Posted 7:26 pm Thursday, August 21, 2008
Price Of Corn Down Now, But Hunters Still Looking For Options
Following the price of corn on the Chicago Board of Trade probably isn't a regular practice for most Texas deer hunters. But, in a year when everyone is trying to pare costs, it might not be such a bad idea.
In 1999, it was estimated that Texas deer hunters ran 300 million pounds of corn annually through deer feeders. At about $3 a 50-pound bag, that made the sale of deer corn nearly a $1 billion industry. However, most believe that estimate of six million bags being sold was a conservative figure, and would certainly be light for the years following.
This fall, things could be different. What once was a by-product of the cattle feed industry, the price of deer corn started the year at about $5 a bag and has steadily climbed. There are reports of Texas hunters having paid $9.50 and $10.50 a sack on the high end in recent weeks.
"It depends on whether you bought it a month ago or today," said David Grooms, whose Brownwood company produces Farm Boy brand deer corn. "Retail at one time was over $10. I think it is going to set in around $8."
Steve Knight
Grooms said the reason is that corn prices have fallen about $2.50 from their high spot as the reality of a bumper crop in the Midwest overtakes the speculative futures buying that was going on earlier this year. The businessman believes speculators, focusing in on the flooding in southeastern Iowa this summer, pushed prices to record highs. However, those same rains did little more than nourish the crop in other parts of the region.
"When we didn't know if we had enough corn, it brought in a lot of outside money. Now that we don't have a crisis that money has bailed out," Grooms said, explaining supply and demand economics.
Grooms took advantage of this year's good crop in the Midwest to make up for what he couldn't buy in Texas.
"We buy a lot of Texas corn and a lot of Midwest corn. A lot comes in on rail and a lot straight from the field in Texas. I got about 25 percent of need in Texas this year and 75 percent from the Midwest. A lot of time I get 100 percent from Texas," said Grooms.
Farm Boy bags only deer corn that is marketed throughout Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Much of Grooms' business is in the Hill Country, but he is seeing a growing demand in the Panhandle to match a growing population of deer. Even in tough economic times, he realizes that deer corn is big business in Texas.
"There is a big supply of corn that goes to the Texas wildlife. There are lots of stores that sell as much Texas deer corn as cow cubes. From a retail feed store standpoint in the Texas Hill Country, they are going to sell more deer corn than cattle feed," Grooms noted.
Grooms said he expects prices to stabilize through deer season unless something happens that brings speculators back into the market. If it does hold around the $8 mark or below, he doesn't expect a slowdown in sales this year. In fact, since he has been in business, he has had only one year in which he had a down year.
"I had one year in 20 that we sold less than the year before and that was 9-11 (2001). But I am a growing business," he said.
Surprisingly, how good his year starts often depends on how good the September dove hunting is. If bird hunting is good, he explained, hunters come from the city to their leases more often early and refill their feeders more before deer season opens.
Texas hunters use corn for two reasons. In the fall it does provide a carbohydrate blast, producing fat that helps the deer survive through the winter months. The more common reason, however, is that when thrown from a feeder corn produces an event twice a day that attracts deer within range.
To reduce their corn bill, some hunters plan to reduce the length of time their spin feeder operates to reduce the amount of corn thrown each cycle. While this may still attract the deer, reducing the availability of corn to the deer will cut back in the carbohydrates available and could, in a bad weather year, threaten herd health. To provide enough corn to meet a deer's health needs, hunters need to run feeders from September through February in most of Texas.
Because of the lack of rainfall there is little else hunters can do to supplement the corn on a cost-cutting basis in most places around the state. The exception is in East Texas where hunters can plant food plots and produce forage for pennies a pound throughout the growing season.
"The cost of establishing food plots has risen as well with diesel and fertilizer costs, so just like the cattleman, landowners using legumes (clovers with small grains in the fall and cowpeas, LabLab or soybeans in the spring) can reduce their establishment costs by reducing the need for nitrogen inputs, which has skyrocketed in price as well," said Dr. Billy Higginbotham, wildlife specialist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Overton.
Higginbotham said those who want to plant fall food plots can begin around Labor Day if there is soil moisture.
"If no moisture, then it is a waiting game into September. The worst scenario is to have just enough soil moisture at planting for the plants to germinate, then no rain for a couple of weeks and they die," he explained.
Without irrigation, planting food plots isn't an option for most hunters in the Hill Country. The only option remaining to reduce a corn bill is whole cottonseed, but it can't be dispensed through a feeder. There is also some concern that cottonseed could reduce testosterone levels in deer.
Of course, deer can't be trained to come to a food plot as they are at the sound of a feeder. Food plots, however, will attract deer on a random basis and provide a supplemental food source for up to six months.
