AeroSlinger:
Not to start anargument, but I need to comment on a few things......
I don't know the size acreage where it would not make a difference, but 1500 acres of high fenced land will not sustain a healthy deer population.
1. 1,500 acres is plenty of land to substain a healthy (natural) deer herd. Given that the numbers are kept in check and the natural habitat is up to par, which is the case no matter if the land is high fenced or not. I see that your from Cedar Park. That area of the state is probably one of the worst areas when it comes to quality habitat for whitetail deer. That area has a hard time supporting a quality deer herd as it is, if the numbers are extremely overly high then of course the deer herd is not going to be healthy.
Inbreeding, for starters, will eventually take its toll
2. There have been several studies done, and I recently read an article in the TTHA magazine that talked about inbreeding and high fences. Every study that I have ever read has shown that it takes MANY generations before inbreeding will occur. On a multi-thousand acre ranch, it would take decades upon decades before any sign of inbreeding could be found. Unless your taking animals that are already relatedand throwing them in a pen the size of a jail cell, inbreeding is out of the question.
This is why a lot, if not the majority, of high fenced operations import deer for new bloodlines.
3. That is actually a very false statement. I've been on many high fenced ranches, didnt hunt on all of them just visted alot, and I'd say about 5% of them actually imported any type of deer. And the ranches that did import deer generally only brought in 1-12 "breeder" bucks and turned them loose on different areas of the ranch. Most ranchers in south Texas do not like to import deer because they like that "grey bodied" look that only south Texas and northern mexico deer have. Plus most deer from outside of this area can not live down here because of the extreme hot/arid weather that we have and the deer are not drought tolerate, unlike the native south Texas deer. Importing deer cost alot of money and is a real pain in the butt because its a never ending cycle of putting money into the program and the amount of paper work required is insane.
However, I think if they want to breed and sell deer and hunts, they should be made to clear their land of any native species and have it certified as cleared prior to finalizing the high fence, then they may buy animals to stock.
See that kind of attitude just dosent work in a state like Texas. The Texas Parks & Wildlife department knows that is not a road they want to go down, and they dont push that kind of attitude onto the landowners because they dont want to make them POed. Since nearly 100% of the deer in Texas live on private land, and since it is the private land owners in Texas who pay for and manage the deer of this state, they should be the ones who benfit the most from them. If the TP&W department ever adopted the attitude that "these are our deer, not yours, pay up" the the landowners in this state would simply say "well since these are your deer, I completely wash my hands of them, and will no longer manage them, provide water to them, provide food to them, and since the deer tags in Tx are complety unlimited and OTC, I'll let every Tom, Bubba, And Harry onto my ranch to kill as many deer as they have tags for". With out the landowners of this state the whitetail would be in serious trouble. The TP&W know that landowners could run the whitetail in this state if they really wanted to. And this is the main reason why the state leaves the landowners alone and lets them do what they want and gives them want they want. This concept may not work in other states, but it works just fine down here........