Tecomate

Tecomate Tecomate: 2008-11-19T16:41:02Z Copyright (c) 2008, David Morris ExpressionEngine tag:tecomate.com,2008:11:18 Day 4 - Montana November 2008 tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.93 2008-11-18T16:32:01Z 2008-11-19T16:41:02Z David Morris david@tecomate.com
Back to the new area. Got around behind a bunch of deer out in the fields in hopes of having them pass by on the way back to cover. Worked great.

Saw about a dozen whitetails but no shooters. I did, however, see a great mulie - at 30 yards. Incredible video of him.

In hindsight, should have shot him! Went back in the afternoon after him, but he had crossed the river to other property.

Saw another tall 5x6 mule deer on the way after him that really caught my attention. Went after him.

Ended in a long exciting chase and stalk. Finally caught up with him and put the Sako .270 Winchester Short Mag. to work on a 200-yard shot. A great old (very old) buck.

It was all captured by The Bucks of Tecomate camera. Another incredible hunt in my adopted second home state of Montana and with my friend Bill Perkins!

]]> Day 3 - Montana November 2008 tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.92 2008-11-15T16:31:00Z 2008-11-19T16:37:58Z David Morris david@tecomate.com
Went to a new area of the river in the morning and walked and rattled.

Rattled in two bucks and saw about 10 whitetail bucks ... along with about 15 mule deer bucks. A couple of the mulies were very tempting.

Great thing about Montana - can shoot whitetail or mulie. If I see a good mulie, he may usurp my whitetail plans. In relative terms, the mulies I'm seeing are bigger than the whitetails I'm seeing.

Returned to the abandoned house again in the afternoon. Great sit - saw about 30 bucks. Chasing everywhere. Saw many mature bucks but no shooter.

Best in the 140-class.

A big mulie is starting to look good! ]]> Day 2 - Montana November 2008 tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.91 2008-11-14T16:29:00Z 2008-11-19T16:37:10Z David Morris david@tecomate.com
On one session, rattled in 8 bucks, including 3 mature bucks to within 20 yards. Some of the best rattling video I've seen.

Saw about 20 bucks in the morning. Still no shooters, though.

I hunted the abandoned house again in the afternoon, but the temperature warmed to 55 degrees. Deer movement surpressed by heat.

Saw about 10 bucks. No shooter.

]]> Day 1 - Montana November 2008 tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.90 2008-11-13T16:52:00Z 2008-11-19T16:31:14Z David Morris david@tecomate.com
50 mph winds and blizzard conditions. In morning, had to get in cover with deer to see anything.

Afternoon, hunted fields. Saw about 30 bucks all day and walked 10 miles.

Biggest was in mid-140s. Nothing we wanted to shoot.

]]> What’s Next? The Hunts Begin! tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.85 2008-11-13T14:02:01Z 2008-11-13T15:24:23Z David Morris david@tecomate.com

On November 13, 2008, I start an almost non-stop marathon of hunts until December 21. (Believe me, I am not complaining – I’ve been waiting for this all year!) I start off in Miles City, Montana, hunting the Powder River with my old friend, Bill Perkins. What a place! This is one of the most enjoyable hunts of the year. Beautiful scenery, great folks and lots of good whitetails make southeastern Montana a joy to hunt. Plus, every hunting style imaginable is an option there. Last year, I hunted with Bill early in the season so I could also hunt antelope, a favorite. This year, I opted to hunt the rut in hopes of improving on the 160-class 14-pointer I shot there last October. That’s a tall order, though. The fact is 160-plus whitetails are pretty rare along the Powder River, but they are there and I’m going to try to find one. You can bet I’ll have my rattling “horns”. (Yeah, I know they’re antlers.) One of my favorite cameramen, Mason Gertz, will be along again this year. His first hunt ever with me was on the Powder River last year. Since then, he’s been behind the camera on many of my hunts. Mason, a Bigfork, Montana, native, is kind of like family since I watched him grow up and served in the same church with his wonderful mother and dad, Stephanie and Larry, during my 10 years as a Bigfork resident.

After Montana, I join up with Gary Schwarz, and we head straight to Illinois for a whitetail hunt with Illinois Extreme Whitetails. I am really looking forward to this hunt and spending time with our hosts, Carroll Berry, Bruce Steele and Robin Welch, all fellow Christians who share an appreciation for God’s creation and thankfulness for the privilege we have as stewards. This is going to be a BUSY few days because Gary and I will not only be hunting for The Bucks of Tecomate TV show, but , at the same time, we will also be hosting the third annual Versus Whitetail Challenge, which is sponsored by Tecomate! Hunting by day, hosting by night … guaranteed to be busy! Armed with our Knight Muzzleloaders, we will be hunting some of the best whitetail country in one of the best BIG BUCK states – Illinois. And anytime I hunt with Gary, I know it’s going to be exciting! Should be a wild time loaded with big buck stories. I’m betting Gary and I will come back from Illinois with a couple of the best shows of the year.

After Illinois, I head to my El Cazador Ranch for Thanksgiving with my family, hunting, of course. This is well before the rut and mature bucks will still be very hard to find. We’ll concentrate most of our efforts on shooting does and maybe a few cull bucks. Then, in early December, we’ll start our hunts on El Cazador for The Bucks of Tecomate shows. Plus, we’ll be shooting a couple of shows there for World of Beretta as well. But, there’ll be time enough to catch you up on all that when I get back from Illinois. I’ve posted some early Stealth Cam photos of a few bucks from El Cazador. Promises to be another great year in South Texas! Stay tuned – lots more to come …

]]> A sampling of 2008 Stealth Cam photos tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.86 2008-11-11T15:21:00Z 2008-11-11T15:37:17Z David Morris david@tecomate.com

PIC0167 is an ancient old buck, appears 9.5 to 10.5 years old, probably in the 160s.

Buck PIC0292 appears to be a mid 160's 10-pointer with a forked G2 and at least 5 extra points around his brow tines - looks to score in the low 180s but I don't think he's old enough to shoot - maybe 5.5 years old.

I may go after buck PIC0050. I saw this buck 2 years ago when he was a 4.5-year-old, making him 6.5 now and a shooter candidate. Glad to see he's still around. Still got some velvet hanging. He's a typical 12-pointer with at least 10 scorable stickers - looks to score in the 180s.

PIC0012 is a 160-class 8-pointer. I included him just because I like him ... a lot!

Buck PIC0157 and 159 is a monster 4.5-year-old I know from last year, when he was the biggest 3.5 I've had on the ranch. My foreman, George, found both sheds, which grossed 169! These photos were taken late August 2008 with a month of antler growing time left. He a basic 10-pointer with a forked right G2. I think he'll gross well in the 180s and make the B&C record book. But, he's safe this year - too young.

PIC0039 - Two old dudes. The one on the left is probably a mid-160s buck. The other one looks to be a 150s. Both are at least 5.5 years old, maybe more.

PIC0105 - This a wide buck, probably 24 inside. He'll score in the high 160s.

Somewhere on my 3,000 acres, there should be at least 6-8 more 170-class bucks carried over from last year, plus some new ones added this year. More to come! ]]> Sharing Duties with Jeff Foxworthy tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.81 2008-10-31T21:42:00Z 2008-11-11T14:37:02Z David Morris david@tecomate.com Sharing Duties with Jeff

A lot of folks ask me what it’s like hosting The Bucks of Tecomate with Jeff Foxworthy. Well, if I were to think about sharing the stage with THE Jeff Foxworthy who is world famous comedian and talent, I would feel very intimidated and completely unworthy. But to Jeff’s great credit, that’s not the Jeff Foxworthy on The Bucks of Tecomate!

The Jeff on the show is “Just Jeff,” all-round good guy, fellow hunter and game manager. Just like you and me, he is a person with a deep love of the outdoors and a passion for hunting, especially our greatest game animal, the whitetail deer. Jeff is one of those rare individuals who is committed to giving back more to his chosen sport than he takes out.

You see this in his commitment to wildlife management and land stewardship, and you see it in Jeff’s gracious sharing of his farm, time and talents with others, especially those less fortunate. Jeff is a true hunter, sportsman and steward. That’s who shares the hosting duties of The Bucks of Tecomate with me!
]]> Finland – Land of Sako … and Whitetails tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.84 2008-10-21T20:22:00Z 2008-11-11T14:17:14Z David Morris david@tecomate.com
Tecomate’s Gary Schwarz and wife Marlee joined my wife, Debbie, and me on a recent trip to Finland, where we were hosted by a wonderful group of guys with Sako Arms and Chip Klass with Beretta, USA, the parent company of Sako. We went both to hunt and to visit the Sako/Tikka rifle plant … The Bucks of Tecomate cameras in tow. And, what a trip it was!

