback feeders of higher quality than we have been using and the feed tube is larger perhaps making it easier to get a meal?? Lastly, over the years we have increased water distribution over that pasture and that is now paying dividends.

My concern with that pasture though is while the older age class bucks did very well , with the lack of ground cover for the last couple years we may have a gap in age classes. TBD.

To back up a bit an overall observation this year was the quality exhibited by very old bucks all across the ranch. We saw 12 and 13 year olds have outstanding quality as good as anytime in their life. Another observation is while we think we are seeing the majority of the bucks around, camera's paint a different story. While we don't shoot much the entire ranch has pretty savvy hunters poking around quite a bit. Yet there were numerous bucks caught on camera that were never seen. Also bucks seen maybe once or twice the entire season. I saw a buck the last day I hunted in an area I pass nearly every day that I had never seen before. Maybe we aren't as good as we think.

Got some great video this year. Look forward to editing it up and posting though may be a while.

[TildenHunter]

All very interesting information. Thanks for posting, Rusty! Looking forward to the videos!

[NewBallCoach]

However this thread continues I will be following along. Have learned many things and seen some of the best bucks in my life on this thread, looking forward to seeing it continue.

[JRL]

new video is great

[elgato]

Dang JRL you are fast! I set it to download and went looking for sheds. Just back to post and see you beat me to it.

So here is the latest from the farm; a recap of the season. Unfortunately didn't get much video what with the hurricane, mosquitoes and diminished deer herd. But here you go

https://youtu.be/3ecw_RP0eJ4

[Droptine3030]

Great footage as always. Hoping to see some footage from down south as well soon. Thanks for sharing

[ElfEyes]

"he likes eating radishes, I like feeding him radishes" that's awesome Rusty I'm looking forward to your new adventures!

[stickemhard3]

In the mean time here is a pic of the 211 from earlier this season. No DD was consumed in the making of this picture

Absolutely phenomenal deer. Did he cross in EP in mid-January?

If so, I ran into him and his group checking guns and such. That deer is unreal in real life!!!