Episode #149 Frigid Temps and Deer… Merry Christmas 2022!

Published: 2022-12-25
Episode page
Duration: 70 min

In this episode

cattle-pasture

• Terry advises hunters to locate and manipulate fence crossings on old grown-up cattle pastures to direct deer travel between access points. 41:39

christmas-song

• Terry says his favorite Christmas song, performed by David Phelps, who he calls the best solo singer of all time, will close the show. 57:31

closing-segment

• Terry announces listener Devin Hurley, minister at the Antioch Church of Christ, will stay on to read Luke chapter two to close the podcast. 57:57

cold-weather

• Terry asks what deer are going through in the bitter cold, comparing it to cattle he saw bunched up out of the wind. 5:27

cold-weather-hunting

• Don recalls having ice freeze to his beard and mustache while hunting brutal cold in the past and says he’d gladly do it again. 4:31

cover-diversity

• Don says diversity of both food and cover is huge for setting a property apart from neighboring land. 15:06
• Terry asks whether small cedars and pines also provide beneficial cover diversity for deer during severe cold and high winds. 13:45

deer-metabolism

• Terry asks how deer burning fat versus digesting food affects overall herd health during extreme cold. 15:41

dnr

• Don recalls previously criticizing the DNR because the statewide deer herd was down and nothing was being done, but says that’s no longer the case. 51:03

doe-culling

• Research cited by Don shows fawn survival is better with an older doe as a mother than with a younger doe. 56:12
• Garrett asks Don’s thoughts on culling does based on age, citing a theory that older does won’t let small bucks breed them. 52:08

doe-harvest

• Paul asks whether Don still believes the deer herd remains below pre-EHD levels and whether he’s now shooting does on his own farm or for landowners. 44:15

elderly-care

• Terry asks listeners to check on elderly neighbors during the extreme cold, knocking on their door given the risk of burst pipes. 56:55

elevated-blinds

• Terry explains they built elevated enclosed blinds because sitting in a tree stand during miserable late-season cold is unbearable in the elements. 3:59

family-priorities

• Don urges younger listeners to prioritize family, noting family events are so important because you never know if it’s the last time you’ll see someone. 26:45
• Don says he admires how Terry, whose kids are still in school, prioritizes attending band events and coaching his daughters’ softball. 28:40

farm-renovation

• Terry says he’s excited to watch Don take his already exceptional home farm, which he compares to a deer hunting graceland, to the next level. 23:32
• Don plans to make his home farm property twice as good as it is today once the renovation is complete. 24:42

guest-introduction

• Terry introduces guest Devin Hurley as a local pastor at the Antioch Church of Christ in Grant County, Kentucky, near the ARC. 59:18

herbicide

• Don recommends pre-emergent herbicides like Resicor, which he used last year, or the newer TriVolt, applied at corn planting to avoid ever needing to spray again. 46:37

high-oil-corn

• Paul asks Don to explain the difference between Real World’s high-oil corn and Tony LaPratt’s similar Roundup Ready high-oil corn. 42:57

hunting-ethics

• Don says he’ll only sit a tree stand in brutal, howling-wind cold if a giant buck is involved, not just to shoot a doe or a cull buck. 4:37

kids-hunting

• Don says he advised a young father not to hold back taking his kids into the hunting sanctuary for things like rabbit hunting, since kids grow up fast. 27:41

kyle-heuerman

• Kyle Heuerman shot his second target buck of the year just before dark in a Real World Soybean patch. 1:42
• Terry announces Kyle Heuerman is featured on the front cover of this year’s 2023 land management guide. 1:58

land-management

• Don says brutal cold is the ideal time for a land manager to evaluate their property, since a well-run property should be holding more deer than ever. 6:27
• Terry contrasts land managers, who feed year-round, with deer hunters who stop feeding as soon as their target buck is shot and season ends. 11:44

listener-questions

• Don explains listeners should submit questions via the chasinggiants.com form rather than texting or emailing him and Terry directly, since the form organizes submissions. 30:24
• Don asks listeners to submit broadly relatable, off-the-wall questions rather than requests for property-specific advice, since those only help one or two people. 32:04