What were we hunting? Moose … and, of all things, whitetails! Yes, whitetails. It may seem hard to believe, but there is an excellent population of whitetails in southern Finland. In fact, it’s the largest population outside of the Americas. Where did they come from? A handful of animals shipped over from Minnesota way back in 1937 by Finnish immigrants, who wanted to see the homeland enjoy these marvelous game animals. From less than 15 original deer, the whitetail has now become the second most important and popular game animal in Finland, second only to moose, with an annual harvest of about 25,000 whitetails!

We only had about 2½ days to hunt, but our hosts were determined for us to get all we could out of our short time there. We split our time between hunting moose and whitetails. The primary way of hunting was drives, both using dogs and men to push the game. For whitetails, we also sat over food sources late in the afternoons. Actually, that’s not quite accurate – we started our “sits” for whitetails late in the afternoon … and continued them well into the night. You see, it is legal in Finland to hunt at night, as long as you don’t use artificial light. If you can see the animal, you can shoot him … any time day or night! Of course, night-hunting and cameras don’t go together very well, so we Tecomate folks didn’t pursue the night-hunting opportunities much past dark. But, after hunting those very nocturnal Finnish whitetails, I know why they stand-hunt them at night – that seems to be the only time they move on their own! If you want to kill one during the day, you had better plan on driving!

The Tecomate group with Sako hosts and Finnish whitetails taken on a whitetail
drive. Great experience!!!!! Reminded us all that hunting is about the Great
Outdoors, friends and shared experiences. The Fins get the most from the hunt
and the game and don't measure success by size alone! Good lesson and great trip.

I won’t go into all the details of the hunt. I’ll save that for the TV show. Suffice to say – it was an incredible experience! Chip Klass, a delightful hunting companion, shot a great bull moose the first morning. One of our Sako hosts (Raimo) shot a whitetail buck the first afternoon (read night). On the second day, Gary shot his first moose ever, a young bull, and another of our hosts (Jari) shot a whitetail doe in the early moonlight. And on the final day, Gary scored again on a whitetail doe, as did another of our Sako hosts (Pentti), during exciting drives using “badger dogs,” which look like long (I do mean long) stretched-out beagles. I, on the other hand, failed to score. The only thing that I saw during the trip was the moose that Gary killed on the second day. I was on the uphill stand next to him and had a bird’s eye view of the whole event, which was captured by our cameraman, Mason Gertz.

Chip Klass with Beretta took this bull moose in Finland on the first day of the
Tecomate hunt. Finnish moose are not nearly as large as those in North America.
This is considered a good one. In fact, ANY moose is considered a trophy there,
where emphasis is placed on the hunting experience rather than the size of the animal.

The Fins take their hunting very seriously, and every aspect of it is steeped in Old World tradition! The people, the countryside and the hunting traditions made this trip very special. By American standards, we would not consider most of the whitetails or moose in Finland “trophies” based on size, but because of the appreciation and value the Finns put on each and every animal, regardless of size or sex, all the animals seen and harvested on our trip were TROPHIES!!! Anybody who sees the show next fall will understand why this hunting experience was so special to Gary and me, as well as to our lovely wives. The incredible hospitality, the centuries old traditions and the beautiful countryside made this trip one we at Tecomate will ever forget.

The real reason we went to Finland was to visit the Sako factory, where Sako and Tikka rifles are made. That opportunity was made possible by an invitation from Christopher Merritt, president of Beretta, USA. World-famous Beretta now owns Sako, and Tecomate is working with Sako on the development of a “Tecomate” rifle (maybe two) designed specifically for the whitetail market. After touring the plant, we knew for sure that Sako is the right place to build such a rifle. Gary and I were very impressed by the materials, manufacturing process and the pride and workmanship of the people, many of whom have worked there all their lives and all of whom take extraordinary pride in what they do and the products they turn out. Even today, in the world of manufacturing shortcuts, Sako still builds rifles THE RIGHT WAY!

I’ve always wondered how Sako and Tikka could claim their rifles are guaranteed to shoot groups of one inch or less. Well, now I know – it begins with the best materials, manufacturing process and people and ends with EVERY rifle being tested for accuracy with at least three shots. If the rifle doesn’t group less than an inch, it is rejected and returns to the factory for re-working! Right there under the factory is a 100-meter underground shooting range, and before a rifle is “passed” and ready for packaging, it is shot for accuracy … every single one! Amazing! I saw it! Heck, I test-shot one .308 Winchester myself for accuracy. It shot a .41-inch group. That’s barely wider than the .30-caliber bullet diameter! Now I know why Sako and Tikka can make that accuracy claim! If you watch the show next year, we’ll show you the factory tour and you can see for yourself why Sako rifles are world renown.

Well, for more, you’ll have to watch The Bucks of Tecomate next fall. With that, I’ll close by sharing our e-mail note to our hosts. I think in that note you can see the appreciation we all had for the great hospitality extended us by of gracious hosts and how impressed we were with Sako and Finland and its people.

Raimo, Kari, Jari, Pentti, and Timo, all of us at Tecomate want to express our appreciation for the great time and hospitality you all showed us during our visit to Finland! We had a wonderful time in your beautiful country and really enjoyed our time with all of you. During the Sako factory tour, we were amazed by the pride and workmanship obvious in the manufacturing of your rifles. It is no wonder Sako has such a well-deserved reputation! Congratulations on making world-class rifles you can be proud to make and your customers can be proud to own.

We know you are all very busy and really appreciate the time you took away from your schedule to show us around the factory and to share your great hunting tradition with us. We know that much time and effort went into the preparation for our hunts and express our sincere THANKS! It was a privilege to share in the age-old hunting traditions of Finland. The Fins’ deep love and appreciation for the chase and the game took us back to our own hunting roots, when hunting was just plain fun and sharing it with others made it even more enjoyable. Gary couldn’t have been more excited over a record-book whitetail buck than he was over his moose calf and whitetail doe. It was a privilege for all of us to participate in the great Finnish hunting tradition!
Chip and I will follow up on the Tecomate rifle discussions and get our ideas back to you. We are very excited about the prospects of working with Sako on a specialized rifle made for the serious whitetail market.

Once again, from Gary, Marlee, Debbie and me, thanks for your gracious hospitality! We look forward to seeing you all in Florida during the SHOT Show.
Warm regards,
David Morris

]]> 2008 Tecomate Hunts tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.82 2008-10-13T21:44:00Z 2008-11-11T14:38:25Z David Morris david@tecomate.com 2008 Tecomate Hunts

This fall on The Bucks of Tecomate, we are airing the most incredible big buck season ever for a TV series – hunts that see an amazing 10 bucks over 170 being taken. As we go into this season, many are asking if we can duplicate such a season again. The answer is, “I doubt it!” It is unlikely that the giant buck success of last hunting season will be repeated, especially this year. Why? In a word, “rain” … or more specially, the lack thereof. You see, 2007, when the shows now airing were shot, was a great rain year in drought-prone South Texas, where Tecomate partner Gary Schwarz’s El Tecomate Ranch and my El Cazador Ranch, both proving grounds for the Tecomate Management Strategy, are located. Because of the excellent antler year, The Bucks of Tecomate cameras were able to capture on video the harvest of seven record-class bucks on our ranches, including Gary Schwarz’s 232-point B&C non-typical, the largest free-ranging non-typical taken in Texas last year. But alas, drought returned this year.

From August 2007 through June 2008, less than three inches of rain fell on our ranches and food plots. As a result, the necessary nutrition for peak early antler growth was just not there. In fact, in the 11 years I’ve owned my ranch, this year is only the second time I have experienced a near-failure of lablab plots in the critical spring/early summer antler-growing time. We can grow plots on little rain but not on NO rain! Happily, since July 1, we’ve had an incredible amount of rain, over 20 inches! But, you can’t make up the antler growth lost by the absence of good nutrition in the early antler growing period. As a result, we will not be able to duplicate last year’s seven record-class kills this fall on our two South Texas ranches.

Knowing our part of South Texas will be down this year, we have tried to compensate by scheduling hunts in other great big buck regions this fall, such as Montana, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska and Kansas. Of course, we’ll be back in Texas again, too. And through our ranches maybe off their game a bit, I won’t bet against some giants showing up there even in a down drought year.

