What should we tell them ?

I think you need to figure out what part of the business you are trying to promote the most. I wouldnt mix bottle feeding with telling people about stocker bucks. People cant get it that only doe are bottle fed they get this idea that tame bucks are stocked. I would either do only breeding info or all about growing stockers and hunting perserves, I wouldnt mix the two just for the sake of people that cant think with common sense

I would stay focused on the hunting end of the industry. As that is the end market and that is were we need the support. Bringing new breeders in the industry will only flood the market more and drive shooter and hunt prices down. We need new hunters not new farmers Just my two cents.

I agree with Jared and Virgil, I think hunting preserves should be you focus, being that it is a sports show. I think it is important to speak on the benefits of high fence, quality animals that are far superior to wild specimens, quantity, your going to see deer even in inclement weather, and the peace, no crowded opening day woods. If your talking one on one with a guy thats undecided on hunting high fence, ask him to break down the cost he puts into hunting wild deer, his gas, clothes, gadgets, and most importantly the time he takes off work, all for MAYBE a shot at a barely legal buck, they could save some money and shoot a 140" and not have to take vacation for all of hunting season, That always get someone thinking. You probably are going to have most people ask why you raise deer, so you will get alot of chance to promote high fence, but there will be those that might consider farming them, that is where it is nice to show off your mounts and sheds and talk genetics a little. You said you will have pics of the farm and bottlefeeding at the farm, that is great, should get lots of peoples attention, the only thing you have to watch there is, as Jared mentioned, is that you make it clear the preserves and bottlefeeding dont mix, weather or not you ever sold bottlefeds to preserves, you want to make sure everyone at the show has no reason to suspect a bottlefed would EVER end up in a preserve. Wanye, Thank you in advance for the time you are taking to promote our idustry. have fun

I would have a drawing for a free hunt for (2) 130 to 140" buck.



Have a big banner stating Free Whitetail Deer Hunt Register Here







Tell them that you will contact the winner by email the day following the event;



Have them fill in info on a card like:





Name:

Address:

Email:

Phone Number(optional):

Interested in: Deer farming or Hunting



Now you will have a great email list to use as a marketing tool.



Email all the people that filled out the cards that didn't win offering them a discount on a hunt (like 10% on the first hunt and or 25% on booking two or more).



You can update those interested in hunting on hunt specials and update those interested in farming on future sales.



Nothing will get more people to your booth like a free give away!!!!

We had a drawing for the free buck hunt at the Michigan Hunt Time Expo in Grand Rapids, MI last week. We had a booth and offered a free management buck hunt. We had forms that asked for:



Name

Address

Phone

Email



IT WORKED GREAT!!! We drew the name(s) today and she was SO excited!! We had a lot of people that walked up and asked about our ranch. Once they found out that it was fenced a lot of the attitudes changed. However...that did not stop them from signing up for a free hunt...go figure!



The free hunt definitely helped us get people to our booth! We had a lot of fun discussing our ranch and the animals offered (whitetail, elk & buffalo) & of course, talking to the "fair chase" hunters. We really enjoyed when they would show interest just until they found out that our property was fenced...then down went the brochure with a comment like "Oh, I'm not interested in that type of a hunt!" or "No thank you! I didn't realize you were a fenced ranch. I only hunt fair chase" and see them walk away in a huff! Then, to see them return not more than 5 minutes later to sign up for the free hunt! Believe it or not, this happened EVERY time if someone walked away saying they didn't hunt fenced property!



I have to admit that it was SO much fun making that phone call to our winner, not to mention that our winner was a woman! I am a little impartial due to the fact that I too am a woman hunter, but I am a firm believer, regardless of my ***, that we really need to get the girls out there to chuck some sticks or make some noise! Just to show that we can hunt just as well as you boys!!! (And no, I was NOT the one who drew the names! My husband was.)



The email database was of course our main factor. There were a few other things that we noticed would help benefit us too. One of those benefits was the fact that once a person comes for their free hunt they could also upgrade to a larger buck. The winner will receive the free buck hunt as well as the free guide service and free use of any weapons that they may want to hunt with, which includes the typical gun, bow or crossbow. We also offered free lodging, free meals & free transportation for the winner and one other person. We offered to give 10% off the price of the hunt for the accompanying guest if they choose to partake in a hunt as well.



We are also going to be offering a free management buck hunt when we set up our booth at the Northwest Sports Show in Minneapolis, MN. We will be doing a lot more advertising for this show, since we are only 4 hours away from the Minneapolis area, stating that we will be offering a chance to win a free buck hunt. We will be putting it on our website, as well as Facebook & Twitter, of course. We also noticed that if you let the expo managers know that you are offering a free hunt, they will advertise as well to try and get more people to the expo.



We also decided to draw 2 other names for 2nd and 3rd place winners and we plan on offering the 2nd place winner 50% off a management buck hunt & 25% off the same for the third place winner. We are still deciding if that is a fair offer or not but we will be deciding soon and then notifying those 2nd and 3rd place winners. We are a little worried about whether or not we are giving too much away but we figure if we can get some people here that are actually opposed to fenced hunting then it will be 100% worth our while. Our hope is to show them that it is just as challenging to hunt on our fenced property than it is to hunt "fair chase". Only difference is, is they are more likely to get an animal, it is safer, they can hunt from Sept to Jan and you don't have to deal with the crowds that comes out during the normal hunting seasons. The only problem we have found is that there is no way of knowing, that we can figure out anyway, if the person(s) drawn are apposed to fenced hunting or not.

This is great just imagine if every one with a hunting ranch did this. This would expose so many more hunters to high fence hunting and maybe change a lot of peoples veiws on high fence hunting.

One thing you may want to do is ask the people when filling out their ticket if they have ever hunted high fence and have a little box to check. So you know weather or not they have ever hunted high fence when doing the drawing.