Early maturing genetics....

I want my deer to be BIG by 2 yrs (I know, we all do). Which lines do you prefer for fast maturing bucks? Just looking for suggestions.

I'm happy with 200" 2 year olds ALL DAY LONG! The biggest reason is that they come from deer that I liked to look at, we're affordable for me and I have no one to blame (or credit) but myself.



I'm just a little guy.....but it's been a blast!



Rolling Timber by the way (my buck) is my Favorite, wait until you see him this year! I also have a desert eagle son that's goning to blow some socks off this year too!

Grizzly has done it for us, our one year olds look like two year olds and the two year olds are the size of three year olds. Here is a picture of Big Bear a two year old Grizzly son that scores 250"

I think this is a great thread for us beginners to ummmm pay attention!

keep this one going!

Thank you to all that have responded. This is a very interesting topic. I'm anxious to hear other's opinions....

Troubadour is our 2 yr old Maxbo Ranger son scoring 255-260 with a 25 1/2" IS spread not sure if this is what you call early maturing or not because i think he has a lot of growing to do....

Rick

he is a beautiful looking buck

Rick,



I would say, that is what this thread is all about. What a Beautifull Buck!

hey pharmerbrown i have only been in it a couple years but i have highroller and rockyroller line along with tonto and lakota lines and my deer from lakota and tonto where much bigger as one year olds, i have one lakota son go 197@1

I also went with the Tonto, Matrix and Lakota lines. Make a trip to Ron and Marys, you'll be amazed at both the size and consistency of there deer. There 2 years olds and the ones on other farms are what most others are at 3 years old. Barry Mcgrew has 2 of the prettiest bucks out there, Tongo and Tango, twins out of Tonto, pics of them on Pierces website. I have semen out of a yearling buck that we call Justice that is a 197 inch 7x7 mainframe yearling and pretty typical. He's Tonto on a Rolex doe, should be a great cross with about anything. I AI'ed 20 does to him this fall, that's how confident I am about the Tonto and Rolex genetics. I may sell a few later after testing if your interested. Check out the deer on Pierce's website and you'll see what I mean. http://www.piercewhitetail.com/index.html

Great to see a variety of different bucks.

I look forward to seeing more names pop up. We shoot a lot of 3yr olds and a few 2yr old that go over 300". Feed prices eat you alive if you need to keep deer untill they are 4-6 yrs old.



In 2010 we had our best average for 2 yr olds. We had 46 total that averaged around 245-250" @2. They were out of (listed in order by biggest number of bucks out of that sire) Black Out, Loner, Rold Gold, XL, Hydro Axe, Maxbo, King pin

This is very interesting. Keep it going.

Like Heath said, with the feed prices the way they are, we can't afford to raise shooters until they are older than 3. And we are seriously looking at 2 year olds. Yearlings still have that small body so I'd say it will be a while before we can hunt those. But I'm always amazed at how fast things are advancing. RolexBy10 was 241 at 2, and his first 2 year old son, Rim Rolex was 320+. DoubleJack, a Timberjack over Doubledown son we had was over 300 at 2. Since they were big early, I used them as breeders but they would have been great shooters and a great return on investment in only 2 years!



I like that and just try to mix in the early maturing stuff with the "energy" of the big boys. We always like to cross the look, the energy, and as early maturing as possible.



Trying to put together the puzzle is whats so interesting about the business. Unlike other species where the fastest horse wins or the heaviest chicken or pig, in whitetails everyone is always breeding for something a little different. Some want big score, some want heavy bodies. Some breed for width, some for tine length. It goes on and on and no single trait always dominates the industry. I think antlers themselves have dominated in the past, but business will dictate that we look at other traits like body size and survivability sometime down the road. It takes a tough deer to survive in the South the last couple years. Do we breed for that or do we breed for antler carrying body size? THATS A GOOD QUESTION!



Everyone knows we are advancing at break neck speed! Is the fact that we are breeding for early maturing antlers one of the reasons these bucks are having trouble with their antlers. The "Early" maturing antlers are to early for the bodies! Do we start to breed for early maturing bodies as well?? I don't know the answer to that one. I'm sure if we have problems, the industry will correct itself through the old school of hard knocks! We can't hunt dead deer, no matter how small the buzzard looks on top of them!



But we are a resilient group of hard heads! Most deer farmers are very adaptable and not afraid to try something new. We jump in with both feet and hope we grow something incredible. Then we usually stand back and admit we screwed that up. New lesson learned! Try something else!



So as far as early maturing, I'm sure we will push it to the limits. Let the pushing begin!