One thing worth pointing out about last year’s unprecedented big buck season on The Bucks of Tecomate – it’s no accident that 9 of the 10 record-class bucks taken came from properties managed under Tecomate’s Intense Food Plot Management Strategy. And this year, most of our hunts will once again be on such properties, including hunts in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Maryland and, of course, Texas. Because we will be hunting on Tecomate-managed properties, I cannot say for absolute certain that we WILL NOT duplicate last year’s big buck success; only that I doubt it. Even for us at Tecomate, what the program can produce shocks even us! Only God Above knows what the year will hold! One thing for sure, we’ll have fun finding out and we’ll share it all with you!

]]> My Next Hunt - October 6, 2008 tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.80 2008-10-06T21:40:00Z 2008-11-11T14:37:55Z David Morris david@tecomate.com My Next Hunt

I bet you never thought you’d read this – my next hunt is in Finland … for whitetails and moose! At the invitation of Sako, our rifle sponsor, Gary Schwarz and I, along with our wives, are headed to Finland in October to tour the Sako plant and to work on a long-range whitetail rifle Tecomate is collaborating on with Sako. While there, we will hunt whitetails, which were stocked in Finland decades ago and have taken off, and moose. It should be a most interesting trip. And, yes, it will be filmed for The Bucks of Tecomate to be aired in 2009. I’ll let you know how it goes when I get back. ]]> 1st Blog entry - My First Hunt of the Year by David Morris tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.79 2008-10-01T17:57:00Z 2008-11-11T14:12:40Z David Morris david@tecomate.com My First Hunt of the Year

Speaking of hunting, I’m still stoked about an elk hunt I just returned from on White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona. This 1.7 million-acre reservation is perhaps the best place in the world for giant elk. It is to elk what the best ranches in South Texas are to whitetails, and that’s saying something! I went there under the guise of shooting a TV show for Realtree’s Monster Bulls on Versus, the home of our own Tecomate show. (Truth is: I went there to shoot a big elk!) Monster Bulls is produced by The Bucks of Tecomate producer, Orion Multimedia, and of course, my personal relationship with the guys at Realtree goes back for decades. So in a way, this was a “family” project for Tecomate and me. And to be honest, it didn’t take much (actually, no) arm-twisting to convince me to go to White Mountain … during the height of bugling season! … for a monster bull elk!

And, what a hunt it was! I won’t give away all the details (you’ll have to watch the show next fall to see what happened during an incredible two days on White Mountain), but when the smoke cleared, I had the biggest elk of my life, a 395 gross B&C monster, shot after wading through about 40 big bulls. This was a grudge match for me. I had hunted White Mountain three years earlier with the same guide, Louie Zospah, as I had this year. Louie is a great guide and a joy to hunt with, but we went into this hunt with unfinished business. You see, on the previous hunt with Louie, I came home empty-handed after seven grueling days of climbing up and down the mountains of the reservation … and getting up at the uncivilized hour of 2:30 in the morning to begin the 2½-hour trek to our hunting area. During that trip, Louie and I certainly saw plenty of bulls, 66 by actual count, and some big ones. But of the four we saw that were big enough to shoot, three had broken antlers from the great battles mature bulls so often engage in. But there was this one bull …

On the morning of the fourth day, we crossed paths with a bull that I will forever regret not shooting. It’s a long story but suffice to say, I had the huge 6x7 bull at 20 yards, and after a few moments of tense deliberation, we decided not to shoot him. As soon as he walked over the hill into the “dark timber,” both Louie and I realized the folly of our decision and went after him, never to see him again. I knew then that I had made an awful mistake! That bull, which we figured would have scored over 380, would have been by far the biggest of my life. There will always be a hole in my trophy room where that giant should have gone.

When I arrived at White Mountain this year, with cameraman Mike Law to record the action, Louie and I held a powwow and determined NOT to let that happen again. If I saw a big bull meeting my size criteria … that I liked … I was going to shoot him, no discussion, no hesitation. But if you watch the show next fall, you’ll see that we once again came woefully close to being blinded by the mystique and lore of White Mountain super bulls by letting a once-in-several-lifetimes bull escape unscathed. Fortunately, God gave us a second chance and we came to our senses just in time … after a series of “interesting” events!

You gotta see the show! I guarantee it’ll be fun … and loaded with big bull elk action! But it may make you question my sanity, as I did when I put my hands on that awesome rack and realized that I hesitated on such an incredible trophy animal. The accompanying picture says it all – that’s a monster bull!

]]> Revolutionary New Era in Whitetail Management Is Here! - Part III tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.61 2008-10-01T13:45:00Z 2008-11-11T14:13:23Z David Morris david@tecomate.com Part III - THE PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE CONCEPT

Tecomate -The Big Buck Experts

Now, we’re going to get down to some of the nuts and bolts of nutritional side of food source management. We’re going to explain how and why it works, layout the seasonal nutritional needs of the whitetail and then outline a nutritional strategy to meet those needs.

How and Why Food Source Management Works
We need to start with some assumptions. First, a deer eats about 8 to 10 pounds of food a day. We’ll use an average of nine pounds. If you multiply nine pounds times the number of days in a year (365), that’ll give you the annual average food consumption for one deer, which we’ll round off to 3000 pounds. Now, let’s assume that the natural habitat can grow about 300 pounds of good deer food per acre over the course of a year, which is realistic for much of the South and East. Studies have shown that deer can eat only about half of the available food without seriously damaging the habitat. (You can see how carrying capacity is determined.) So, about 150 pounds of good deer food are available per acre of natural habitat. To determine how many acres are necessary to support one deer, we simply divide the annual poundage of food consumed by one deer (3000) by the poundage of food an acre of habitat can produce without suffering damage (150). That tells us that the carrying capacity is a deer per 20 acres, about what might be expected for a place under a good habitat management program.

If that level of carrying capacity is not sufficient to meet the goals of those involved with the property, there are four options – lower the goals, reduce the number of participants, continue on frustrated or elevate the carrying capacity. Not surprisingly, the most private landowners don’t like the first three options. More and bigger deer from increased carrying capacity sounds a lot better.

There is more than one way to increase carrying capacity. The traditional method is to improve the natural habitat, and there’s not a thing wrong with that. In fact, all reasonable steps need to be made to improve natural habitat. However, this strategy has some limitations. First, it takes time, perhaps several years, to effect wholesale habitat improvement. Second, the landowners might not be willing to allow what it would take. The key is to get more sunlight to the forest floor and to regenerate early successional growth. That takes some fairly drastic mechanical measures, such as prescribed burning, thinning timber, creating edge through clearing, etc. Such major habitat alterations might not sit well with the landowner. Third, the level to which the carrying capacity can be increased through manipulating natural habitat is somewhat limited, short of practically clearcutting. Also, natural habitat improvement will not deliver two important advantages found in the concentrated food sources associated with the strategy we’re discussing here – one, increased deer visibility and huntability and two, hold deer in a local area.

Increasing carrying capacity through enhanced nutrition lies at the heart of food source management. This is accomplished through nutritious agricultural crops and/or direct feeding. Our focus here will be on agriculture, by far the preferred and more desirable of the two options. In places with tillable land, literally tons of highly nutritious deer food can be grown per acre. For instance, a year-round food-plot program can produce up to 10,000 pounds of deer food per acre, all of which may be as nutritious as the very best nature provides. That’s more high-quality deer food than 70 acres of natural habitat normally produces since all of the agricultural crop theoretically could be consumed by deer with hurting a thing! Put another way, one acre of year-round food plot can meet all the annual nutritional needs of 3½ deer! That’s production! Compare that to 20 acres of natural habitat to support one deer. And remember, all of the agricultural food can be top-rate. The huge advantages of food source management should be abundantly apparent.

To illustrate, let’s assume a 2000-acre club wants to carry 200 deer, about twice what the can under natural habitat management. Let’s assume they want their deer to reach the greatest size possible so they design a year-round agricultural program to provide 100 percent of the deer’s nutritional requirements, realizing of course that the deer will still browse the natural vegetation some even with a table full of deer delicacies. It’s an easy exercise to determine how many acres of food plots are needed to support 200 deer. Simply divide the number of deer to be carried (200) by the number of deer an acre of food plot will carry (3½) and you get the required acreage of agriculture, in this case 57.
Yes, about 60 acres of year-round food plots (assuming the right crops are planted with the right farming techniques) can meet all the nutritional requirements of 200 deer. That’s a program they can get started right away quite cost effectively and with minimum startup hassles. And does it ever work! That number, 3½ deer per acre of food plot, is exactly what we’re supporting on food plots at Fort Perry … and have been for years! If you want to carry more deer, it’s almost as simple as doing the math and adding the necessary acres of food plots. Of course, there’s a limit to how high you might want to push the herd, but it’s well up there if nutritious food is in abundant supply.
In areas with high inherent carrying capacity, the native habitat can pick up more of the slack and reduce the number of acres required to get to the same number. For instance, Gary Schwarz’s El Tecomate Ranch lies in prime South Texas Brush Country, where the natural habitat is inherently productive. Because of the support he gets from nutritious native vegetation, Gary is able to support closer to five deer per acre of food plot, with a little help from supplemental feeding on the shoulder months between crops.

