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What to raise...whitetail or mule deer

R&J Whitetails

R&J Whitetails

Joined Jan 2013
286 Posts | 0+
Cando, ND
I like to start a little operation but not sure where to start. I have about 8-10 acres I'm planing on using and I've been trying to call people around here for advice and no one answers or calls me back. I did get a hold of of the president of the North Dakota elk farmers and he peeked my interest in one thing, he said grow mule deer. Not many people around here grow them and he said there's good money in them but its hard to keep them from fighting and killing themselves and hard to keep the coyotes away from them. (That's what fly bait is for. hehe). Could I get some opinions on raising whitetail or mule deer. What's your experience
 
I LOVE my Whitetails..........................But.........................Mule Deer and the Lack of market saturation and "Hype" have got my interest as well!
 
I kinda think if I end up doing something I'm going to get a few mules as well and see what happens
 
I would love to have a muley, but not here in the east. If I were you I would have mule deer, at least a couple, being that you are in a perfect climate for them. But then again, I couldn't have a deer farm and not have whitetails, there is just to much variety with whitetail racks that you don't see as much with mule deer racks. You could always do a couple pens and raise a few of each, that would probably be what I would do if I had my farm in North Dakota.
 
I will always raise both whitetail and mule deer. The difference in them is like night and day. Examples are drop a bucket of grain in the pen with whitetails and they are long gone in the other end of the pen. Drop that same bucket in the mule deer pen and they look at you as if saying God your a clutz pick it up and put it in the feed trough already. If you bottle feed a mule deer it will always come up and lick your hand and ask for petting or feed treats. That hasn't been my experience with whitetail. Fact is very few of my whitetail want petting after a few years. You would have no trouble raising mule deer in ND. Also the fact is mule deer breeders have no real competion for sales if you have good ones they sell for good money if you have grade quality mule deer they still sell well. I'm sold out of mule deer till my 2014 fawns are here myself. Mule deer have been one of my best investments. Just my two cents on this.
 
Jack said:
I will always raise both whitetail and mule deer. The difference in them is like night and day. Examples are drop a bucket of grain in the pen with whitetails and they are long gone in the other end of the pen. Drop that same bucket in the mule deer pen and they look at you as if saying God your a clutz pick it up and put it in the feed trough already. If you bottle feed a mule deer it will always come up and lick your hand and ask for petting or feed treats. That hasn't been my experience with whitetail. Fact is very few of my whitetail want petting after a few years. You would have no trouble raising mule deer in ND. Also the fact is mule deer breeders have no real competion for sales if you have good ones they sell for good money if you have grade quality mule deer they still sell well. I'm sold out of mule deer till my 2014 fawns are here myself. Mule deer have been one of my best investments. Just my two cents on this.
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Why would there only be one person in North Dakota that raises them??? And he's selling out cuz he's almost 70yrs old
 
400CLUB said:
Does anyone know who has mule deer for sale?
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Here you go. I just talked to him 2days ago his name is Ernie mau and he's sell all of them I think he said. 701-386-2271. Your welcome :)
 
ndwhitetails said:
Here you go. I just talked to him 2days ago his name is Ernie mau and he's sell all of them I think he said. 701-386-2271. Your welcome :)
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Thank you!
 
Just remember, either way you go, you need to make sure your genetics will produce quality shooters at a younger age, poor genetics won't get you anywhere. Most people come to a high fence hunt for a quality animal, they can go anywhere for free and shoot a 3x3 or 4x4 mule deer or whitetail. So basically if you have 3yr. old bucks that are 4x4 or less, your not going to get much $$$ for em, most likely won't even cover your feed costs.
 
sdbigbucks is exactly right. Sure all mule deer will sell but if your not treating them like the whitetail with the biggest buck semen you can put in them using AI you wouldn't get the money you put in them when sold for harvest animals. Mule deer on high fence farms haven't been bred for quality on most farms raising them. Reason is there isn't very many good quality bucks out there yet alone semen from good bucks.

I have been using post mortem semen which I have collected from bucks which were over 200 inches for the last fifteen years. We are now using bucks from 230 to 280. Bucks of this quality is like whitetail breeders using Maxbo. Mule deer breeders are at least ten years behind whitetail breeders in the production of good quality stock. Most of the mule deer breeders can only produce 150 to 180 inch bucks which is not good enough for the harvest market. Breeders of mule deer have to get on the ball and start using quality semen to produce their stock or they will always have low end breeding stock.
 
Here in Montana they usually start in June. I have had a doe deliver on May 19th.
 
Jack said:
Here in Montana they usually start in June. I have had a doe deliver on May 19th.
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So let me ask this. If I'm busy in the field during the time of birth which I usually am would it be fine to leave them alone till I get home late that night or early morning before I did anything with them? Sorry if that's a stupid question just want to figure out how to juggle this
 
Deer are a great masterpeice of nature. Fact is we as care takers screw up more fawns with our help. If the does are going to keep their fawn and your not bottle raising them it is best to leave them with the does without all our help.

Just the other day we were ditching for flood irrigation and jumped a doe up right after she had just had her fawn. She didn't have time to bond so the baby was ours. It was that easy to break the mothering ability of that doe. So the answer is yes that would be fine.
 
Jack said:
Here in Montana they usually start in June. I have had a doe deliver on May 19th.
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Jack said:
Deer are a great masterpeice of nature. Fact is we as care takers screw up more fawns with our help. If the does are going to keep their fawn and your not bottle raising them it is best to leave them with the does without all our help.

Just the other day we were ditching for flood irrigation and jumped a doe up right after she had just had her fawn. She didn't have time to bond so the baby was ours. It was that easy to break the mothering ability of that doe. So the answer is yes that would be fine.
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Oh good I was a little worried I wast going to have time for them. Thanks
 
So what do you do in the winter when there's a lot of snow in the alleys and pens? Blow them out?
 
Yes I guess that is what you would do. I live in a chinook zone so all I do is wait a few days and it's gone.
 
That doesn't sound like much fun lol. Does anyone have shelters set up to protect them from the cold wind. That is if u live were its cold
 
Funny you should ask that. I have left my deer to the weather for twenty five years and this spring I made sheds 12 x 14 feet. They sure use them when it's windy or raining so yes they are a good thing to have.
 

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