Episode 224 - Saving Fawns and Farming for Nutrients: Insights from Don Higgins

Published: 2024-06-02
Episode page
Duration: 65 min

In this episode

announcement

• Terry announces big news and new announcements are coming within the next couple weeks from both Real World and Chasing Giants. 60:31

chasing-giants

• Don reflects that Chasing Giants, which began as a deer hunting podcast, has grown into a community and family of like-minded people through the Sunday Night Prayer Time series. 63:01
• Terry states the show could get more views by following ‘woke’ trends and watching what they say, but that’s never been what Chasing Giants is about. 63:44

cicadas

• Don explains that cicadas don’t actually eat tree leaves; instead they land on the bark, burrow into branches, and lay their eggs in the branch or trunk of the tree. 2:07
• Don spent part of the week spraying weeds and briefly tried spraying his fruit trees for cicadas before realizing it was a waste of time. 1:33

cover-crops

• Don explains soybeans drilled into a rye cover crop do fantastic since rye suppresses weeds, but rye’s toxin negatively affects corn planted the same way. 29:29

deer-activity

• Don states that late spring, driven by yearling dispersal and fawn births, is the second-highest period of deer activity all year, behind only the rut. 13:59

farming

• Don explains typical ag farmers are paid by the bushel and have no financial incentive to grow higher-protein corn since yield, not nutrient content, determines their pay. 24:36

fawns

• Don recalls that when he kept captive deer, newborn fawns could be walked up to and picked up by hand during their first week of life because they wouldn’t run. 8:38
• Don notes that by two weeks old, fawns that could once be picked up by hand become as hard to catch as a rabbit. 8:50
• Don recalls accidentally hitting two fawns one year while baling alfalfa, calling it a terrible feeling. 10:30
• Don recommends delaying hay mowing as long as possible to protect fawns, while acknowledging there’s no real substitute for delay if farming is your livelihood. 10:59
• Don explains does deliberately avoid bedding near their fawns, and twin fawns are typically bedded 100 yards or more apart to improve survival odds if a predator finds one. 12:29

fertilizer

• Don explains Real World’s new fertilizer is high in nitrogen, and what sets it apart from typical fertilizers is the added micronutrients beyond standard N-P-K. 33:55

food-plots

• Don explains his newly planted plots aren’t meant to grow or attract deer this year, but to nourish deer through winter so they grow giant antlers by summer 2025. 27:09

fruit-trees

• Don explains that the apple and fruit trees Jay Gingerich sells descend from parent trees in an abandoned orchard that survived twenty untended years, giving them natural pest and disease resistance. 4:41
• Don observed that trees he planted from Jay and from Andy’s not-yet-public stock had noticeably fewer cicadas on them than his other trees this spring. 5:16
• Don started moving the nursery’s plastic variety tags from newly planted orchard trees onto the wire cages so he can track which variety each tree is. 6:27
• Kelly Shanley asks how to prevent and recover from insect damage, like a gypsy moth infestation, on newly planted fruit trees. 40:33

illinois-regulations

• Don notes Illinois law bars him from using mineral or supplemental feed, so all of his deer herd’s nutrition must come through his food plots. 25:22

industry-trends

• Terry observes the food-plot seed industry has often relied on fancy packaging and creative marketing graphics to make products appeal to hunters on the shelf. 31:30

mature-buck

• Terry states that as bucks age they tend to shrink their home range, settling wherever they feel safest from human intrusion. 52:50
• Brandon from Rochester, Indiana asks how much a mature buck’s home range typically shrinks and whether one could be held on as little as 10 acres. 49:46

mature-bucks

• Dave Armstrong asks whether technology like cell cameras is making it harder than ever for good genetic bucks to reach old age. 43:30

nutricrave

• Tanner Stay reported that NutriCrave corn he planted last year produced the biggest ears he’d ever seen, with deer walking a quarter mile past other standing corn to reach it. 36:45

nutrient-trial

• Don plans to treat half of his humic-acid-treated soybean plots with Mike’s Mighty Micros several times this summer, then compare tissue and grain samples between treated and untreated sides. 30:35

personal-life

• Terry shares that he and his wife took a two-hour drive together last weekend, something he says they’d never done before amid their busy schedule. 60:16

real-world-products

• Don teases that he and Terry will reveal a new product within the next week or two that he expects most hunters will want to buy. 34:28