Seasonal Nutritional Needs Of The Whitetail
In order to formulate a nutritional strategy (plan) for whitetails, it is necessary to know their seasonal nutritional needs. Biologists and scientists can get into tedious detail on this subject, but from the game manager’s standpoint, it’s really quite simple.
From a timing standpoint, bucks and does have quite similar nutritional needs, but for very different reasons. Basically, they both have two distinct periods with specific nutritional requirements – during one period, they require protein; during the other, carbohydrates. Generally, when bucks have the highest need for protein, so do does. The same is true for carbohydrates. Convenient, isn’t it? It is, however, no accident. The needs of the deer are adapted to when nature supplies the appropriate nutrition in greatest abundance. During the spring and summer, plant growth is underway and protein production is at its peak. During the fall and winter, plant growth is largely complete and plants have produced carbohydrate-rich mast and seeds. Even the leaves of many plants are high in energy-yielding sugars and carbohydrates in the fall. Interestingly enough, the whitetail’s need for protein is highest in the spring and summer and is greatest for carbohydrates in the fall and winter.

Let’s divide the year into two parts based on the whitetail’s nutritional needs. We’ll call one the cool season, meaning fall and winter. The other, the warm season, is spring and summer. During the warm season, bucks have either just begun or are about to begin their annual antler growth cycle. Not only that, they have just come through the winter and need to rebuild the muscle and mass lost during the rigors of rut and winter. From early spring all the way through the summer, protein is of utmost importance in both growing antlers and rebuilding muscle and body mass. If protein is in short supply, the body gets first dibs on what’s available, and whatever antler growth is lost while the body recovers is lost for good, at the cost of antler size in the coming fall. For bucks, the rule of thumb is that they need a high-protein diet from the time they loose their antlers in late winter/early spring until they shed their velvet during early fall.

During this same warm period, does also need a high-protein diet. Like bucks, they must regain the muscle and body mass lost during the winter. And also like bucks, they need to nourish something growing very rapidly – fast-developing fetuses. Nature has worked it out so that fetuses don’t grow much from inception until about the onset of spring, but from that time on, fetuses rapidly develop into the full-pledged fawns that will be born in late spring or early summer. And of course, the demands on does don’t end with the birth of a fawn. Nursing continues all summer and places great demands on does, requiring that they essentially have to eat for two. Protein is the primary nutritional requirement for does from the beginning of spring until weaning time in early fall, about the same time bucks shed their velvet.

The cool season places similar demands on both bucks and does. The name of the game now is not building muscle or body mass as much as it is trying not to loose what they already have. Between the heightened activity of the rut and the caloric demands of the cold, deer need an outside energy source to burn rather than burning muscle and consuming their body reserves. This is especially so with bucks during the rut. Growth is not the issue during the cool period, energy and maintenance are. Thus, protein requirements are much lower, but carbohydrates are now needed in greater supply. From the manager’s standpoint, the better shape the deer come through the winter, the more of the spring’s early protein can go to antler growth in bucks and fetal development in does, which, of course, ultimately contributes to antler size and fawn survival.

The Heart Of A Nutritional Strategy
Understanding the seasonal nutritional needs of the whitetail makes it relatively easy to develop a nutritional strategy for a management program. The basic strategy is to provide a source of high-protein feed beginning in spring (corresponding to antler-drop) and continuing through summer (to velvet-shedding). Then from the start of fall through winter, provide a carbohydrate-rich food source. Ideally, all or most of this strategy can be carried out employing agriculture. If not, direct feeding is an option, at least as a supplement. It’s a simple strategy really.

Since the best way to meet the whitetail’s nutritional needs is agriculture, then let’s apply an agricultural strategy. The warm-season protein requirements can best be met by planting some type of legume. Legumes are nitrogen-fixing plants, meaning they take nitrogen from the air and, with the help of bacteria in their roots, put nitrogen back into the soil. Since nitrogen is one of the essential nutrients for plant growth, legumes are natural soil-builders. Legumes are typically warm-season plants and are characterized by having seeds that grow in pods. Peas, clovers and beans, including soybeans, are legumes. There are many types of legumes suitable for deer, and almost anywhere whitetails are found, some kind of legume will grow there. Some are annuals, meaning they grow for one season then die, and some are perennials lasting for years. But, the one thing legumes have in common of particular interest to us is that they are typically very high in protein. So, some type of clover, pea or bean, either an annual or a perinnial, is probably the best source of agricultural protein for deer anywhere in the U.S.

If direct feeding is required during the warm season either as a primary or supplemental source of protein, the usual answer is high-protein pellets, of which there are many choices suitable for deer on the market. Natural and less expensive options, such as cottonseeds, may be available locally. Deer normally have to be trained over time to eat both pellets and other feeds they have no previous experienced with.

What about carbohydrates? In warmer climes where cool-season agriculture is an option, small grains that grow in winter, such as rye, wheat and oats, are excellent sources of carbohydrates. Some warm-season crops harvested in the fall, such as corn and small grains, can continue to be a valuable source of carbohydrates well into winter. However, agriculture may not be a total solution in cold regions, in which case direct feeding is probably the best alternative. Corn, which is cheap and readily available, is hard to beat as a direct carbohydrate source. In some areas, such as high acorn-producing locales, mast production can be encouraged by reducing competition and by fertilizing, thus offering some natural carbohydrate support.

Is a nutritional program worthwhile if cool-season feeds aren’t included? For instance, will planting a warm-season high-protein crop do any good if a winter carbohydrate source isn’t provided? The answer is yes! Everything that elevates the nutritional plane helps deer. Obviously, the more the nutritional plane is elevated the more gains are realized. Even cool-weather carbohydrate feeding alone helps some, but not to the same degree as a warm-season high-protein source. Deer, especially those in cold climates, are adapted to survive the cold times with minimum nutritional intake. The strategy is to bulk-up as much as possible in the summer and fall in preparation of having to burn body reserves of fat and eventually muscle to carry them through. Plus, they have adopted an energy-conserving lifestyle during the cold times. Barring extreme conditions, they can get through the winter in decent shape, but every pound of muscle that is preserved by having sufficient energy-providing carbohydrates available adds to the overall health of the herd, the antler development of bucks, the fawning success of does and the survival rate of fawns.

One other question often arises. Which is better, annuals or perennials, particularly in regards to legumes since perennial carbohydrate options are somewhat limited? The answer depends on many factors, like the amount of tillable farmland available, budget, goals, soils, topography, the list goes on. The choice lies with the manager, but generally speaking, annuals produce more tonnage and allow for easier weed control. Plus, double-cropping both warm and cool-season crops on the same acreage cuts down on the acreage of farmland necessary for the program, an important consideration on many properties.

Real-Life Examples Of Success
The nutritional strategy for whitetails is essentially the same everywhere, but how that strategy is carried will vary greatly from place to place, whether by choice of the managers and by the dictates of the place, climate, soils, resources, regulations or circumstances.
Ok, let’s head to the field and look at two real-life examples of how this strategy is executed. We’ll first look at WHITETAIL’s Fort Perry Plantation, then we’ll go at El Tecomate Ranch in arid South Texas, where Dr. Gary Schwarz has developed his own agricultural-based nutritional program in a place where supposedly dependable crops can’t be grown. I choose these two examples because, both being intensive programs, they well-illustrate a wide range of innovative and practical ways the nutritional cat can be skinned. I could have easily chosen examples I’m familiar with in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida or a number of other states. The main thing our two Southern examples won’t address is the snow limitations prevalent in northern climes, where cool-season nutrition normally must be meet by direct feed rather than agriculture. We will, however, briefly cover supplemental feeding that will be applicable everywhere. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover so we’ll be speaking in plain English and get right to the point.

The Fort Perry Nutritional Strategy
Here, we want to show you a sample program that works … big time! It’s the program we at WHITETAIL magazine have developed over the years at Fort Perry Plantation, our 2000-acre management research facility in southwest Georgia. This program may not be the best for your land or your circumstance. In fact, the time may come when we find a better way to elevate our own nutritional plane on Fort Perry, but for now, we offer this program in its most basic form as an example of a plan that brings nothing short of astounding results – both in deer numbers and size.

