Don Higgins Interview – Higgins Outdoors and Real World Whitetails
Don Higgins is the owner of Higgins Outdoors, author of “Hunting Trophy Whitetails in the Real World”, and well respected deer hunting journalist. He offers a number of services in regards to consulting and habitat management not only for whitetails, but all wildlife and is co-owner of a wildlife foodplot seed company, Real World Wildlife Seed Inc.. It is my honor to bring you the first of a three section series with Mr. Don Higgins. Today, we will discuss his personal life, and his personal captive deer that he looks over. Later in the series we will discuss deer hunting, his consulting business, and outdoor writing. The second part of this series will be up next Monday, so check back! Enjoy!
Personal
OF – What did you think you’d be doing for a living, when you were in high school?
DH – Wow! talk about starting off with a tough question! I don’t know that I really knew what I would be doing for a living way back then but I do remember having a strong desire to raise purebred registered livestock, beef cattle and hogs. That dream sort of fell by the wayside because aside from my grandparents 30 acres, my family didn’t own the land or other resources needed to get into this venture on a big enough scale to make a living at it. I always had livestock as 4-H and FFA projects and simply wanted to expand that to a scale that would allow me to make a living at it.
OF – How many acres do you own?
DH – 120 at this time.
OF – People who follow Illinois DNR and the IL deer herd, know that you’ve been a loud voice. Why do you believe things aren’t being fixed properly?
DH – It is clearly all about politics. Illinois is controlled by crooked liberal Chicago politicians and they don’t see the deer herd as anything more than a cash cow to provide funds for their pet projects. The sad thing is that Illinois once had the very best whitetail herd in all of North America. It was created by whitetail management pioneers like IDNR biologists Forest “Frosty” Loomis and Jack Calhoun. Things like “either sex” seasons and micro-management by counties started in Illinois with these guys. Then along comes whitetail biologist Paul Shelton who was a waterfowl biologist in Tennessee before being given control of the Illinois deer herd. In my opinion Shelton demonstrated he didn’t have a clue about managing whitetails and still doesn’t. He has clearly shown that he does not care about things like age structure and sex ratios. I actually sat in a meeting where one of Sheltons DNR co-workers stated that they don’t care what deer get harvested within the herd or how they get removed, it is all a numbers game with them. They start the season with X number of deer and at the end of the season they want the herd whittled down to Y number. There is absolutely no biology in that approach. A Wal-Mart bean counter can subtract X from Y and arrive at Z. The saddest part about the whole thing is that we have gone so far down the path of stupidity as far as managing our deer herd that I don’t believe we will ever be able to turn it around. We have allowed groups with only a financial interest like the farm bureau, outfitters and politicians to seize our deer herd for their own financial gain and they won’t let go now. Illinois will continue to turn out some impressive bucks every year but those individual animals will be produced “in spite” of the Illinois DNR, not “because” of the Illinois DNR. The sad thing is that we don’t need major wholesale changes to our management approach. We just need to tweak what we are already doing. Simple things like changing the timing of our antlerless season could have positive effects on our deer herd. Right now the harvest during our late season antlerless season is around 25% bucks. This is due to the killing of bucks that have already shed their antlers and the harvest of button bucks. This number could be reduced by holding the antlerless season earlier like a lot of other states do. This subtle change would help to balance the sex ratio of our herd while also having the season at a time when the weather would be more favorable for youth and elderly hunters. It is a win-win situation and yet IDNR refuses to consider it. That is just one example but if we would do 3 or 4 things like this Illinois would soon have the best deer herd in North America again.
With all of this said, I realize that wildlife biologists who work for the government have political hoops to jump through. They have to appease a wide variety of interests and wishes. Still, I believe that a whitetail biologist with a true passion for the species could do a MUCH better job balancing those desires than what we have seen in Illinois over the past 2 decades or so. In the end, there simply is no excuse for what is happening to the whitetail herd in Illinois. Sadly the younger hunters don’t even know what I am talking about because they have never seen a well managed herd and that is what is going to make this situation difficult or impossible to turn around.
OF – Does anyone in your family hunt and enjoy the outdoors like you?
