Rancher needs help with exotic harvest and pricing.

Any help would be appreciated, I have a friend that needs help pricing and selling hunts on his game ranch near Kerrville. It is an old family ranch, he is not a wealthy guy, he has had to take a job to support his family as there is a family member that has had to have a number of surgeries and he is not making enough as a game ranch. I do not know much about it except what he has shared. He has 3000 acres with lodge and hundreds of exotics that he needs to thin out. He wants to price his animals fairly to provide a win- win. He knows what he can sell them for at auction if the time comes.

I have checked the pricing on this forum and others and this is what I see ( note, he does not have any gold medal quality animals but they are on the way )

Axis Buck $1,750.00
Black buck male $1,750.00
Oryx $1,750.00
Sika $1,750.00
Red Stag $1,950.00
Large Fallow $1,950.00
Small Fallow $1,650.00
Red Stag $1,950.00
Red Sheep $3,000.00
Nilgai $2,750.00
Mixed Male Sheep Large Rams $950.00
Small Rams $500.00
Red Stag Hinz $450.00
Fallow Does $400.00
Sika Does $400.00

He does not want it public knowledge as to what ranch it is as not to concern his family. I will pass along your advice to him.

So, what do you think of the prices above? Please be constructive in your advice.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I think most of those prices are too high if there aren't any gold-medal trophies present....

$1,650 for a "small Fallow" is terrible, if your definition of a small Fallow is the same as mine.....I wouldn't even pay $1,000 for a small Fallow.

To be honest....if he really wants to get rid of some animals quick, he's going to have to cut back on those prices by about 30%. Something like this:

Axis Buck $1,250.00
Black buck male $1,250.00
Oryx $1,500.00
Sika $1,250.00
Red Stag $1,500.00
Large Fallow $1,500.00
Small Fallow $950.00
Red Sheep $2,500.00
Nilgai $2,000.00
Mixed Male Sheep Large Rams $650.00
Small Rams $350.00
Red Stag Hinz $350.00
Fallow Does $200.00
Sika Does $200.00

Above^^^^
I think he should give fallow and sika does for 225
The rams can come down to 300 for the small ones and 500 for the bigger ones
I also think that sika bucks should be 1000

Elandslayer seems pretty on with his pricing. gonna be tough to get people in the gates with the prices you have listed.

Large Axis Buck $1,000.00 Smaller $750.00
Mature Black buck male $1,000.00 Smaller $750.00
Oryx $1,500.00
Sika $1,000.00
Red Stag $1,250.00
Large Fallow $1,250.00
Small Fallow $800.00
Red Sheep $2,500.00
Nilgai $2,000.00
Mixed Male Sheep Large Rams $650.00
Small Rams $350.00
Red Stag Hinz $350.00
Fallow Does $150.00
Sika Does $150.00

You can't buy'em/raise'em or feed'em for this price point......;now if he's overstocked, that's a different horse/different color.

I am well aware of that....but his exact words were "He has 3000 acres with lodge and hundreds of exotics that he needs to thin out".

I PROMISE he will NOT be selling hundreds of animals at the prices he is asking, or prices even close to that.

Agree that his sales will be slower w/ the OP's price point/animal quality, but he won't even cover operating expense at the price point you are recommending, so why recommend it? He already seems to know the auction market and the fact that's a viable option.

Maybe I'm missing something.......

He is not going to get these prices at an auction unless they are exceptionally large animals and I doubt that all of them are. A lot of pricing has to do with things other than hunting such as accomodations, food, etc.There is a lot of competition out there now and to me it is better to make a little or even break even on a animal that loose it and make nothing.Just starting out trying to sell exotics with as many established outfitters as there are is going to be tough. The best route would be to give it to an established outfitter, but then again he is not going to get the price per animal he is looking at.

Not to mention the cost to dart and transport these animals to the auction. People overestimate what an (average)animal will sell for.

This^^^^^also seems good...
Eland Slayer's prices are also good....