How astounding? In terms of numbers, we’re supporting several times the number of animals possible on unmanaged habitat. We’ll just call it more than a deer per five acres! As for size, if I told you the actual truth, you wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t had I not seen it for myself. As I write this, our herd and research have just reach the point that we are ready to begin harvesting our bucks. By the time you read this, we will have antler and body-size data on harvested bucks, but as for now, we’ll have to go on sheds, pickups and field-judging. From that, I can tell you conservatively that nearly all of Fort Perry’s 3½-year-olds and older score will above 150 and some top 170 and 180!
First, a word about soil and planting preparation. Fort Perry has deep sandy soils for the most part. If we can grow good crops, most any place can. We are able to do it because we soil test, apply the recommended treatments of fertilizer and lime and employ sound farming techniques, including weed-control practices. All these things are important for maximum efficiency. However, farming for the purpose of growing deer feed doesn’t require the level of sophistication demanded by commercial farming. Still, the better job you do, the more returns you’ll see.
Now, our warm-season program. Though we have experimented with various clovers and soybeans, the legume we’ve settled on as our staple is iron-clay cowpeas. Cowpeas are a high-yielding, high-protein annual legume that our deer really find to their liking. We plant about a bushel per acre. (We no-till behind our winter small grain after mowing it very low, but it certainly doesn’t have to be done that way.) Planting usually begins in early May when the soil temperature reaches 70 degrees. As soon as the tender young peas come out of the ground, deer take to them. They are vulnerable to over-browsing at this time on small plots so we like to overwhelm them with acreage. Most of our cowpea plots are at least five acres for this reason.

Our cool-weather planting is actually designed not only to provide fall and winter carbohydrates but also to carryover into the warm season and kick in some early protein. We accomplish this by planting a mixture of rye (the carbohydrate producer) and two varieties of clover – crimson and arrowleaf clover. Crimson’s growth takes off in the early spring about the time bucks drop their antlers. Arrowleaf comes on a little later and produces until the cowpeas are planted. The clovers provide a critical source of protein early in the spring when both does and bucks have a very high demand for it. We plant our rye (no-tilled behind the “scalped” cowpeas) around the first of October at a rate of a bushel an acre in combination with about 10-20 pounds per acre of the two clovers.

To guarantee a constant source of both protein and carbohydrates, we back up our agricultural crops with year-round, free-choice supplemental feed. Basically, it’s a safety net for the agriculture, mostly for the transition periods between crops but also in the event of poor crop production from drought or any other reason. From the time bucks drop their antlers in the late winter/early spring, we feed high-protein pellets, often mixed with corn early in the transition. Once bucks begin velvet-shedding in early fall, we shift over to corn. We normally see our greatest supplemental feed use in May when the does are heavy with fawns and don’t like to move very far to feed. As for overall supplemental feed use, it comes in a very distant second to agriculture, which supplies the bulk of the nutritional requirements of Fort Perry deer. Under our program, the quality of the natural browse has actually improved while our deer herd has grown to levels far surpassing the natural carrying capacity. Food source management works!

The Fort Perry program is surprisingly simple isn’t it? But, what it has done for that deer herd would have been thought impossible just a few years ago. It’s safe to say that for both size and numbers the Fort Perry herd will rival any in the entire country! It was all made possible because of a management plan that has greatly increased the amount and quality of food available to the deer … while the natural habitat has improved! That’s progress any way you look at it.

El Tecomate Ranch Strategy
Before 1995, I thought I had met the nuttiest of the country’s deer nuts. I couldn’t imagine anyone crazier about the whitetail deer than folks like Bobby Parker Jr., Steve Vaughn, James Kroll, Jackie Brittingham, Bob Zaiglin, #### Idol, Scott Taylor, Gordon Whittington, George Cooper, Bill Jordan, John Wootters, Chuck Larsen, Greg Miller, to name but a few of the myriad of whitetail junkies I’ve crossed paths with. Not withstanding my wife’s opinion about me, I figured these guys were the most smitten of all. Then, I met Dr. Gary Schwarz … and even my wife had to admit that Gary makes me, and most everybody else, look like mere Ned and the first reader.

Gary is an oral maxillofacial surgeon by necessity, and an excellent one, but by love and by choice, he is one of the most dedicated, knowledgeable and innovative deer managers in the country … and as his accomplishments on El Tecomate Ranch in South Texas attest, one of the most successful. In recent years, Gary’s nutritional program has produced buck after buck that have won top honors in Texas’ many big buck contests.

His success has even been documented scientifically by comparing the body and antler size of his bucks to those of neighboring leaseholders who have the same herd management strategy but no nutritional program beyond natural habitat management. The results have been nothing short of startling. Age class for age class in a three-year comparison, Gary’s bucks averaged 20 B&C points higher and 26 pounds heavier than those on the neighboring leases! Twenty B&C points – that’s the difference between a 140 and a 160 or a 150 and a 170! To a trophy hunter, that’s all the difference in the world! How did Gary achieve that kind of results?

One of the things I like about Gary’s success story is that he started with nothing, not even an acre or a dollar to buy it with. You see, while still in dental school, Gary, along with a handful of friends, borrowed money to buy his first ranchland. Over time, he added more acreage, some his own and some with partners. Today, Gary’s personal acreage totals about 3,000 acres, which is known as El Tecomate Ranch.

You Have Options
You’re probably beginning to see the real beauty of food source management – it can be as intensive and extensive as the manager chooses and still give positive results. He can pick from a wide menu of options and match the depth and breadth of his plan to his objectives and resources. In intensity, his options range from the most basic first step – a food source aimed primarily at attracting deer for viewing and harvesting – to going all the way with an intensive year-round feeding program and a carefully regulated harvest aimed at achieving a precise herd balance. As for extension, the manager can opt to put all or only part of his land under this program. Larger landowners, especially, may choose to concentrate their efforts in the secure core of their property or may elect to spread a more modest program over the entire place.

Yes, this innovative program brings you something entirely new – control over your deer herd and hunting future … with options. Anyone with a sizable chunk of deer country, a desire to improve his deer hunting lot and a commitment to improving the health of his deer herd has within his or her power the ability to control his own deer-hunting future! So armed, you can decide how much opportunity you take off the table on your land. Whatever you choose, whatever progress you make, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that it all came to pass because you cared enough to make it happen!
]]> Revolutionary New Era in Whitetail Management Is Here! - Part II tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.60 2008-09-01T12:39:00Z 2008-11-11T14:13:41Z David Morris david@tecomate.com Part II - A NEW FRONTIER IN DEER MANAGEMENT

Tecomate -The Big Buck Experts

Let’s now lay out the Tecomate Management Strategy and discuss its various aspects. Here’s the program in a nutshell: Provide attractive, highly nutritious, concentrated food sources, preferably through year-round agricultural plantings, for the purpose of increasing deer numbers and size and holding the deer in a relatively confined area. Then, implement a harvest strategy that maintains the deer density within carrying capacity to allow for maximum body and antler size and peak reproduction and that promotes a low buck/doe ratio and a good buck age structure.
This management strategy revolves around three distinct aspects – nutrition, herd balance and people. Let’s look at each.

Better Nutrition Is the Key
The heart and soul of this program is obviously enhanced nutrition through a concentrated, favored food source. The goal is twofold – increased nutrition and high attraction. Hunters have long used food plots and direct feeding to attract deer for viewing and harvesting, and while that remains an important benefit of this program, what we’re talking about here goes far beyond that.

Nutrition
The first goal is to substantially elevate the quality of nutrition available to the herd so that deer numbers, size and reproduction increase as a byproduct of a healthier herd. Yes, this takes a serious commitment, but it is well within the reach of most landowners and managers who are already trying to manage their deer.

To receive maximum benefits, nutritional needs must be met year-round. In the spring and summer, the greatest need is for protein to rebuild rut and winter-depleted muscle, to grow new antlers and to nourish developing fetuses or fawns. During the fall and winter, deer need carbohydrates to supply energy and maintain body fat so minimal muscle is burned. So, we can divide the four seasons into two distinct times – warm (spring and summer) and cold (fall and winter) periods.

Almost anywhere arable land is found, the warm-period need for protein can be met to a large degree through agricultural plantings, primarily high-protein legumes of various types. Agriculture in the form of corn or small grains can also provide carbohydrates during the cold period in areas where snow doesn’t accumulate too deeply. In non-arable or heavy snow regions, direct feeding of, for instance, high-protein pellets or corn (carbohydrates) may be necessary to provide the necessary nutrition, though the nutritional impact possible on a herd is generally less with supplemental feed than with agriculture.