DH – For many years I was the only one in my family that hunted but 2 years ago my oldest daughter Andrea married a great guy that also hunts. This caused her to want to try it so the first fall they were married she shot a doe with her new husband Kory and later that season I took her hunting here on our farm and she killed a nice 11-point buck as I filmed it. On Memorial Day weekend of this year Andrea and Kory gave us our first grandchild, a boy “Wyatt”, so I am looking forward to hunting with him in the years to come. Also last fall my wife Robin and I sent our youngest daughter Aliesha off to college. With an empty nest Robin went hunting with me a lot last fall. She carried a video camera and I carried the bow. I really enjoyed having her along on hunts and look forward to doing more of that this season and for years to come.
OF – What other things do you enjoy doing outdoors?
DH – Do you like to fish? Hunting mature whitetail bucks is the ultimate for me. When I was younger I hunted, fished and trapped for every species that lived near my central Illinois home. As the years went by, I slowly dropped all of those other outdoor interests. I have not fished in nearly 20 years. In fact I haven’t even hunted with a gun in around 20 years. Chasing big whitetails with my bow is it for me; it consumes me and is who I am. I do it year ‘round and particularly enjoy running trail cameras in the late summer and fall as well as creating quality habitat on my property and for others. I have reached a point that I once never thought possible. I literally get just as much enjoyment from passing a buck that I know 99% of the deer hunters in North America would die to shoot. Last fall for example I video documented 12 shooting opportunities under 25 yards with mature bucks scoring more than 160” and yet I never drew my bow back on a single buck last season. One particular 4 year old buck scoring around 170” got a walking pass 5 times last season. THAT was neat! I don’t think my whitetail hunting could have ever reached this level if my time outdoors was divided between numerous other pursuits. Seeing other wildlife is an awesome part of the deer hunting experience but for me nothing compares to seeing a big ole mature whitetail buck going about his business at close range just doing what old bucks do when they think nobody is watching.
Deer Farm
OFHow did you start off being a deer manager? I have been totally ate-up with whitetails since I was a teenager. I just can’t get enough of them. About 15 years ago I saw a magazine ad for someone selling whitetail fawns. I visited that deer farm and was intrigued by the possibility of how much I could learn about them by being around them up close and personal every day. We bought 2 doe fawns that spring and things just grew from there. For the past 10 years we have used artificial insemination to breed our does to some of the very best bucks on earth. The whole endeavor has been a real learning experience. Without a doubt I am a better hunter because of what I have learned from my captive whitetails.
How many deer do you own right now? Do you see this growing? We have about 25 right now. I don’t see that number growing and in fact some days I seriously consider selling all my deer. They can be a lot of work and as I get older my free time becomes more valuable. My heart is with wild deer, not the penned ones and I also want to spend a lot more time with my family during the final years of my life. It has been a good experience for me but one that is nearing the end.
Do you sell the urine to any companies, if so – who? NO! To collect urine deer have to be put in small pens with wire bottoms similar to rabbit cages where the urine is collected in a gutter system underneath. I actually built a facility to do this a few years ago but once I put the deer in it the deal lasted less than a week. I could not stand the site of a whitetail being held in such cages. The deer in my pens are not on bare dirt, they have plenty of green growth to browse on and get the best of care. They are comfortable and relaxed. That is not the case with deer held in urine collection stalls. Some things are more important than money. I see the whitetail deer as Gods gift to me. Whitetails have enriched my life and I feel that I owe them something back, both as a species and individually.
Do you do anything special with the antlers that the bucks shed each year? Not really, I just keep piling them up.
-What’s the biggest grossing rack that you’ve held from a deer in your pen? I have a buck that was 262” and I fully expect him to be quite a bit bigger this year. In fact I should have 2 bucks scoring more than 250” this year and another over 200”.
-What are the top two things you’ve learned from raising deer? Can I list 3? I have learned a lot about the nutritional needs of whitetails. With my experience raising other livestock I thought I knew a bit about animal nutrition but I had to throw all that out the window and start over when it came to the whitetails. I could write about this for the rest of the day so I will just leave it at that. Also I have learned a great deal about whitetail genetics. After artificially breeding our whitetail does to the biggest bucks on earth and seeing the results of those planned matings, I learned a lot about genetics. With that said, there is a whole lot more we don’t know. Again, I could write a lot more on this topic alone. The other top thing that I learned was about how individual whitetails are. I doubt that 1% of the hunting public realizes just how individual whitetails are. They have different personalities and habits. Appreciating this can really help those hunters who are keying in on killing a particular buck. He will have personality traits that are different from other bucks.
The second part of this three section series will be up next Monday, June 27th.
