HF is like a box of chocolates

Tear my britches every time I crawl over one.

Most of the ranches i have seen have introduced genetics from outside the state.. Dad was really good friends with a guy that high fenced his 7k acres.. We where there one day when some deer where being unloaded. Deer where all from Iowa. Never seen deer with the body size or antler size like that.. Driver of the truck said prior to loading 2 bucks had to have their antlers cut off because they where too wide to fit in a cattle trailer.

That must have been quite a while ago because Texas closed it's borders in 2002. I'm calling BS on your last statement.

To piggy back of this subject. How big does an area have to be to be high fenced. I looked at land for sale and there was a place that was mixed LF and HF with the HF being about ~225 acres and said it had exotics in the HF area. I thought this was small to have exotics (axis and i think it said it had antelope??).

Now days i know you can provide nutrition to the animals to live in a smaller area that normally would not make it.

Native genetics will always over take improved genetics. Proper way to get improved genetics is to wipe out native herd and start over with improved.

This if you want monsters on your property.

That must have been quite a while ago because Texas closed it's borders in 2002. I'm calling BS on your last statement.

Dont they always cut off their antlers prior to transporting them?

Did anyone answer his last questions?

1) If you high fence property, do you own the deer as opposed to the state?

2) Or do you have to remove all the wild deer before introducing your bought deer for you to own what is on your property?

The high fence issue came up recently with some folks that are close to our ranch in Edwards County.

They have about 120 acres. I tried to tell them that high fencing it would be a bad idea, but they seem to think they can produce better deer if they can keep the deer from being shot by their neighbors. Here is the problem with that idea:

1 - Unless you are out there ALL the time, like if you were raising cattle, these deer will need food and water and nutrients. Who will get that to them? Deer require a lot of area to graze both for food as well as for population, i.e. they socialize with other deer.

2 - If you figure you need 1 deer for every 10 acres, and that is IF you have that good of vegetation, then that is 12 deer that the ranch can support. If you plan a 1:1 ratio of does to bucks, then you have 6 does and 6 bucks.

Let's assume you are successful and each doe has a fawn... you are at 18 deer.

You take a buck and a doe to bring the numbers down... maybe 2 bucks and 2 doe.....

You are still at 14 deer and your ranch supports 12. Next year, you are at 19 deer.

If the goal is to create better/bigger deer, you need to let them age, but you can't....because the numbers simply do not support the ability to bring them down far enough and leave any older deer.

Some say, "I will add more deer".. ok, you can do that.. you can go buy deer, exterminate the ones you have, and inside 3 years you are back to what you had before.. and the cycle continues.

So... unless you have 300-400 acres of good land.. the numbers would be against adding a high fence.

Again.. just my opinion.. and a few others.

Russ