The whitetail is hardy, adaptable and equipped to withstand all but the harshest conditions nature throws at him. For instance, deer have adapted to counter the physical drain of the fall rut and winter by entering the fall with heavy fat reserves and then shifting to a low-energy, maintenance existence during the winter. As a result, they can get through the winter on relatively slim rations, though at a cost. Yet, despite their hardiness, the whitetail responds favorably to any help that comes his way during either the warm or cold season. Obviously, improving his lot year-round is best, but if a year-round program is not practical, some gains can be realized by meeting the nutritional needs of either season. Which is more important? Let me say this clearly: The real magic in nutritional management lies in meeting the warm-season high-protein needs of deer; not in meeting the cool-season carbohydrate needs! You can grow significantly more and bigger deer without an effective cool-season nutritional program, but you CANNOT grow significantly more and bigger deer without meeting warm-season nutritional needs. However, you can grow the most and the biggest deer when you meet both warm and cool-season needs!

How much can nutritious, major food sources increase the number and size of the deer on your property? That depends on many factors, not the least of which is the property and the nature and extent of the food sources. Suffice to say the gains possible will astound you when serious year-round food plot management is taken to its fullest extent. The increase in number and size we’ve seen on dozens of tracts across the country has not only shocked us but has defied anything we’ve ever thought possible! Take El Tecomate Ranch, though only about 3,000 acres, Gary Schwarz and his family have consistently dominated Texas’ big bucks contests! Plus, Gary is carrying roughly a deer per five acres … in country with a natural carrying capacity of about a deer per 25 acres! On my own El Cazador Ranch in South Texas, I’m carrying an astounding deer per four acres and my family and I have taken four B&C bucks in six years and an amazing 18 bucks over 170 in 9 years … and the average body weight of pre-rut mature bucks has increased from 178 pounds to an amazing 229 pounds! And, Tecomate partner Jeff Foxworthy is supporting similar populations under the Tecomate Food Plot System on his Georgia plantation. On Fort Perry Plantation, also in Georgia, during our research years, we had about 12 percent of the acreage in intensive year-round food plots and were growing giant bucks while supporting nearly more than five times the number of deer native habitat could carry in good condition. (On Fort Perry, under the scientific scrutiny of Dr. James Kroll of Stephen F. Austin University, we pushed the envelope to see what was possible for both size and numbers, while carefully protecting the quality of native habitat. We have never published the detailed results of that study because, simply put, what we found defied anything ever thought possible and nobody would have believed it! Plus, we took the level of intensity to a level most managers would not do.)
Under an intensive food plot program, I’m being conservative to say the number of deer that can be carried in maximum health can be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. In the case of direct supplemental feeding only, the impact, though quite significant, is less … unless the native habitat is severely stressed so the deer are forced to the supplement. Why? Because deer are browsers, and rather fill up on supplement, they will browse if they can, even on lower quality plants. Deer on good habitat will seldom take more than 25 percent of their daily diet in supplemental feed. Food plots, however, are just another form of browse to deer, and it’s not unusual for food plots to supply over 50 percent of the deer’s diet even on good habitat.

A good way to get a handle of the size potential on your property is to look back on what was killed during the heyday years of big bucks when the herd was first expanding. This is when the herd was still below the natural carrying capacity of the land and prime native foods were most abundant, allowing the deer to reach their greatest size … on natural habitat. Yet, even this doesn’t reveal the true size potential of a place. Why? Because the food-centered strategy we’re talking about here is capable on elevating the nutritional plane higher than that possible under the most ideal natural conditions. As a result, it is possible to raise the bar on buck size above that of the heyday expansion years.

Attraction
Like it or not, a requirement for a successful management program is some level of control over the herd so that outside loses are reduced to an acceptable level. Otherwise, you’ll be pouring nutrition into bucks your neighbors will be shooting, probably before they’re old enough to be big. Traditionally, this control has been achieved either through a vast land base, usually several thousand acres, or by a game-proof fence. Some lucky landowners have natural barriers, such as rivers or lakes, perhaps busy freeways or, in the case of the riverbottom habitat in the Plains and Prairies, even wide-open spaces, to help contain the deer. And, a few have such good neighbors or adjoin unhunted or inaccessible tracts that the deer can leave the managed property without suffering unnatural lose. Whatever the means, a manager must have some level of control over his deer. That means keeping them on his property as much as possible. Without thousands of acres or physical barriers of some kind, how can that be done? Lots of good food!

That leads us to the second objective of a nutritional strategy – to make the food source so attractive that, assuming water and cover needs are met, the deer will stay in relatively close proximity to it, thereby spending the great majority of their time on the managed land and under the control of the manager. This places certain requirements on the nature of the food source, especially as it relates to managing tracts of limited size.

The food source must be confined to a specific area, such as a food plot or feeding station, be highly favored by deer and provide the bulk of their nutritional needs. Meeting these three requirements allows the land manager to specifically locate his food sources so that deer activity is contained to his property to the greatest extent possible. Not only does natural habitat management have less potential to increase carrying capacity, it does not concentrate the deer around a focal point, thus it fails to deliver the critical advantage of herd containment so essential on smaller tracts.

How tight can major food sources hold deer? Again, many factors go into this equation, such as the part of the country, cover conditions, hunting pressure and time of year. Certainly, the quality, volume and nature of the food sources are important. For instance, deer simply like some foods better than others. Additionally, the longer food sources are in place, the closer deer tend to stay to them. Why? Deer become increasingly accustomed to and dependent upon the food sources, and perhaps more importantly, the fawns raised on the food sources will “imprint” on the area and claim it as their own. This is particularly true in the case of warm-season food plots.

So, what can we expect? Based on research conducted on Tecomate Ranch by Dr. Tim Fulbright of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, indications are that deer dependent on established major food sources, in this case food plots rather than direct feed, spend about 95 percent of their time within a half-mile of the food sources. Better yet, that same research shows that most of that time is spent within a quarter-mile of the food source! Our experience on various other places bears these numbers out. In fact, we’ve seen even tighter adherence to plots on properties the South and East. Without question, serious nutritional food plots, especially warm-season plots, will reduce the home ranges of deer within the affected herd.

All of a sudden, it comes together! More and bigger bucks that can be contained in a relatively small area – presto, trophy buck management is possible on smaller tracts than ever thought possible … without a high fence.

Another big plus of preferred major food sources is that they allow deer to be seen and enjoyed consistently at predictable places. This offers obvious hunting advantages, but the management benefits may be even greater, particularly when trying to census the herd or harvest just the right animals. Certainly, one of the greatest pluses the Tecomate Management Strategy offers is the year-round enjoyment and satisfaction of just watching deer do their thing and seeing the herd and individual bucks get better and better year after year.

Herd Management
The second and more traditional aspect of the Tecomate Management Strategy calls for managing the herd, just as any serious management plan would. The goal is to control the number of deer and to maintain a tight buck/doe ratio and good buck age structure through a balanced harvest strategy. We could spend a lot of time on herd balance and harvest strategies and the factors affecting them, but here, we’re just going to hit the high points.

What is the right number of deer for your property? Of course, that depends on your property and the level of management intensity. The simple answer is the most the place can sustain at your level of management while still achieving maximum body and antler size and peak reproduction. You’ll have to determine what that is on your property under your program.

What is the ideal buck/doe ratio? That’s the manager’s call, but frankly, the right buck/doe ratio is largely a function of the reproductive rate. The higher the reproductive rate; the tighter the buck:doe should and can be. Harvest objectives also figure into it. The general goal is to move toward a one-to-one ratio of adult bucks to adult does, but this is seldom achieved. In the real world, something around 1:1.2 to 1:1.5 is more realistic. Philosophically, you want the herd to consist of as many bucks as possible and only enough does to replace the previous year’s loses. In practice, the problem is seldom too few does.

Buck age structure is simply the distribution of bucks throughout the various age classes. What’s a good buck age structure? That depends on the harvest strategy, which depends on the desires of the manager. A trophy buck program requires that as many bucks as possible be allowed to reach the mature age classes, which means protecting at least the 1½ and 2½-year-old bucks, and possibly even the 3½s and 4½s on more intensive programs with larger land bases. Once they reach maturity, the manager has to decide how many and what size/age are to be taken. His decision will determine the buck age structure and the nature of his program. For instance, if the goal is top-end bucks, the herd must have a good representation of older, peak-antler-aged bucks, i.e., 4½ or perhaps 5½ and older. If a heavier harvest targeting any mature buck is the goal, then the mature age structure will likely consist primarily of 3½s and 4½s.