mail-in-questions

• Don explains Amish listeners without internet can mail written questions with name, address, and shirt size to Real World Wildlife Products’ PO Box in Arthur, Illinois. 31:15

master-class

• Don announces the March 18 master class is already full. 22:00
• Don says this will likely be his last year hosting master classes on his home farm for at least a year or two while he implements major farm changes. 22:38
• Terry says there will be a break of a couple years from classes on Don’s home farm, and they might even do one on Terry’s own property someday. 25:09

miscanthus

• Don says he would never plant a CRP or switchgrass field again without adding Miscanthus, calling it a game changer on his farm. 7:29
• Don says annual screening products like Egyptian weed are worthless in this cold, flattened or broken off, while Miscanthus still stands strong as a screen. 10:07

non-gmo

• Don says non-GMO crops like his Real World soybeans are clearly preferred by deer over GMO alternatives. 45:30

podcast-audience

• Terry notes the podcast reaches 300,000 listeners and frames closing with Scripture as worth risking sponsors or listeners to boldly share faith. 60:31

prank

• Terry admits the vegan sponsor tease was a prank he played on his family at Christmas dinner, telling them a vegan food delivery service had signed as sponsor. 17:49 (light moment)

real-world-soybeans

• Don says a plot of Real World soybeans right now guarantees you have the deer, period. 10:38

real-world-wildlife-products

• Real World Wildlife Products sponsors Kyle Heuerman’s Team Radical Outdoors, which began as a DVD series and now has its own show. 2:20

rut

• Don says he rarely sees new bucks show up during the rut, contrary to popular belief, but does see new bucks appear during extreme cold snaps. 8:19

shed-antlers

• Terry relays an unnamed acquaintance’s theory that early shed antlers this year could stem from deer weakened by an EHD outbreak the prior year, likened to COVID immunity. 35:25
• Don reports all the bucks on his farm still have both antlers intact, with no sheds spotted on his trail cameras yet. 36:40
• Parker from Madison, Kansas asks whether the buck behind a recently found shed was injured and whether drier fall conditions could cause early shedding. 33:00

special-guest

• Terry teases a special guest, a listener of the podcast, who will join at the end of the episode. 3:14

switchgrass

• Terry asks whether deer bedding in thick switchgrass are insulated from frozen ground the same way straw rolled out for cattle insulates them. 9:15

terrain-reading

• Terry Roberts from Brooklyn, Arkansas asks how to find travel corridors, bedding, and funnels on unfamiliar rocky hill-country property with only cattle pasture and hay fields. 38:28

trail-camera

• Don says his trail cameras have shown a lot of deer emerging from switchgrass patches over the past 24 hours during the cold snap. 7:03

vegan-joke

• Don jokes that his New Year’s resolution to go vegan just means eating herbivores like cows and deer that eat plants. 16:42 (light moment)

weather

• Don says this winter has brought the coldest conditions in several years, with wind chills of 30-40 below, which makes for great late-season hunting. 1:23

wes-higgins

• Wes has already started a project called Higgins 2.0 in Indiana, which Terry says could be a potential future master class site. 24:49

whitetail-master-academy

• Don says Whitetail Master Academy members get a 10% discount on Real World products all year long. 20:04
• Terry asks Don to explain the Whitetail Master Academy’s Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway and its prizes. 19:03

winter-food

• Don says right now, when natural food is scarce, is when deer need supplemental food most and when a serious land manager can have the biggest impact. 13:01

work-life-balance

• Don reflects that for many years he didn’t have his priorities in order, putting deer hunting above all else, and now regrets missing things looking back. 27:13

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (harvest) 2:11
• unnamed buck (history) 7:56

Listener questions

Question: Terry asks what deer are going through in the bitter cold, comparing it to cattle he saw bunched up out of the wind. 5:27 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don says deer behave just like cattle, getting out of the wind as much as possible and consuming extra calories to stay warm. 5:48

Question: Terry asks whether deer bedding in thick switchgrass are insulated from frozen ground the same way straw rolled out for cattle insulates them. 9:15 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don confirms it’s true, saying squatting down in switchgrass with terrain features makes a huge difference from the wind compared to open woods. 9:37

Question: Terry asks whether small cedars and pines also provide beneficial cover diversity for deer during severe cold and high winds. 13:45 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don says pines act similarly to cedars, blocking wind and offering thermal cover for deer. 14:14

