Episode 178 - The Bucks and The Corn are Growing Fast

Published: 2023-07-16
Episode page
Duration: 76 min

In this episode

babe-buck

• If target buck Babe drops a few inches of antler, would Don still target him this season or wait another year? 33:08

bait-hunting

• Terry advises that hunting directly over a corn pile or feeder requires foolproof access to exit without nearby deer noticing. 50:48

brent-henderson

• Terry announces the show will play a promo video from Brent Henderson at the episode’s end previewing his new podcast. 7:24
• Don describes Brent Henderson as having a ministry where he travels to speak at men’s events across the country. 8:04
• Don notes Brent Henderson has hunted extensively, including trips to Africa and Alaska. 8:53
• Don shares that Brent Henderson’s latest book, Unleashed, explores how dangerous a man freed from sin’s stronghold becomes in a good way. 9:13
• Terry announces Brent Henderson’s new podcast is titled Unleashed. 10:51
• Terry says he and Don agreed Real World’s support of Brent isn’t about product sales but about helping save souls. 11:41
• How did Don first connect with Brent Henderson? 7:32

cover-scent

• Would Don ever sit in a hut with a pile of animal poop for cover scent? 14:00

deadly-dozen-blend

• Don notes sugar beets are among the most expensive seeds in the Deadly Dozen blend, undercutting the idea it’s a cheap marketing gimmick. 53:47
• Terry notes purple top turnips aren’t touched by deer until January or February, once nitrate levels drop and sugar content rises. 55:45
• Mark Yoder asks why Don includes sugar beets in the Deadly Dozen fall blend despite claims they won’t mature. 52:27

ethics

• Don admits he has likely cost himself more money in the hunting industry than he ever earned because he refuses to compromise his ethics and stay quiet. 24:00

family

• Don announces his youngest daughter and her husband are expecting their first child, due September 5. 1:21

farm-legacy

• Don states he would not take $1,000,000 for the rack of the 200-inch buck he shot in 2004. 23:23
• Don recalls riding on the hitch bar of an F20 Farmall tractor with his grandpa on the same farm when he was his grandson’s age. 30:18
• Kevin Heck asks whether Don would ever consider selling his farm and how much money it would take. 21:14

humor

• Don joked that sitting in his truck with headphones on outside Starbucks made him worry he’d be arrested live on the broadcast for looking suspicious. 6:02 (light moment)
• Terry jokes he passes enough gas in his tree stand that he doesn’t need cover scent. 14:32 (light moment)
• Terry jokes about their friend Joe hunting in Africa, filming himself in a desert hut declaring “African Ozonics” near a cover-scent setup. 12:48 (light moment)

hunting-advice

• Lucas Hagen asks for one piece of advice for younger hunters and what Don and Terry wish they’d done sooner or regret. 63:30

land-management

• Don recounts turning away two windmill companies that approached his house within a week of each other, refusing regardless of payment. 29:15

live-event

• Don announces they will hold a live event in Florida in January. 43:04
• Terry announces plans to hold a live event in the Southeast to connect with listeners there. 43:07
• Don announces plans to do an event in Delaware next March. 43:38
• Terry announces he’s speaking at a charity event in Northern Indiana on September 12. 43:50
• Terry teases a special event in Shipshewana next year, though details can’t be shared yet. 43:59
• Don announces a live podcast kickoff event in Michigan with a new sponsor. 44:23

mineral-sites

• Keith Martin asks if Don has thoughts on hunting 50-100 yards off mineral licks rather than directly on them. 48:22

nutri-crave-corn

• Don reports Real World has 220 acres of NutriCrave corn growing for deer corn this fall. 15:31
• Don relays that the Nutri-Crave corn crop looks so strong the projected yield could reach 275 to 300 bushels per acre. 16:16
• Don explains rain arriving July 1 was perfectly timed for the corn, which had been drought-stressed since planting. 16:38
• Don reports the recent rain produced his best spring-planted food plots ever, with fantastic Nutri-Crave Corn and exploding soybeans since July 1. 19:58
• What is the feedback so far from the grower of Nutri-Crave Corn? 15:16