What about genetics? That’s always one of the first questions to arise in a trophy program. Frankly, I think the infatuation with genetics stems from the fact that many people believe it offers a quick fix for bigger bucks. It doesn’t. The truth is that the deer on your property have far greater genetic potential than you think. If bucks of a size you would be happy with have ever been killed in your area, then your deer undoubtedly have the genetic potential to realize your trophy dreams … if you provide them with quality nutrition and time to grow up. Actually, it may be possible to grow even bigger bucks than ever before. Why? Because the improved nutritional plane possible under an intense program can provide higher quality nutrition than the natural habitat was ever capable of yielding. This allows bucks to realize even more of their genetic potential (meaning, get bigger) than ever before.

And, an ongoing high nutritional plane may well bring another factor into play that leads to greater size than thought possible. Gary Schwarz first brought this theory to my attention. He had come across a study reported in the 1986 Wildlife Society Bulletin that dealt with why the antlers of red stag and roe deer in Europe were so much smaller than those in museums from medieval times. Though the study was conducted before World War II by a European scientist named Franz Vogt, it wasn’t brought to the attention of the American community until scientist Valerius Geist published the 1986 paper reporting on the results of Vogt’s study.

Essentially, Vogt believed that the effects of poor nutrition over many generations acted to suppress the potential for full genetic expression in antler and body size. (We’ll just focus on antler size.) He wasn’t just saying the antlers were smaller a particular animal because of poor nutrition; he believed the genetic potential for size had actually been eroded as an adaptation to long-term malnutrition. He also theorized that with the availability of optimum nutrition the suppression of antler size could be reversed over many generations. His studies eventually proved his theory correct! In five to seven generations under high nutrition, Vogt overcame the genetic suppression and released the full genetic potential of the animals, producing red stags equal in size to those of medieval times! And, whitetails will respond the same way!
In short, before worrying too much about genetics, get good nutrition to your balanced herd … then you can tweak genetics through controlled harvests.

How Much Land Is Needed?
While food source management is simple, thought, time, money and work are required to put it into practice. Many decisions must be made along the way. Ultimately, the nature of the program will be determined by the resources available and the goals of the people involved. Let’s spend a moment on one of the most important resources – the land.

The most often-asked question about this program is how much land does it take? The answer is NOT AS MUCH AS YOU THINK! The Tecomate Management System can improve your hunting to some degree even if you only have a few acres. The least you can do is attract deer to your food source even if you can’t keep them on your place or significantly improve their nutritional plane. But, that’s not really taking advantage of the nutritional benefits so key to the program. To accomplish this, land size does come into play but perhaps not in the most obvious way.
You can’t think of this program only in terms of how much land you own; you have to look at the overall area, whether you own it or not, used by the deer feeding on your food sources. We’ll call this the “managed or protected” area. Obviously, this area cannot have heavy, indiscriminate hunting pressure if the program is going to be successful, thus the name. It’s this acreage that’s important.

What size managed area is necessary? Earlier we said that deer tend to spend 95 percent of their time within a half-mile of a major food source. Using this half-mile as the distance from a food source that would allow reasonable control over the herd, we can come up with an acreage parameter for the protected area. Assuming centrally located food sources, a protected half-mile radius around the food sources would result in roughly a square-mile area, or 640 acres. That will serve the rule-of-thumb for the minimum protected area required for an effective program. (Mere acreage is only not the only concern: locating food plots most effectively relative to good and bad neighbors is also important. The shape of the land factors in here.) Though a square mile of land will not give full control of the herd, it will allow for an effective program … if the neighbor situation is not intolerable. Obviously, the larger the protected zone, the greater control you have over the herd.
As we said, you don’t have to own the entire protected zone to receive its benefits. True, it’s best to own as much of the impacted area as possible to fully control it, but with the right neighbors, the program can be successful when you own only a part of the managed area. Since you have the food sources, the deer will end up under your dominion sooner or later. So, if your neighbors won’t shoot your deer before they get big, your program will fly when you own only part of the impacted land. From this, you can see how the right 50 or 100 acres could keep a family in taxidermy bills. My 80-acre “ranch” in Montana sits in the middle of inaccessible, lightly hunted national forest land, and my two 15-acre Tecomate Monster Mix plots are the hub of local deer activity. I know others who manage even less land to amazing effect. One is a 10-acre tract next to a large, unhunted utility holding. You wouldn’t believe the huge bucks that have come off that tiny tract over the years!

Ok, we’ve talked about minimum land requirements, but what would be a more ideal size to manage? Again, it depends. You’d be amazed what a square mile in a low-pressure area could produce. But all things considered, the ideal size to fully exploit the concept is from 1,000 to 2,000 acres, sizes well below that once thought to be necessary for an effective program. Anything less than a 1,000 acres stands to suffer significant loses to hunting neighbors. Anything more than 2,000 acres presents daunting logistical challenges, both from the standpoint of nutrition and herd control. Certainly, commercial or large-scale programs can be successfully implemented on tracts as large as the involved parties are willing to take on.

The great thing about the Tecomate Food Plot Program is that it has now put serious and successful deer management within the range of countless sportsmen who once thought owning and/or managing their properties for bigger bucks was an unattainable dream. But it is NOT – more and bigger deer on smaller tracts, yes, it’s for real!

]]> Revolutionary New Era in Whitetail Management Is Here! - Part I tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.59 2008-08-01T12:30:00Z 2008-10-01T18:08:52Z David Morris david@tecomate.com Part I – THE WHITETAIL REVOLUTION BEGINS … BORN OF NECESSITY

Photo By Hardy Jackson

What if I told you a management strategy existed that could allow you to increase the number of deer on your property two or threefold, maybe more? What if I told you that same strategy could also increase your buck size to that of the best the area could produce? Then, what if told you that your “more and bigger” deer could be contained within a relatively small area, perhaps seldom or never to leave your property? And then, finally, I told you that you could do all that while actually improving, yes, improving, the quality of your native habitat to the benefit of all wildlife, game and non-game species alike!

“Yeah, right,” you say, “and the IRS is going to waive my taxes next year!”

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, with Tecomate leading the way, innovative biologists and game managers across the country are snapping the shackles of so-called “conventional wisdom” and growing more and bigger bucks that ever thought possible right in their own backyard! Best of all, you can too!

The Tecomate Management Strategy is a way for you to bring a slice of great trophy country now seemingly found only in faraway places to your own backyard! Before we look ahead to this groundbreaking new strategy, let’s look back to gain an understanding of from whence we’ve come and where we are today.

THE BIRTH OF “CONVENTIONAL WISDOM”
From the time the nationwide deer recovery first began in the mid-1900s until the expansion was more or less complete in the 1970s and 80s, management by game agencies correctly focused on protection. Later, as deer filled the available habitat, and in too many cases overfilled it, the strategy began to shift from protection to maintenance. In time, the goal became that of trying to control deer numbers, primarily through harvesting does, while maintaining maximum hunting opportunity for the greatest number of people. Worthy goals, no doubt, but they seldom brought the most desirable results. Political constraints or the simple lack of control usually thwarted the goal of holding numbers down. The “chicken-in-every-pot” goal usually translated into excessive buck pressure. All too often, out-of-balance, overcrowded, stressed deer herds top-heavy with does and seriously short of bucks, especially mature bucks, were the results, coupled with long-term damage to the native habitat and subsequent poor nutrition.

Through all this, the game agencies and most professional biologists were trying to manage vast chunks of real estate – counties, regions, whole ecosystems and indeed entire states. With the responsibility of the overall resource resting on their shoulders, agencies did not have the time, money, personnel, knowhow or, frankly, the mandate to manage individual tracts or invest in developing the techniques necessary to do so. As a result, their strategy was big-picture. They were macro-managers. About the only real tool they had available was to control as best they could the number and sex of the deer harvested by regulating hunting pressure through seasons, bag limits and other game regulations. Thus, most of the management advice they disseminated to private land managers paralleled their own experiences and dealt largely with harvest strategy and herd balance.

Because of their scant experience in managing individual tracts, at least intensively, they placed relatively little emphasis on enhancing habitat or food availability and almost none on trying to significantly elevate the nutritional plane of specific tracts of land. Since they only dealt rather superficially with large tracts, their management perspective demanded lots of acreage to make a difference. And, habitat improvement on huge acreage was a matter of breadth not depth, thus only modest gains were feasible. From this environment evolved conventional management wisdom – 1) large tracts are necessary to manage deer; 2) harvest manipulation through regulating hunting pressure is the most effective management tool; and 3) about the only way to enhance carrying capacity is through relatively low-impact wholesale management of natural habitat. While those conclusions are logical purely from a macro-manager’s perspective, there’s a whole lot more to the story when it comes to managing individual tracts.

