Yearling buck

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kevin2311

Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
60
Location
Sapulpa, OK
I have a buck that will be a yearling this year and he has shown no signs of growing any antlers. He has had no buttons and there isn't any signs of swelling for bases to form. So out of curiousity how late have you seen a first rack start growing? We have other buck fawns a month younger that already has nice knotts on their head. Am I just being impatient or could we have an issue? Thanks



Kevin
 
I had a deer farmer pose this same type question to me a few years ago. My response was, are you sure it's not a doe? Ended up it was a doe on that occassion, but it's still early enough that for a buck fawn becoming a yearling he might not be showing anything. He may be a late grower, slow bloomer or any # of things. I bet he will end up showing in May.
 
kevin2311 said:
I have a buck that will be a yearling this year and he has shown no signs of growing any antlers. He has had no buttons and there isn't any signs of swelling for bases to form. So out of curiousity how late have you seen a first rack start growing? We have other buck fawns a month younger that already has nice knotts on their head. Am I just being impatient or could we have an issue? Thanks



Kevin
Click to expand...



Better do a reach around, Even the smallest of small should have some kind of bumps!
 
Unfortunately we will have to knock him down to find out for sure, hopefully something will show soon, he is a good pedigree deer so I figure he would be doing something by now. I will give him through mid-May then we will have to do some checking, I just did not know if this was common or not if he is a buck like we believe.
 
Just look through some bino's and check to see if he has a set of testicles. Pretty simply.
 
If it is a Doe..................Leave her alone and move her to her new pen in the fall ?

If he's a Buck...................May be a late Bloomer ?



It's NOT were they START! Heck Rawhide is already split his brows and headed towards his G'2's :eek:and I have some Yearlings that look like they have pimples on their heads!:D
 
Just an update I spent about 30 minutes trying to find out if he is a buck or not. He will come about 4 feet from me when we give him treats and I never could see any testicles unlike all the buck fawns where I could see them just fine. He finally peed but he was 100 feet or so away it look like by location of urine he would be a buck. I called the vet just to ask if it was possible his testicles never dropped. I was told that they are dropped at birth but every so often they stay up in the stomach but its really rare. She said that shouldn't effect his testosterone levels but he would not be able to breed due to the semen being to hot in the body. She was concerned that he hadn't had any signs of growing antlers and said he would more than likely be a doe, have both *** organs or isn't producing any testosterone. Were going to give him awhile then we may have to research further by knocking him out and seeing what is going on. Thanks for the responses and ideas and I will update this post when we find something out concrete. Still hoping he is just a really late bloomer though.



Kevin
 
Testosterone is normally low now. It increases in the fall to cause antlers to harden. Castrated males can produce antlers but they stay in velvet.
 
Well I know 100% he is a buck, we been able to see his stuff several times now and it all looks normal. Unfortunately he still has nothing on his head, no swelling, not a thing yet. I guess at this point its just a matter of time.
 
Glad to hear the *** is determined, sorry to hear nothing is growing yet. Maybe he still will and may just grow later into the year. Good luck Kevin.
 
To answer your question he ended up putting about an inch on each side about the size you would see from a buck fawn. He didn't start growing it until mid July or so. He has went hard horned and shedded the nubs a few days ago. I believe it had to be some sort of health issue but he is now one of our bigger body coming 2 yr olds. Since I had not been able to find anyone that has had the same issue (buck just not growing antlers) it will be easy to tell in a few months if he will be able to grow a rack or not. He did show some aggression this fall which gave me enough hope to keep him around and give him a chance.
 
Very odd case you have there. I know our PA game commission has proven through multiple tagging and hunter harvest studies, that some of our PA 1 1/2 old bucks will very rarely grow little to no antlers at all. I read of a guy just this year who shot a tagged deer. It was a buck with no sign of ever having any antlers on his pedicals so he assumed it was a buck fawn. So he called to report his tagged kill and collect his 100 dollar reward. The game commission called him back days later and said it was 1 1/2 year old ( they tagged it as a fawn the spring before). The man reported the bucks *** organs were normal and intact, and he also made it clear it was not a buck that shed antlers, it just never had them. I seen the pics. It was just an odd case like your buck I guess. So I guess we'll al continue to be surprised by what can happen with deer, we'll never figure them out, lol.

Thanks for you update Kevin. I hope he grows some antlers for you this summer so he can at least be a little profitable for you. Let us know how he does this summer.
 
Just a quick update on this buck about a week ago we noticed that he had started pushing his hair up on his head appearing that his bases were developing. As of Friday before we got hit with a major cold front and now were seeing highs in the 20's for the next few days he has grown some really good bases already, He is about an inch off the head and in my words balling up. Hope this weather doesn't slow his early development down much. We still have several bucks that hasn't even lost their antlers yet and he is by far the earliest we have had anything start growing. Can't wait to see what happens, seems like I see something completely different in the deer world every year. Good luck all with early growing season,


 


Kevin
 
This is the buck I had my concerns about last year. He finished last year with maybe an inch of horn on his head. He's starting out alot better at 2 yr old!


 


Kevin
 

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He's really going on strong now. This pic was July 5th and since then he has already started kicking out his G-5 and showing another split on the non-typical side. He's up to 17 points and horns are staying black!


2nd pic is him in August of last year as a yearling. Enjoyment and mysteries of deer farming!


 


Kevin Butler
 

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