personal-background

• Terry shares he grew up as a preacher’s kid whose family had very little, moving often as his father started small churches. 25:50
• Terry recalls it being a big deal to pick out a winter coat on layaway in the summer so it would be paid off by winter. 26:00

personal-values

• Terry says he and Don would be completely fine losing their John Deere tractor, side-by-sides, and nice houses because material things aren’t how they were raised. 26:56
• Terry says there are guns in his cabinet that aren’t for sale no matter how much money someone offered. 31:54

podcast-production

• Terry recounts that internet problems last week forced them to finish the podcast episode with phone audio. 6:36
• Terry expects Don’s upgraded home internet system to benefit both the podcast and Whitetail Master Academy live events. 6:48

real-world

• Terry reveals they turned down a prospective pro staff sponsorship because their money was committed to supporting Brent Henderson instead. 12:13
• Terry announces Real World is launching a new 2024 marketing slogan meant to apply to the organization itself as much as its customers. 70:56

solar-energy

• Todd Hewing was offered significant money by a solar energy group to buy or lease part of his farm for solar panels. 27:44
• Todd Hewing told Don he turned down the lucrative solar deal because at his age he didn’t want to buy and develop another farm from scratch. 28:41

soybeans

• Terry explains the drought hurt soybean plots, especially for land-consulting clients, since the beans didn’t grow enough to outpace deer browse pressure. 18:29
• Don recalls that in 2012, despite no rain until September, the late rains produced a fantastic soybean crop amid the worst drought of his life. 19:18
• Don advises hunters not to give up on drought-stressed soybean plots since timely rain can still rescue the crop. 19:33
• Terry recommends staying patient with soybean plots by keeping them sprayed and weed-free, waiting until early September to decide on terminating a bean field. 20:40

spin-off-project

• Terry teases a big spin-off project he’s working on but can’t yet share details about. 44:09

supplemental-feeding

• Terry mentions Kentucky’s supplemental deer feeding season opens August 1, saving a related story for next week’s episode. 72:51

trail-cameras

• Don and Terry note trail cameras have been running for a couple weeks and food plots are established. 1:01
• Keith Martin asks whether Don deliberately keeps trail cameras low to the ground and if it matters if deer notice the camera light. 48:08

trophy-room

• Don recalls the baby shower venue displaying over 90 deer heads plus elk mounts among its trophies. 3:57

volunteer-corn

• Steve Sheber asks if it’s advantageous to allow volunteer corn within soybean plots for multiple feeding options. 57:47

waterhemp

• Don observes deer heavily browse waterhemp along his sprayed plot edges, eating every single plant and branch. 61:16

weed-control

• Steve Sheber asks if there’s a point where spraying an overly weedy food plot stops being beneficial. 57:06

whitetail-life-magazine

• Don announces Whitetail Life magazine’s first issue, covering October/November, will release at the end of September. 35:09
• Don announces he’s recruiting veteran writers like Bobby Worthington and Joe Miles, with Al Foster agreeing to come out of retirement for Whitetail Life. 35:25
• Terry says the production quality of Whitetail Life magazine is going to be first class based on graphics he’s already seen. 38:05
• Don states Whitetail Life magazine aims to be inclusive of differing viewpoints rather than exclusive to a small minority of deer hunters. 41:11
• Don mentions he has talked to Dr. Strickland about possibly contributing to Whitetail Life magazine. 40:22
• Don notes he now manages three separate email accounts for Higgins Outdoors, Real World, and the new Whitetail Life magazine. 71:41
• Wilson Newswanger asks if Don knows about a new hunting magazine advertised with him listed as editor. 33:23

whitetail-master-academy

• Don’s home Wi-Fi went down after a storm, so he drove to a Starbucks and used their free Wi-Fi from his truck for a live Whitetail Master Academy event. 5:11

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (harvest) 22:41
• babe (management) 46:11

Listener questions

Question: How did Don first connect with Brent Henderson? 7:32 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don explains he’s known Brent Henderson so long he can’t recall how they first met, though they always crossed paths at the annual ATA Show. 7:44

