Vice-President's Message and Newsletter October 2019
ILDFA members,
Fall
greetings! Breeding and hunting season are upon us (whether we like it or
not). A busy time of year for all! My son, wife and several
volunteer students from the UI veterinary school helped me run my does through
the other night and put CIDRs in. It was good to have the extra
help! Now I have to confirm doe list, genetics, semen list and make sure
everything else is in order for the big day. For those of you who
attended Rusty’s picnic and won a straw of semen, please double check with me
and we’ll make sure the semen is transferred to you. I had a wonderful
note taker that day but I don’t have last names or mailing addresses, phone
numbers etc.!!
Speaking
of breeding season, I don’t want this to come off as a commercial, but I feel
that this will help all Illinois (and for that matter all deer farmers).
As some of you may know (and a few tried it out a couple of years ago) I have
been working on a feed ingredient that alters the sex ratio of fawns to
approximately a 70% buck: 30% doe ration. It has worked on my farm for
the last 5 years and I am working with Dr. Rick Balsbaugh (retired ADM
Nutrition) to try and make and sell the product. We’ve gotten a late
start for this year and have a slower manufacturing process than we’d like, but
are trying to get product out to different areas of the country to show that
it’ll work in TX, IN, IA, MO etc. and gather enough data to see if it’s
statistically significant. We will have a graduate student from the
University of Illinois gathering data this spring so we will know how it
works on a larger scale way before next fall. It looks like we may have
some extra product to use here in IL (we already have a few farms trying it) so
if you are interested, please contact me. It’s not very expensive (about
$16 dollars per doe) and even less if you count the feed that is replaced by
the product. Recommendations are to start feeding about 20 or so days
prior to breeding (so now) and run for 30 days or so post breeding (this
catches the backups and 2nd rutters and most doe fawns that are
breeding this year. We can arrange shipment if you can’t make it to
Arthur to pick it up. Real World Wildlife Products is helping us
distribute product and ship.
Next
subject! Annual meeting will be January 18th at the University
of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine as we did years ago. A
complete agenda will go out in a month or so, but will include speaker(s),
elections and our annual (late!) fundraiser auction. As always, we will
be looking for items/donations for the auction. Rusty Karr is
coordinating that committee. So if you have questions give him a call,
email or text!
We
are still in search of donations to help us make it fiscally until our annual
meeting. I know some of you have cashed your checks from buck sales (and
other) and we would appreciate anything that you can do for the organization to
keep us solvent. Send a check today to Chet! He’ll appreciate it!
Last,
NADeFA (North American Deer Farmers) annual meeting will be held in French Lick,
Indiana this year from March 25th to 28th. It
will most likely never be closer, French Lick is a beautiful venue and not very
expensive (if you stay out of the casino)!
Sincerely,
Doc
PS…
check your dates for TB, Brucellosis certification and validation… several
people have asked, still have to test as far as I know every three (3) years…