regenerative-agriculture

• Don learned that fungicide-treated ag seed is counterproductive to soil health because it kills the beneficial bacteria and fungus that keep soil healthy. 28:04
• Don has learned glyphosate is one of the worst things for regenerative agriculture because it kills the beneficial bacteria and fungus in the soil. 28:47

speaking-schedule

• Don announces his July speaking schedule kicks off on the 18th at Milford Hills Hunt Club in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin. 18:47

speaking-tour

• Don recalls previously touring the Northeast a couple summers ago as far as Maine and Vermont, and visiting Maryland and Delaware this past winter for Real World business. 22:45

sunday-night-prayer-time

• Don announces he’ll release his third Sunday Night Prayer Time video this Sunday, tackling a topic he says most preachers avoid for fear of offending people. 61:20
• Terry notes the Sunday Night Prayer Time series has run for about forty weeks, releasing every Sunday evening around 7pm eastern. 62:28

urban-deer

• Ryan Lawrence, hunting 70 acres surrounded by subdivisions near a large deer preserve, asks how to better attract and hold mature ‘city giant’ bucks. 53:46

urban-hunting

• Don warns that in urban settings, the biggest challenge to maintaining a bedding sanctuary is keeping neighbors from wandering through it. 58:52

video-production

• Don plans to spend a few days filming video content with Steve Shields while he waits for his newly planted food plots to emerge. 59:26

yearling-bucks

• Don explains yearling bucks show up unpredictably during early summer in a constant rotation, a pattern he’s noticed for years. 38:18
• Jason Burner asks whether maternal does will aggressively drive young bucks away from mineral sites and sanctuaries as fawns begin dropping. 37:34

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (sighting) 8:07
• unnamed buck (sighting) 13:23
• Smokey (harvest) 51:25
• unnamed buck (sighting) 54:29

Listener questions

Question: Jason Burner asks whether maternal does will aggressively drive young bucks away from mineral sites and sanctuaries as fawns begin dropping. 37:34 — asked by Jason Burner

• Answer: Don says there’s probably something to maternal aggression: a yearling buck encountering a mature doe with fawns likely won’t be tolerated and will move on. 39:05

Question: Kelly Shanley asks how to prevent and recover from insect damage, like a gypsy moth infestation, on newly planted fruit trees. 40:33 — asked by Kelly Shanley

• Answer: Don says he babies newly planted trees heavily their first year, giving them whatever care they need, including water. 41:17
• Answer: Don explains that by the third year his trees are on their own, following a survival-of-the-fittest approach rather than ongoing maintenance. 41:33

Question: Dave Armstrong asks whether technology like cell cameras is making it harder than ever for good genetic bucks to reach old age. 43:30 — asked by Dave Armstrong

• Answer: Don says hunters will shoot the biggest antlered buck they can find regardless of his age, which he sees as the real driver of the problem. 49:04

Question: Brandon from Rochester, Indiana asks how much a mature buck’s home range typically shrinks and whether one could be held on as little as 10 acres. 49:46 — asked by Brandon

• Answer: Don says he doesn’t believe a buck can be kept on just 10 acres. 50:26
• Answer: Don estimates that only in very rare instances could a small enough home range be as little as around 100 acres. 52:42

Question: Ryan Lawrence, hunting 70 acres surrounded by subdivisions near a large deer preserve, asks how to better attract and hold mature ‘city giant’ bucks. 53:46 — asked by Ryan Lawrence

• Answer: Don recommends devoting roughly 60 of the 70 acres to thick, undisturbed bedding sanctuary and only about 10 to food, hunting solely the edges. 57:20

Don discussed cicadas, explaining they don’t eat leaves but burrow into bark to lay eggs, and noted trees from Jay Gingerich’s stock and Andy’s unreleased stock had fewer cicadas than his other trees, tracing Jay’s resistant stock to an abandoned orchard that survived twenty untended years. He described fawn behavior, including how newborns can be handled the first week but become nearly impossible to catch by two weeks, recalled hitting fawns while baling hay, and recommended delaying mowing where possible. He covered food-plot and soil practices, including avoiding fungicide-treated seed and glyphosate, testing Mike’s Mighty Micros against untreated soybean plots, and Illinois’s ban on mineral feed. Terry mentioned upcoming Real World and Chasing Giants announcements. Listener questions addressed maternal doe aggression toward yearling bucks, treating insect damage on young fruit trees, whether cameras make it harder for bucks to reach maturity, and home range size, with Don estimating roughly 100 acres as a rare minimum and Smokey noted as his smallest-range harvest.

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