Mule Deer?

I was discussing deer farming with an individual who is pretty well known in the hunting industry and he raises deer as well.



His suggestion for new people starting out was to look into Mule Deer as opposed to White Tail. He thought the long-term market looked better for the Mule Deer for new breeders. He thought the Whitetail market might be harder to break into, not that the Whitetail market was going to be bad.



Any thoughts on this?

I think he may be right but I love raising them big whitetails.

Go with where your passion is................Got to love what your raising or you won't be happy!!

You guys all know my thoughts on this. I think the mule deer market is wide open. Harvest facilities want mule deer. But Dennis is right raise what makes you happy.



Pros and cons

Mule deer are harder to raise than whitetail. Mule deer are much calmer than whitetail and don't seem to kill themselves running into the fence.

Mule deer don't like humidity or standing water, whitetail can take some of this.

Mule deer have digestive problems as they like brush to eat.



Most of you know I raise both whitetail and mule deer. I love them both. I will be breeding 20 whitetail does to mule deer this year as I think there is a market for these hybrids when I reach 75% mule deer genetics in them. Time will tell if these hybrids will do better back East compared to pure mule deer. Finding a market for any animal is part of this business. Any livestock has to make the producer money even if it is just to pay the feed bill.