If he is wanting them to get thined out drop prices and get an outfitter to conduct hunts on it for him. yea you are priced to high to move animals quickly. It is all about price these days.

Agreed, he won't get his price point @ auction & yes there are costs associated with trapping, but, as mentioned above, there are also costs associated with hunting them (time,lodging, etc) & you would be solving the density problem 1 at a time rather than by the trailer full. I expect, like, most his cost/overhead is fixed, not variable.

He may well be able to sell hunts at a set rate and a kill fee that brings the total to what he ultimately wanted for the animal. Example : $750 2 day hunt. Hunter kills a Oryz, $750 kill fee. If the hunter doesn't get a kill, he forfeits the hunt fee and gets a chance to come back at a reduced hunt fee next time. Of course this is for self-guided hunt. Charge more if it is guided. There is little to no over-head in guiding so that would be all profit. This way he makes money if they kill something, makes money if they don't, and makes money if they come back for the reduced cost hunt.

Lower the cost of the animal and charge a lodging and guide fee for the profit? If the animal's are not Gold or trophy quality then someone is actually just paying for the hunting experiene to harvest that type of animal. So Lower the price of the animal to what it would usually go for at that quality but then tack on the lodgeing and guide fee and make sure they are takin' care of on with meal's and entertainment?!?!?! Just a thought, atleast till you actually have some trophy's and can "get" trophy prices.

hawkeeye there is no land owner willing to let anyone be self guide that I have found yet.

Right, especially exotics or trophy type whitetail.

Thanks everyone, this has been helpful so far! It has been good for him to see that prices are softer than he realized. I am on the ranch with him today getting pictures.

Lodge has 4 bunks. 31 stands and feeders.

We sold 22 Nilgai today, so that has helped a lot.

Any more advice is always welcome.

I will have better numbers on the other animals when the biologists get here tomorrow.

Galle Ranch lets you hunt unguided. He has a flat rate on all exotics. 1200 for Axis, BB , Fallow, Audad, Sika, Oryx. The best are the Axis and Black bucks. The cabin is an extra 100 per night and sleeps 4. He has Axis 34+ and Black bucks 18+.

He also had a deal going 1000 for an axis buck 200 for a doe, and one hog to go with it. Was a great deal!

Just wondering, what has he been doing in the past with the game?

He has been allowing outfitters to book and conduct hunts out there. It has not been working out as he had hoped.

Why, because he wants too much money per animal? What is he hoping for? Exotic hunting is not like it was a few years ago.

Gotcha, just wondering, good luck to him.

PM sent to you

Not at all. In fact, it was just the opposite, he trusted a couple of outfitters to report all game harvested. He suspected that they were taking more than what they reported after he did an inventory and a number of animals were not accounted for. He had no way to be watching the gate and taking care of a family member at the same time.

He is a great guy. We are getting some positive help on this forum. Thank you.

Not being a smart a**, but how do you inventory animals on 3000 acres?

The ranch is cross fenced with high fence into 640 acre sections with certain animal types in each section.

how do you figure this?

Is there any brush in the pastures or are they completely cleaned out? I had 3 mouflons in a 85 acre pasture and sometimes I could go a month and not see them. Just saying that it is hard to count everything you have. I think if I did not trust the outfitter I would not have let him on the place in the first place. First of all you make them come by the house before they leave the property if you have any doubts about them.

Pretty heavy brush in each. Using game cameras and feeding areas. Correct, no way to count 100%, but there was enough difference on animal groups to raise more than just suspicions. Note: We are not down on Outfitters at all. In fact he still works with many and they are great people providing a needed service.
He could not be there all of the time. Trust was earned and lost.

To the OP. I have to agree with others that many of those prices are a bit on the high side. Anyone who really shops around can find most cheaper.

Thanks everyone for the input. He decided to lease the property to an outfitter to handle the hunts. For those of you wanting to book a hunt your info has been given to the outfitter, but I am not sure what the prices will be.

I think the outfitter already has customers and was just looking for more capacity. He hopes he can trust this one a little more than the last.