Just my questions and thoughts.

The reason I'm asking questions is because we are buying a yearling off of Rocky Ridge Whitetails! If he looks nice and is big enough I would like to market him and maybe sell some semen. I was thinking of selling the straws based on how many does you want to breed with it. Example one deer would cost 500 two would cost 900 and three 1200. The reason I was considering this is because for myself sometimes I would like to breed just one deer to a certain buck. Let me know the pro's and con's of this. Thanks Darin Witmer. 717-599-8168

Darin my advice would be to let the buck market himself IF he has enough pedigree and look to be able to do that. Its very hard to hit a homerun like that in this business we love. You will learn very fast the way's of the deer business. Like i said before i believe if you think stockers you will do much better. If your buck you buy gets huge then people will know in due time. You see some of the great bucks on the exchange that get a couple hundred bucks bid on them and you see some great ones that get no bids. It can be done and we all keep trying to hit that homerun but after what i have seen in my 3 short years...Dont think auctions and semen sales...Get your buck,Get some good does,Make some stockers and make a few dollars..



PS..Dont forget to have fun and enjoy yourself with these great animals!!!

Whitetail sanctuary, you hint at the answer, instead of hinting why don 't you just give Darin the answer, in fact, I will give you the perfect lead on! Price-fixing, ok, whitetail sanctuary I will let you expound on the "rest of the story"!

Guys the Industry has been this way for a long....long.....long time.......the large farms with the well known names will and do sell their animals for more........their animal may have the same genetics as yours and sell for two or three times more.....the reason is simple.......Their Name! When we go buy a pair of shoes....a lot of us may find a shoe of the same quality as the Nike pair on the shelf that cost two or three times more and what do a lot of us end up doing? we buy the Nike because of the Name.....there is no difference with what you guys are talking about ........it's our nature.......the farms that are selling their deer for high dollar have paid the piper so to speak to get their name out there....the only way it will happen for you is by ......a lot of hard work....good marketing and top genetics.......and yes it will take money to make money......it can be done......but unless you are awfully lucky and have a buck born on your farm that has a certain look everyone is looking for ie. X Factor........it's going to take the things I mentioned above to set you apart from the rest......and quite frankly that's the way it should work....just my opinion.

I dont think I will hit a homerun however I believe you have to market your deer. There are lots of nice deer out there and some we know very little about because they have never been advertised.

Dennis you are dead on!!!

Let the deer market himself???? Of course YOU have to market YOUR deer, this is how the successful people in ANY buisiness GET more buisiness. If you think letting the buck lay back in the pen is going to make you sales, you better take a course on buisiness or better yet a course in the "real world" of buisiness. It's pretty hard for a deer that nobody knows about to become known and in demand. Dennis said it exactly right, the bigger name farms that sell animals for more money are more successful because they put the extra time, money, deer investment and effort into there buisiness. You can sit back and do nothing and whine because you don't have a big name and can't sell your deer or you can go try and make one for yourself. It's really easy, all it takes is time, money, reputation, great deer, great pedigrees, advertising, more money, promotion and years worth of knowledge of pedigrees that other people believe in. A 400 inch buck that nobody has ever heard of is known as a shooter, and that's probably all he will be worth and thats IF you even spend the time marketing the buck to the guys looking for shooters.... Nobody is going to come knock on your door asking if you have any expensive deer they can buy, not in this day and age.

sdbigbucks said:

Let the deer market himself???? Of course YOU have to market YOUR deer, this is how the successful people in ANY buisiness GET more buisiness. If you think letting the buck lay back in the pen is going to make you sales, you better take a course on buisiness or better yet a course in the "real world" of buisiness. It's pretty hard for a deer that nobody knows about to become known and in demand. Dennis said it exactly right, the bigger name farms that sell animals for more money are more successful because they put the extra time, money, deer investment and effort into there buisiness. You can sit back and do nothing and whine because you don't have a big name and can't sell your deer or you can go try and make one for yourself. It's really easy, all it takes is time, money, reputation, great deer, great pedigrees, advertising, more money, promotion and years worth of knowledge of pedigrees that other people believe in. A 400 inch buck that nobody has ever heard of is known as a shooter, and that's probably all he will be worth and thats IF you even spend the time marketing the buck to the guys looking for shooters.... Nobody is going to come knock on your door asking if you have any expensive deer they can buy, not in this day and age.

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How right you are!!! Or you can go out and spend over 50grand at some of the top farms in the business and buy their deer because they are top stuff and then mail in your consignments with one or two of those great deer and then listen to the phone call that says your deer didnt make the cut, Only to get the sales catalog to see that the very farms you bought deer from have the same exact deer in the sale that you got shot down for. I guess if it was 100grand things might have been different. Who Knows!!!

The deer world is littered with the empty checkbooks of those who "marketed" the next big thing only to find out thier deer lost thier value.......Quicker than a new automobile when the pulled out the gate!

I agree, 98% of the people who think they are going to jump into the deer breeder biz and make a bunch of money are going to be left with an empty checkbook. Any buisiness takes TIME and usually lots of money to become successfull, a good reputation takes more time and building a good clientel also takes years. For someone to think they can go buy an over priced deer from one of the "big farms" and actually make money off that deer and then expect to become the next big name is probably dreaming. Chances are if the farm you bought it from thought they could make more money by keeping it, they probably would and that's even after having years of marketing behind them. If Dan buys a deer from Rocky Ridge, he's got a good chance of that deer being good enough to market IF it blows up into the look people want and people want the gentics behind the buck. Rocky Ridge is a prime example of effective marketing, they have effective advertising, a website with all the deers pics and pedigrees that are easy to read thru and some of the most stacked deer in the biz to go along with a reputation of CONSISTANTLY raising big bucks and it didn't happen over night I'm sure. I've never bought anything from them but I sure wouldn't be afraid to. I'm not going to buy a deer for $50,000 that's going to return me $30,000 either, but that's just me. I'm sure this is why Dan is thinking of buying a yearling buck from them, they market there deer and more people know that Rocky Ridge knows how to breed deer, this gives Dan a jump right out of the gate. Look what Sudden Explosion has done for Jim Warren who also bought him from Rocky Ridge. I noticed that buck as a 2 yr old before Jim bought him because I liked his look and pedigree because somewhere I came across Rocky Ridges website(marketing). Jim knows his deer's pedigree and look is what people are after, he promotes the buck and has been selling semen for a pretty good price as far as semen sales are these days and then gets to use the deer on his own does. Just guessing but I'd say he's going to do alright with that buck which is what we all want. I think this is what Dan was wanting to know in the first place but you STILL have to market your deer. Posting pictures of your growing bucks and offers of deer for sale on the forums is a cost effective marketing tool and even though it's free, its still marketing.

You mean the you would be buying their culls.

Wikipedia. INBREEDING first 3 sentences

Marketing is key and important and a lot of folks market their deer through the auctions. We stopped doing auctions several years ago for many of the reasons mentioned here. Also we don't believe they are an accurate reflection of any deer's worth. Way too many things can be manipulated.



We will continue marketing our deer through our TV show, these forums and some of the magazines.