You really can't blame the ranchers. They make almost as much money from their hunting operations as they do raising cattle.

I really don't know whether supplemental feeding impacts on antler development as much as increasing the carrying capacity of the land.From what I've heard, "deer corn" doesn't really have a huge nutritionalimpact. Planting food plots with certain types of forbs andother plants does have big impact, but, how is that any different than deer browsing in the soybean fields of Illinois? That's not natural forageeither.The ranch I hunt costs under $2500 per year each for about 10 hunters, on 1800 acres, with limits of 3 bucks and 4 does per lease slot. I don't think that's really a "caters only to the rich" lease. Most of the guys are blue collar. And I think that price is fairly representative of the norm. Obviously there are higher priced leases in areas of the state (i.e. South Texas) where the deer are quite a lot larger.