BRC Fallow Deer is a Kansas deer farm. The Deer Wife blog at brcdeer.com details our journey of starting our fallow deer farm and all the joy and challenges we have encountered along the way. This RU-vid channel also highlights our journey with the videos created for the blog.
I summarize the artificial insemination process like this, please see if it is correct: day 0: place CIRD day 14: remove CIRD and inject 0.1cc pmsg after 65 hours from the time of removing CIRD, start artificial insemination
After watching your video, I have a few questions: 1. How long do you keep the CIRD device in place before removing it and proceeding with artificial insemination? 2. After removing the CIRD, do you administer any hormones? 3. How can I confirm if the deer is pregnant after the insemination process? 4. Could you please share the results of your artificial insemination efforts? Specifically, how many deer became pregnant, and what was the success rate? Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your response.
Thanks for the questions. So we left cidrs in for 15 days. 14 is fine, we did 15 to line up with our ai date/time. The timing after cidr removal is very important, much more so than the exact time the cidr is in. We try to inseminate 66-68 hours after cidr removal/pmsg. There is no good way to confirm pregnancy. There have been attempts to do this, but working the does in the first trimester causes a high rate of aborts. We achieved 70% success with our AI this year! This is very high for a first time with fallow. Many farms did less than 40% this year. There are several factors that contributed to our success.
After watching your video, I have a few questions: 1. How long do you keep the CIRD device in place before removing it and proceeding with artificial insemination? 2. After removing the CIRD, do you administer any hormones? 3. How can I confirm if the deer is pregnant after the insemination process? 4. Could you please share the results of your artificial insemination efforts? Specifically, how many deer became pregnant, and what was the success rate? Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your response.
Thank for the questions. So we left cidrs in for 15 days. 14 is fine, we did 15 to line up with our ai date/time. The timing after cidr removal is very important, much more so than the exact time the cidr is in. We try to inseminate 66-68 hours after cidr removal/pmsg. There is no good way to confirm pregnancy. There have been attempts to do this, but working the does in the first trimester causes a high rate of aborts. We achieved 70% success with our AI this year! This is very high for a first time with fallow. Many farms did less than 40% this year. There are several factors that contributed to our success.
Smallest is .8 acres, largest is 1.25. Per acre is tough. We’ve had as high as 10 does/acre, but we also feed alfalfa hay. Could have more per acre if you wanted to buy more feed, but we like to keep grass under their feet.
Looks pretty good! I love bologna, but theres only one kind i really like..ever heard of cloth bologna? I grew up on the stuff, and there's none better! Its made here in VA, although theres only one place i can find it these days (Gayle's Quick Stop in Grottoes, for anyone wondering). Its made with higher quality ingredients than traditional bologna, but its also wrapped in a breathable cloth instead of plastic casing. They must keep the recipe and specific methods of preparing it under tight lock and key because its quite difficult to find a lot of information on it, and most references are about something totally different.
Works great until someone steps on it and in the attic breaks a leg and fire rescue had to help them. There’s a reason for that engineering and inspections.
Thanks for the comment. I’ve spent my life building things like this, I think it’ll be fine. The world needs folks with more personal responsibility rather than constant oversight.
If it makes you feel any better, it’s summer/winter clothes, totes of gardening supplies, and totes of honey bottling supplies and equipment. But otherwise…..you’re right, we’re wrong. You win, we lose….whatever else you’d like to hear.
Im a big BBQ sauce person. Not crazy about the buffalo flavor. I've had tame rabbit before, but I coated mine in flour before frying. Hope to see some deer recipes soon. Do you guys eat the deer from your own herds?
We have also breaded before frying. This is more like a traditional wings recipe, rather than like a boneless wings type of thing. I actually am not a huge buffalo flavor fan either. I used honey barbecue on the second batch. As far as the deer, we have not eaten any of them yet, but we will when the time comes. There is another Kansas fallow deer farm, not too far away, that sells meat, and they are very successful.
I know this is a dumb question. You guys raise these for meat correct? Where do you sell the venison? Fallow Deer, do these have the same taste as wild Whitetail deer? Very interesting business. Good luck going forward.🙂
No dumb questions! A big part of us putting up these videos is to answer peoples' questions. So, we don't sell the meat directly. Right now there is a very strong market for breeding stock. There is also a robust market for bucks to be stocked on large hunting ranches. There is a market for venison, but we haven't sold meat yet. I think the Fallow is similar to whitetail. They have more fat on them. But, like most venison, it's so dependent on how you cook it. Thanks for watching
i know nothing about deer. I do want to ask about the chute you use though. I understand why it's covered and all, to stop them jumping out. But why is the press so complicated? I would have thought something similar to a sheep squeeze would work a little better then this. Or is there something about Deer that makes this style better?
Great question. First of all, the wide black side doors are designed to allow antlered bucks to fit in the chute. That would be the biggest issue with using a sheep chute. This particular chute is about the 8th version of the “deer handler” it’s been purpose built for deer and is very well designed. The way the chute restrains the deer is, once they run in, we drop the floor out from under them, so their legs can’t touch the ground and jump or run. It cradles them in kind of a V shape. It doesn’t clamp down on their body or neck. Also, the entire chute is enclosed because the deer won’t walk in if they see a person standing next to it. In fact we had to tape up the gaps between the boxes because the deer would see us, and wouldn’t move forward. Thanks for watching!
I've taken to cutting the whole shoulder down in to drink can size chunks and slow cooking the whole lot in a pot. Stews, curries etc. I don't do any trimming. Comes out great!
I used to do a lot of ground jerky, but anymore I do whole muscle from the hind quarter. Once you eat some tacos or pulled and barbecued meat from the front shoulder.... you won't want to grind it anymore.
Not many people live this life in this Country any longer. I'm a retired DAV and I'm very disappointed when I see videos of the young people the schools and colleges are producing these days. Your Son shows more maturity and focus than many twice and even three times his age. You should be very proud of that little man! Just found your channel and I'm glad I did. Keep this alive, you are the future.😎
I grew up this way, so for me it’s second nature. But you’re right, it’s a dying lifestyle in many places. I’m amazed at some of the kids who are nearing college age who can’t even drive a car, and have little desire to. It’s just a different world. Thanks for watching our video, and stick around to see more!
Absolutely, cook those shanks in the crock pot. I toss a couple in with a quart of beef broth, packet of onion soup mix, 2 cloves of garlic, plus whatever root vegetables I have on hand. 10 hours later...good to go!
How is some one gonna watch this and think this is good advice? Watch the bearded butchers deer butchering, for the love of God. Watch professionals and learn
I do the same things with my front quarters. Whole shanks, "blade roasts", etc. Whole pieces... I started out with the same Meat Eater recipe. It's great but is a lot of work. I wound up browning them, coating in Montreal Steak seasoning, adding a can of Miller Lite and slow cooking them in the crock pot. Pulls and tastes great. Then I make gravy from the crockpot juices. I keep all the silver skin and unwanted trimmings and grind them up for dog food.
