A year in the life of a farm

[elgato]

Well I had planned to let him develop a bit more but did get some pics of him couple days ago. Here he is with a couple others looking good.

[elgato]

I kinda like this look also.

[JeffK]

You made my day! He certainly will be another special deer.

What is the story on the last deer?

[elgato]

You made my day! He certainly will be another special deer.

What is the story on the last deer?

Thats Rolling Stone. Or if your talking about the third pic, I'm not sure which buck that is, They haven't developed enough for me to figure out who is who in many cases.. Looks like he could get big though.

[Reaper87]

Don't take this the wrong way....but I hate you. Lol. I'm just kidding. Your thread is the only reason I check the management topic daily. To do what your doing over there is my end game in life. This thread inspires me daily.

[EastTexun]

Thats Rolling Stone. Or if your talking about the third pic, I'm not sure which buck that is, They haven't developed enough for me to figure out who is who in many cases.. Looks like he could get big though.

All your pics look amazing to say the least. Thanks for the continued outpouring of knowledge and experience.

[Mex. Bowhunter]

Awesome as always Rusty.

[gingib]

WOW those bucks are HUGE and way ahead of anything I have

[Sergio_III]

I just started getting the itch of food plots this year thanks to the purchase of a new tractor.
Keep the information coming and the pics as well. Those are some amazing deer.

[GarGuy]

Hes going to be special! I hope we get pics of you holding him this year!

[Shallowater]

Thanks, I don't know anything about bees except I'd like to have hives around and we eat a lot of honey. Wish I could find a 'bee man' interested in working the hives. I'd provide the hives all over the farm if someone would just work them. Interested? I like the barter system.

Probably too far for me to be the guy all the time. I have 12 hives that i take care of and spend alot of time removing swarms etc.

But, If you are interested in trying again I can deliver some hives for you, get them set up and give you a tutorial or two. Let me know if you are interested in this and we can work out the details.

Maybe easier though, more than likely there is a bee man close to your farm that would work for a honey split. They take care of the hives and you split the honey. Lots of people in our are advertise this type arrangement on craigslist,

[elgato]

As many of you know besides the farm i also have a ranch deep in prime Rio Grande brush country. Many years ago I was riding around the farm with Dr. Harry Jacobson when he stated that I would grow bigger deer here on the farm than the ranch. Now the ranch is in world famous deer country and about 10X the size of the farm. La. is not known for growing big bucks. I thought Dr. Jacobson was sun baked.

Turns out he was right. Again.

Which begs the question;Why? I have given much thought to this and have determined the answer is exceedingly simple.

Simply stated the answer is nutrition. Even more simple is one word...RAIN. It rains consistently year round in La. That provides a framework to enhance nutrition here even in soils that are not nearly as fertile as the ranch. With proper soil amendments and quality cultivars made available year round the nutritional plane can be held higher than even the fabled brush country of the golden triangle.

Perhaps if it rained in the brush country like here in La. the results would be different. Certainly this year may exhibit that with all the rain we have had. But that has been the rare exception not the rule.

A minor subset to rain is a favorable climate here in La. Crops can actively grow year round. With proper mgt. there can always be high quality cultivars available. While the summers are hot they don't negatively effect deer movement or appetite . Winters are relatively mild with no weather related die offs. This is comparatively a very favorable environment for deer to grow and prosper.

I have often contended genetics are a bit of a sham. Meaning a) how can we know what our genetic potential is when most herds are nutritionally compromised b) Genetics are more elastic than understood and can be markedly improved over time. [ Or compromised by nutritional deficits ] Much research to support this. I suspect genetics in most places are much better than exhibited simply because deer haven't had long term nutrition.That has been the case here on the farm.

I have a friend with a farm fairly close to mine. Years back he 'purged' all deer from it and replaced them with expensive store bought genetics.Spent a LOT of money. Interestingly he does not grow many deer bigger than mine and some of our top end equals the best he has done. Ours are native home grown red neck regular deer. Our big expense is nutrition .

So it turns out that Dr. Jacobson is right. We have a far higher density of big bucks per acre here on the farm than on the ranch. And we have grown bigger top end deer here than we have ever grown at the ranch. I think the takeaway for everyone is wherever you are enhanced nutrition will make your bucks bigger.

[Patton]

Interesting info but it makes complete sense, thanks for the write up

[jkelbe]

Always great info. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and thoughts.

[elgato]

For those of you that like mass...