Although white-tailed deer hunting has been around as long as there have been hunters, it was not until recently that one could find whitetail deer for sale. The practice of breeding and selling deer is not for most hunters, but many understand how genetic manipulation combined with other deer management techniques can be used to improve deer hunting on a piece of property.
Many states allow deer breeding and the sale of deer to other breeding facilities and private ranches for deer hunting. Most antler traits, such as number of points, mass, and tine length, are highly heritable and make the management of deer, whether penned or free-ranging, viable. Many ranches look to buy deer to jump start genetic improvement on their properties. Since research has shown that does are as important—or even more important—than bucks, you can see why quality does are an important part of any managed deer herd. I received this email:
“To Deer Hunting ranches: We have 19 adult doe out of Billy Martindales “Lumpy” (208 B&C) blood line that are bred to our buck “Bambi Saw Buck”. He is out of Robert Williams “Bambi” blood lines and scores 257 3/8’s at 4 years old. He was 240 at 3 years old. We are offering these deer to hunting ranches for $1,500 each and would be an excellent addition to your operation.
We can deliver to you. Attached is a flyer of “Saw Buck.” Best way to contact me is my cell number 903-340-XXXX. We are moving our breeding facility and must move these deer in the next sixty days. One or all 19. We also have limited semen from him at one straw $750, five straws for $3,000, or ten straws for $5,000. Collected by Champion Genetics in Canton, Texas.”
The state of Texas has become a hot spot for deer breeding in the past 15 years because of interest in producing big bucks. With that said, Texas had been rather slow in allowing captive breeding and the sale of of white-tailed deer compared to some states in the mid-West. In Texas, and deer “liberated” from a breeding facility is considered a wild deer and can not be recaptured.