Question: Terry asks how deer burning fat versus digesting food affects overall herd health during extreme cold. 15:41 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don explains digestion itself generates heat, so deer want to eat more; without food to digest, they start burning fat reserves instead. 15:46

Question: Terry asks Don to explain the Whitetail Master Academy’s Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway and its prizes. 19:03 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don says the grand prize, given away on Christmas Eve, is a free consulting visit filmed for a Whitetail Master Academy video. 19:27

Question: Parker from Madison, Kansas asks whether the buck behind a recently found shed was injured and whether drier fall conditions could cause early shedding. 33:00 — asked by Parker

• Answer: Don says he has no idea if the buck was injured since it wasn’t on his own farm but a consulting client’s property. 33:30
• Answer: Don doubts dry fall conditions stressed deer at all, since they had plenty to eat and drink. 34:05
• Answer: Don acknowledges something has caused more sheds to drop before Christmas this year than he’s ever heard of before, though he doesn’t know what. 34:25

Question: Terry Roberts from Brooklyn, Arkansas asks how to find travel corridors, bedding, and funnels on unfamiliar rocky hill-country property with only cattle pasture and hay fields. 38:28 — asked by Terry Roberts

• Answer: Don says to learn to read terrain features that dictate deer movement and use the lay of the land to find pinch points, plus put out feed to concentrate travel. 39:52

Question: Paul asks Don to explain the difference between Real World’s high-oil corn and Tony LaPratt’s similar Roundup Ready high-oil corn. 42:57 — asked by Paul

• Answer: Don confirms Tony LaPratt’s corn is Roundup Ready but says he found something he felt was better, which is why Real World went a different, non-GMO direction. 45:03

Question: Paul asks whether Don still believes the deer herd remains below pre-EHD levels and whether he’s now shooting does on his own farm or for landowners. 44:15 — asked by Paul

• Answer: Don agrees the statewide deer herd remains down on average since the 2012 EHD outbreak. 48:45
• Answer: Don says his own farm has plenty of deer, and doing nothing would let them destroy his habitat and upset his neighbors. 49:11
• Answer: Don says he now feels comfortable shooting a few does on his property, not to reduce the herd but simply to maintain current levels. 50:13

Question: Garrett asks Don’s thoughts on culling does based on age, citing a theory that older does won’t let small bucks breed them. 52:08 — asked by Garrett

• Answer: Don calls the idea that older does refuse to be bred by small bucks a fallacy, since does let any buck breed them. 53:06
• Answer: Don says he takes the opposite approach from Garrett’s suggestion, preferring to shoot older does rather than younger ones. 53:54
• Answer: Don explains he targets older does from a hunting standpoint, since they’re wary and can teach danger-avoidance to other deer, risking busting his stand. 54:28

Prayer Time

Scripture: Luke
Theme: nativity
Devin Hurley reads Luke 2:1-20, recounting Caesar Augustus’s census, Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem, Jesus’s birth in a manger, the angel’s announcement to shepherds, and the shepherds visiting and glorifying God after seeing the newborn Christ. 61:25

Theme: christmas-thanksgiving
Devin Hurley leads a closing prayer thanking God for the meaning of Christmas and the birth of Jesus, asking the season’s focus stay on Christ, praying for salvation for listeners, and asking blessing over the podcast and its impact on hunters and families. 63:59

The episode centered on hunting and managing land through brutal, record cold, with wind chills of 30-40 below. Don argued this weather was ideal for evaluating a property, since a well-managed farm should be holding more deer than ever, and described deer behaving like cattle by seeking wind cover and eating more to generate heat through digestion. He praised Miscanthus as superior to annual screening cover like Egyptian weed in the cold, and noted his cameras showed deer emerging from switchgrass. Listener questions covered finding travel corridors on unfamiliar cattle-pasture terrain, differences between Real World’s non-GMO corn and a competitor’s Roundup Ready version, doe culling strategy, and unusually early shed antlers. Kyle Heuerman’s second target buck harvest was noted. Don reflected on regretting past priorities over family. The episode closed with guest Devin Hurley reading Luke chapter two and offering a Christmas prayer.

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.