I just finished HFing 950 acres of my ranch. I plan on leaving it a whitetail ranch, but the only exotic I have any sorta interest in is Axis. Can someone in the know explain to me the buck doe ratio and costs of these animals to stock please. Probably looking at stocking about 10-12 head total.

I'm a novice at this Axis thing, so any and all pertinent information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Anyone with any information?

You might be too far north for them or no, in regards to surviving the winters? Or are there ranches near you that have them already?

Yea, couple of neighbors have them.

I'm certainly no expert, but naturally axis run in herds and with usually 2 mature bucks running 5-10 does. The remaining bucks will hang together with a few solos. In your case you are talking 10-12 animals so I'd be at 7-8 does with 3 bucks to get started. Just my opinion.

Pretty prolific breeders from what i understand. You'll need to manage them to not overpopulate after a couple of years.
Great table fare as you know and I've seen ranches further north than you with them.
Personally I think it'd be a great addition to your setup. You could sell a doe with your dove hunts, for a over the fire pit rotisserie type dinner.

Well Stompy, I'm in the same boat as you. Completed my 890 high fence, and just released 3 bucks, 10 does, and 4 fawns on April 15th. That's the only additional mouths I intend to add to the WT herd. If you are looking to go budget, getting young bucks are the way to go. As for 'prolific breeders', they are not so much prolific as much as 'long term' breeders. As I understand, they RARELY have twins, Does are only bread one time per year, however the Does can breed at the age of 2-12 years old. So.... with the MANY years of fertility of the does, THAT is what makes them seem like they are prolific. (at least what I understand, but hell, what do I know, I'm a newbie too!)

I have a friend that raises them. Has about 50 axis now. He said depends on what you want. He said go 50/50 if you want to hunt bucks or if you want to breed them 10 does and 2 bucks would be fine.

put 20 doe , 5 bucks 2-4 years old at a min.
Doe are 550-700 ea
Bucks are about 500-600 per year old (round about )

If it was my place I would at least double the above numbers . 950 is a large area.

Following this. I am about to close on a small place that has approximately 40 axis doe and only 2 or 3 bucks. Sounds like I may need to thin the does out some.

If not, them boys will stay BUSY.

Cool thread. Always trying to learn something.

Be mindful of your whitetail goals if you introduce any exotic, especially axis as the compete directly with whitetail for the same food sources. It’s also my experience (red deer not axis, so maybe not apples to apples) that whitetail are will almost always defer to the exotic when at a feeder. They are just a more timid animal. It takes a lot of work for us to feed and manage the red deer herd and that is on a free range property where they will disperse.

We started our axis herd with 38 animals, wild caught. There was about 15 or so bucks from 1-3 years old the rest does. 1152 acres.

We never had a problem with them outcompeting the whitetail nor did we have issues with them getting over populated. We could never get the herd above an estimated 60 animals. We took a few here and there but never did any population control.

They are breeders but also very poor mothers. Seen them walk off and leave a fawn in a field. Coyotes are hell on them. You have to have your predator situation under control if you want any kind of fawn survival.

I enjoyed having them and found them to be complementary rather than a detractor to the whitetail herd.