October Mule Deer semen draw

What's the earliest anyone has had a successful semen draw?? Is early October too early? The reason being, I have a Mule deer buck and have an opening to try and draw on him October 3 or I'd have to wait and the next opportunity would be mid November. I'm sure it's better later but If I can get it done early also, it would be great.


Thanks for any input.


Cody

That time should work, I have always got a good number of straws early in the season. Got my first collection today as a matter of fact...Ryan

Got some mule deer collected Sunday.  Not the most semen but was ok as the orders were only for 20 straws.

Thanks for the reply Ryan and Jack, I think we'll give it a try and see what happens. If I get a good enough draw, I'm gonna try and breed a batch of my whitetails does this fall!!!

That's what a lot of guys are doing.  Many are doing it in Texas.  My thoughts are it will make a mule deer looking hybrid when the offspring are at 75% and may be a healthy breed to raise with the better immune system of the whitetail in the fawns back East.

Any one doing DNA on mule deer yet ?

I don't know of anyone doing it yet.  I know I won't be doing it any time soon.  Just a big hobby for me out here at my stage of life.

cody can you contact me i would like to come tour your opperation if i could some time soon before i set my pens. i had a chance to see your mule deer buck out at bens and am really impresed. really will be interisting to see how it dose on a whitetail doe. [email protected] or 605-395-7111

Yes Ben has nice mule deer. We both are working with some great mule deer bucks that I supplied semen from to him. It's hard to beat a 280 inch typical mule deer buck.
Just a FYI it is harder to make a mule deer buck breed a whitetail doe. When I do it with the cross being made mule buck to whitetail doe some whitetails don't get PG. Just the other way around when I use a whitetail buck to mule does all seem to get PG. Guess the mule deer bucks just have more class. LOL Actually it's just that the mule deer bucks don't chase as hard as whitetail bucks.

Jack, will a mule deer buck live breed whitetail does?? I heard they more then likely won't. I've heard a whitetail buck will. We tried the whitetail on 2 mule deer does and he wouldn't have anything to do with either of them, they both ended up being open, he bred all the whitetail does but not the mule deer. This is why I was going to try the Ai on the whitetail does This is the buck we will be drawing.


Thanks


Cody

Cody,


There are whitetail and mule deer bucks that just will not cross.  I have found if I raised them up together as fawns they will cross breed.  When I try to make them cross I will only put in one species of deer so he has no choice.  I also put them together in September so they are very used to each other.  That seems to work.  Bottle babies raised together cross very well.


Ben sent a picture of 91 over he is a very nice buck looks to be just a little over 200 SCI.  I would think it would be better to AI him to whitetail because I 'm assuming he has not run with whitetail so his interest would not be in whitetail.

Jack and Cody, this thread is awesome with the info you shared. I may never have a chance to work with mule deer, but I still find it fascinating to learn about them. Thanks for the info you've shared from your experiences.

Matt, I'll let you know how we make out on the deal! I really want to get my stacked whitetail does crossed with the mule deer and then like Jack says, breed the cross back to straight mule deer for the muley look. Hopefully the antler size of the whitetails will get passed along and create some Giant muleys. The way the predators(mt lions, coyotes, wolves and unlimited people with a suitcase full of antlerless tags) have taken over the west and Midwest, muleys are vanishing at an alarming rate along with the whitetails and pronghorn antelope. I have a few herds of pronghorns around my place and out of about 100 does, only about a dozen fawns have survived this spring and summer due to the coyote numbers. Our coyote numbers are up at least 8-10 times what they were 10 years ago. I live just on the outside of town and just last night I had a pack of coyotes barking at my deer less then 100 yards from my bedroom window. If they weren't on the other side of the trees I'd have been shooting. I watched 2 coyotes take down and eat alive an adult doe with 2 buck fawns still inside her belly in the middle of the day June 3 this year. It really made me realize just how big of a problem they are these days. The reason we've had smaller coyote numbers a few years back is because we had almost a decade of mange keeping the numbers at bay.  

Cody, sounds like you need that mange to come back stronger than ever! One of our farm dogs took out a fox that was ridden with mange this spring. 2 weeks later he was at the vet getting treated for it, he had lost all his hair on the bottom of his brisket and belly, it's some nasty stuff, but it's natures way of population control. It will eventually come back in your area. One thing I have heard, never shoot the ones with mange, let them live and spread the bugs to others, plus for all the damage they do it's hard to justify ending their suffering with a bullet anyway.

Matt. I'll have to disagree. No matter what an animal may have done, it doesn't deserve to suffer I know we all get mad and upset about things that coyotes or dogs might do, but remember. They are just trying to survive. I can't stand cats..... hate them. But i did stop a couple days ago to put one of its misery hit along the road..

Cody,

Tried sending you message on here but said you can't get any new messages?

Can you get me you email I have a few questions.

Thanks


[email protected]

724-699-0187

Jens, I will empty my mailbox, thanks! I will try calling you today. Watch for area code 605.


Cody