Question: Would Don ever sit in a hut with a pile of animal poop for cover scent? 14:00 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don says he has no desire to hunt abroad, but if a steaming pile of poop would help him kill a 200-inch buck in the Midwest, he’d probably do it. 14:20

Question: What is the feedback so far from the grower of Nutri-Crave Corn? 15:16 — asked by Terry

• Answer: Don relays that the Nutri-Crave corn crop looks so strong the projected yield could reach 275 to 300 bushels per acre. 16:16

Question: Kevin Heck asks whether Don would ever consider selling his farm and how much money it would take. 21:14 — asked by Kevin Heck

• Answer: Don says it would take several times market value for him to even consider selling his farm, given his deep family roots there. 22:33

Question: If target buck Babe drops a few inches of antler, would Don still target him this season or wait another year? 33:08 — asked by Wilson Newswanger

• Answer: Don says the odds are very good he’ll target and hopefully shoot buck Babe this season, depending on how the younger bucks develop. 46:11

Question: Wilson Newswanger asks if Don knows about a new hunting magazine advertised with him listed as editor. 33:23 — asked by Wilson Newswanger

• Answer: Don confirms he was asked to be editor of a new whitetail magazine called Whitetail Life, though he has zero ownership stake in it. 33:52

Question: Keith Martin asks whether Don deliberately keeps trail cameras low to the ground and if it matters if deer notice the camera light. 48:08 — asked by Keith Martin

• Answer: Don explains camera height varies by situation, but he tries to position cameras so deer aren’t looking straight at the lens at eye level. 48:50

Question: Keith Martin asks if Don has thoughts on hunting 50-100 yards off mineral licks rather than directly on them. 48:22 — asked by Keith Martin

• Answer: Don says mineral’s attraction fades by fall since it peaks in spring and summer during antler growth, so he doesn’t consider mineral sites good fall hunting spots. 50:14

Question: Mark Yoder asks why Don includes sugar beets in the Deadly Dozen fall blend despite claims they won’t mature. 52:27 — asked by Mark Yoder

• Answer: Don explains sugar beets and Austrian winter peas are the first plants deer hit in Deadly Dozen, drawing them into the plot early in the season. 54:44

Question: Steve Sheber asks if it’s advantageous to allow volunteer corn within soybean plots for multiple feeding options. 57:47 — asked by Steve Sheber

• Answer: Don says allowing volunteer corn in soybean plots isn’t a good idea since most of it won’t even produce an ear. 58:03

Question: Steve Sheber asks if there’s a point where spraying an overly weedy food plot stops being beneficial. 57:06 — asked by Steve Sheber

• Answer: Don answers that weeds should be controlled in plots because, though deer browse them in summer, weeds reduce the quantity of nutritious food available for winter. 61:33

Question: Lucas Hagen asks for one piece of advice for younger hunters and what Don and Terry wish they’d done sooner or regret. 63:30 — asked by Lucas Hagen

• Answer: Don says his biggest lesson, learned over many years, is how critical keeping a hunting property free of human intrusion is, especially around bedding sanctuaries. 64:33
• Answer: Terry says his key lesson was learning to identify or create accessible bedding areas and knowing which wind conditions to hunt them in. 68:32

Don and Terry discussed food plot progress, with Don reporting 220 acres of NutriCrave corn projected to yield 275 to 300 bushels per acre after timely July 1 rain rescued drought-stressed crops. Terry noted the same rain helped soybean plots that had struggled against deer browse pressure, and both recommended patience with weedy or drought-stressed beans through early September. Much of the episode centered on Brent Henderson, whose ministry and hunting trips to Africa and Alaska were described; his book and new podcast, both titled Unleashed, were previewed, with Real World choosing to support him financially over a pro staff sponsorship offer. Don and Terry also discussed turning down lucrative offers, including Todd Hewing’s solar deal and windmill companies approaching Don’s farm, framing it around values over money. Listener questions covered trail camera placement, mineral site hunting, sugar beets in the Deadly Dozen blend, and Don’s plan to pursue his target buck Babe this season if antler size holds.

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