i met a guy on vacation that showed me some pics on his cell phone of a deer breeding farm, so rich guys can put trophy deer into there herd and hope that the gene pool improves, or outright shoot them for bragging rights as some bad apples do. well anyway he told me that the deer are feed alot of minerals including some type of steroids for antler growth, can this be true....? should p/y and b/c deer be tested for steroids ? money is the root of all evil even in deer hunting.
Check out the bucks on this breeder's farm.http://www.rdmwildbunch.com/breeders/rdm-goliath.htm Not saying they are genetically enhanced, but they are certainly 'above average'.
I know of several deer farm operations and know a couple of deer farmers and none of the ones I know use any kind of steroids on their deer. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but these guys are pretty open about how they get their deer big (and who buys from them, you'd be shocked ) so if they were using steroids I'm pretty sure they would say so. Most of the deer get that big from line breeding and yes they are fed the best of the best to promote antler development.
the deer this guy showed me in the pics were 200'' class bucks, and young from over in ill. since no one cares if a deer is on steroids and it makes huge bucks and horns ... and there is mega dollars involved my guess is yes there is something going on. how should this affect b/c or p/y record book and how should or could it be tested ?
Every deer raised at a deer farm is registered and tagged either with an ear tag or one of those chips like they use in pets. These deer are not able to be registered in B&C or P&Y while in captivity. Therefore if they are shot in a high-fence operation they are ineligible. Considering these animals command price tags that are sometimes upwards of $10K most are shot behind a fence. http://www.pope-young.org/bowhunting_fairchase.asp http://www.boone-crockett.org/bgRecords/records_policies.asp?area=bgRecords#zoo However, if someone did purchase one of these animals and let them go, they become free-ranging. Whether or not they could be entered, I'm not sure. I would bet there would be a board ruling on it that would prevent it from happening. Plus, who is going to let $10K go running free and hope they get a shot at it? BTW, line raised deer can reach over 200" by 2.5 with no steroids easy if they have the right genetics. A guy I know had an opportunity to buy a 160" 1.5 year old for $1500 not too long ago.
My guess would be the same reasons that cattle, pigs, chickens, etc. get fed 'steroids'. To make them bigger.... I meean, if they are charging someone top dollar for one of these deer, won't the thought process be that they can get even that much more if you have a 250#+ deer with a 200" rack? Bigger is better, right??? Whether or not they pass on the body size, I would think that it still would most likely bring bigger dollars if it has the bigger body. That would be my 2 cents as to why they would feed them growth hormone. To get bigger bodies faster. So they can charge more for them, and make more $$.... Not exactly my cup of tea to either buy or sell them, much less to genetically enhance them, but to each his own.
