One of Texas’ fastest growing ranching businesses has nothing to do with what people usually think of as ranch animals.

Deer ranching has become a big-time business in the state, as well as across the country.

The deer-breeding business has an economic impact of $650 million annually on farmers and ranchers, feed suppliers and deer farm managers, said Karl Kinsel, executive director of the Texas Deer Association.

Randy Rainer, manager at Parsons Whitetail Deer Ranch, gets some love from one of the facility’s fawns.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

Since 1990, deer-breeding operations in the state have grown from 150 to 1,100, Kinsel said.

At Parsons Whitetail Deer Ranch near the town of Valley Mills, Stuart Parsons and manager Randy Rainer selectively breed deer to be bigger and sport more impressive racks than those found in the wild.

Deer are later sold to game ranches, where people pay thousands of dollars to hunt.

Lorenzo Lasater, who breeds deer and runs a hunting business called Lasater Whitetail Lodge in San Angelo, purchases deer from other operations.

It’s all about the horns for hunters. The size of a deer rack is rated by a point system in inches arrived at by measurements of certain dimensions of the horns.

A good rack grown in the wild runs about 120 inches, Lasater said. Specially bred deer provide well-formed sets of antlers measuring about 180 inches, the size his clients seem to want, Lasater said.

Parsons, also owner of Parsons Roofing in Waco, began raising deer about five years ago.

He purchased the 200-acre ranch originally with modest intentions after getting tired of paying $4,000 for hunts on game ranches.

“I bought the ranch as just a place for my family to go, and then I wanted to stock the ranch with deer,” he said.

Business grew — a lot. Parsons said he spent $75,000 on a buck. He made $200,000 from its semen.

Deer sent to game ranches or lodges for hunting often bring about $4,000, he said.

Twenty acres of outdoor pens hold about 350 deer. The on-site lab is used for artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization.

Specialists inject sperm directly into an egg cell, then implant it into a doe to grow.

The rest of Parsons’ property is rented for hunts. But much is done to limit contact and exposure to people. The reason is to curtail anxiety and other stresses in the deer, Rainer said.

The industry, meanwhile, draws criticism from animal rights groups and those concerned about unchallenging hunts.

The Texas Deer Association requires hunts be performed under fair-chase conditions, Kinsel said.

A count done within the last two years showed about 80,000 animals on deer-breeding operations in Texas, said Clayton Wolf, wildlife division director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Estimates put the state’s wild population at 3 to 4 million.

The business is regulated, with strict rules regarding the care and movements of deer, Wolf said.

“We demand a 100 percent accounting of every movement of every deer,” he said.

bteeter@wacotrib.com

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