Age plays a fairly large role in trophy whitetail production. It is known that allowing a white-tailed deer to mature gives them the greatest opportunity to maximize antler growth and body size. The question often asked is, why is this? Bucks are in the process of growing and developing their body structure, therefore calories are prioritized to those areas, not to antler growth. In addition, through these early years, young bucks will be “pushed out” or dispersed by their mother and thus moving quite frequently in an effort to establish a new home range. Considering these events of their early years, bucks face the daily stress of potential predation (internally and externally), perhaps less access to quality nutrition and frequent movement, all of which impact their physical well-being. As stated earlier, antlers are secondary sexual characteristics….they receive the “leftovers” of antler building materials from the body, once the body is taken care of.

This is why, as deer managers, we try to manage the age structure of the buck portion of our deer herd to ensure we have healthy numbers of mature deer. At maturity, bucks have an established home range – thus they have fewer factors working against them that would inhibit maximum antler growth. This is the time in a buck’s life that they can begin to efficiently maximize the quality and quantity of nutrition that is available to them and allocate more resources (calcium, protein, fats, etc.) to antler growth. What does it take to produce trophy whitetails? The foundation is the right genetics. From the right genetic foundation, the structure has the opportunity to achieve its genetic potential upon reaching maturity. The potential growth is now only limited by nutrition. In the case of Briarwood, having the perfect balance in herd dynamics coupled with a pristine habitat and access to quality food sources, deer are allowed to express their full genetic potential!