A COLLISION COURSE
In a way, the quality of the resource and hunters’ expectations had been on a collision course for a longtime. Hunters had been steadily advancing in experience, knowledge and standards, while the deer resource has been slipping in some important ways by which a growing number of hunters now measure the health of a herd. Certainly, overcrowding, poor nutrition and bad herd balance head the list of threats. Too many deer result in smaller deer, lower reproduction, stress, greater human/deer conflict, susceptibility to parasites and diseases and long-term damage to the habitat, which leads to an inevitable lowering of the carrying capacity. Poor balance, usually as a result overharvesting bucks and underharvesting does, leaves herds depleted of bucks, especially mature bucks, and top heavy with does. Not only is this very bad for deer, but it left the demanding whitetail hunter frustrated and determined to find ways to improve the health of the deer herd and the state of his sport.

To understand why the modern deer hunter is more discriminating than ever before and why he wants more from his chosen sport than conventional management had delivered, it is necessary to look at from where he has come. It is said that there are typically four stages in the evolution of a deer hunter. The first, as you would expect for a beginner, is simply to kill any legal buck. Size does not matter. The second stage is to take as many deer as possible. When sufficient numbers have been tallied, the third stage follows when the hunter begins seeking more challenge by taking deer with different type weapons, i.e., bow, muzzleloader, handgun, etc. The last stage is reached when the hunter shifts his focus to the most challenging of all the whitetail clan – the trophy buck.

Certainly, this pattern is representative of countless modern hunters, especially the myriad “baby boomers” who began hunting during the herd expansion years of the 60s, 70s and early 80s. The fact that so many hunters today have so much experience lies at the root of the rub – many hunters have now reached the so-called “trophy stage” and are only interested in hunting good mature bucks, not just in killing any buck. For too long, this goal was inconsistent with the realities of most deer herds. Frustration was the result. Now for the good news, the future promises to be better … and the future is NOW!

Based on everything I’ve seen and heard, there is a fifth stage in the evolution of a deer hunter. It offers hope for the frustrated and, I’m happy to report, for the well-being of our deer herd. This fifth stage stems from a commitment to the sport and a sincere interest in the welfare of the whitetail. Yes, it is motivated by a love of hunting, the desire to see more good bucks and the hope of harvesting big, mature bucks, but its end is a healthy, vigorous herd and a bright future for our sport. The fifth stage is an action stage that calls for getting involved to bring solutions. I am speaking of management. More specifically, the kind that restores nature’s original management scheme for the whitetail, when nonselective predators held the whitetail in-check with its habitat, resulting in healthy, balanced herds with tight buck/doe ratios and well-distributed age classes.

Society as a whole began the disruption of this natural scheme by demanding the elimination of the large predators. We hunters, often under the auspices of misdirected policies, contributed to further imbalance by a selective and excessive harvest of bucks while leaving the does largely unchecked to reproduce beyond the ability of the habitat to support them. So, in the natural whitetail herd, we find the baseline objective for modern game management – a balanced, healthy population with a tight buck/doe ratio and plenty of mature bucks that is maintained within the carrying capacity of the land by a near-equal harvest of bucks and does.

Does man have a role in returning deer herds to a natural balance and maintaining them there? Of course, only it’s not just a role; it’s an obligation. The large predators that once “managed” the deer herds are no longer tolerated in close proximity to man, which happens to be where most whitetails live. Man must assume the role of game manager to help restore our herds to a healthy state and then maintain them there. Hunting is one of the primary and most essential tools in his management arsenal … and I might add, the one that provides the economic clout to make it all possible!

A hunter’s involvement in management can be direct and focused, like working to improve the deer herd on a particular tract of land. Or, it can be indirect and broad, such as educating himself in the principles of game management in order to do what’s “right” in his role as a hunter or to encourage agency game managers to act in the best interest of the resource. The truth is that every time a hunter pulls the trigger on a deer he is “managing.” Without knowledge, he cannot know whether his “management” is good or bad. Regardless of the level of involvement in management or the motivation, all hunters need to be a part of securing a better future for both the whitetail and the sport through promoting a healthier herd. If the desire and the means to accomplish this goal are present, as I believe, then a positive change is within our grasp and serious management is the way to get there.

THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING NEW
Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. In the face of declining quality in the country’s deer herds from both too many deer and an excessive buck harvest, a handful of innovative private landowners and managers said “enough!” They started looking at what they could do to grow bigger bucks back on the old homestead. At the forefront of this movement were the principles of Tecomate Wildlife Systems, led by management pioneer Dr. Gary Schwarz, owner of famed Tecomate Ranch, and Steve Vaughn, my former partner at WHITETAIL magazine and owner of the management research facility, Fort Perry Plantation, in middle Georgia.

From the outset, those of us involved in the pioneering work into this new frontier of nutritional management were committed to find ways to help the average landowner, not just those with vast holdings, grow healthy herds with more and bigger bucks. Because limitations exist in every deer herd and every manager, our goal was to develop intensive management strategies that would yield maximum results on small or marginal tracts and with reasonable resources. What we developed after more than a decade of intensive research and management at Tecomate Ranch and Fort Perry Plantation was a bold new management strategy, now widely known as the “Tecomate Management Strategy” or “Tecomate Food Plot System,” that has thrust food plot based nutrition into the limelight as a powerful tool capable of completely altering the face of private land deer management for the better … and bigger! And, this commonsense nutritional strategy works on tracts once thought to be too small for an effective program and even on marginal land with low inherent carrying capacity. In short, the Tecomate Management Strategy is now rewriting the management books and opening the door to great homegrown hunting to almost anyone with a decent slice of deer country!

We have long known that quality nutrition is key for a healthy herd and that nutritious food increases deer size and numbers. For size, the agricultural crops of the fertile farmlands of the Midwest or Central Canada provided a case in point. For numbers, the proof could be seen in the incredible deer densities found in association with the irrigated alfalfa fields along the otherwise lightly populated riverbottoms of the Plains and Prairies. Certainly, progressive Texas ranchers, who have always set the pace in private land deer management, have incorporated enhanced nutrition, usually direct feeding, into their management for years. Yet, only recently have we come to realize the degree to which the private land manager can elevate the quality of nutrition on his property and the astounding impact it can have on his herd.

Deer are like any other animal – meet their basic requirements for life, i.e., food, water and cover, and they thrive in good health, reach large size and reproduce abundantly. Think of them as little cows in this regard. Ranchers have always operated in the sure knowledge that more and better (nutritious) feed allows more and healthier cows to be supported on a given acreage. Assuming water and cover are in adequate supply, exactly the same principle applies to deer – the more and better the food, the more and bigger the deer.

That fact was the beginning point for our new strategy, but let’s take it one step further. What if all the deer’s needs, including a ready supply of preferred, highly nutritious food, were met in a relatively small area? Doesn’t logic say the deer would stay close by rather than wander off to where pickings are poorer? If the answer is yes … and it is … then you have the final block in the foundation of the Tecomate Management Strategy. Namely, provide deer with a localized supply of more and better food, along with nearby cover and water, and you get more and bigger deer that hold tight in the area. Does it really work? A resounding YES!

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? In concept, it is. Yet, it marks a major turning point for deer hunters, from a reactive role in game management to a proactive role. This strategy empowers private land managers across the continent to take charge of deer management on their property and to determine their own hunting destiny … while contributing to a healthier deer herd! That’s saying a lot!

]]> Get The Lime Out tag:tecomate.com,2008:content/index.php/site/index/1.72 2008-07-08T18:12:00Z 2008-07-13T00:39:33Z Cedar Hills jason@cedarhillsmedia.com http://www.cedarhillsmedia.com Tecomate - Consulting and Food Plot Services

Tecomate - Consulting and Food Plot Services

(Originally Published in QDMA, Quality Whitetails)
By Rans Thomas
For successful food plots, skipping the lime is not an option. Here are
some ideas for reducing the size of this task without reducing food-plot

As most QDMA members are well aware, applying lime is a critical step in producing high-quality, maximum-yield food plots. Yet, among the general hunting community, it surprises me how many would-be food-plot growers overlook or neglect this step. I can think of many explanations — lime must be applied in very large amounts, often tons per acre; it works best when applied well in advance of planting and fertilizing; and it often requires specialized equipment for proper application. Though proper liming will never be as simple as throwing a few sacks in the back of a pickup before heading to the woods, I can offer several tips to make lime application easier and less expensive.

Full Article ]]>