Send us your best whitetail stuff (and don't forget to attach pictures!)

The Rack Report Blog Contributors - Russell Graves

Russell Graves - Believes whitetails shouldn't be photographed in the back of a truck with their tongue hanging out.
Location - Texas

The Rack Report Blog Contributors - Brian Strickland

Brian Strickland - Has 369,518 acres of land that you can hunt on. Call him at (555) 281-HUNT.
Location - Colorado

The Rack Report Blog Contributors - Tony Hansen

Tony Hansen - Is pretty confident Michigan will release at least 300,000 archers into the woods this fall.
Location - Michigan

The Rack Report Blog Contributors - Jake Fagan

Jake Fagan - He's really just here to hang out, so don't mind him.
Location - Georgia

The Rack Report Blog Contributors - Will Brantley

Will Brantley - Loves hunting in a dorag because it makes him look Ramboish. Some may call it Little Man Syndrome.
Location - Tennessee

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Rising as Fast as Gas Prices

went to my local farm store here in C-town and picked up a couple of sacks of deer corn today. Although I expected the price to be high, I swallowed hard when my buddy Matt told me that the price is now $9.60 for a 50-pound sack.

And it is still going up...

So I became curious. Since I am a record keeping nerd, I got back home and ran a report off Quicken to glean the price of corn from 2006 until present. What I found was astounding.

The price of deer corn as nearly doubled in two years.

You can see from the graph that after a slight downturn in February 2007, the price has steadily increased since but accelerated this spring and summer.

The reasons are numerous I suppose but the two things stand out as the main culprits are:

1. The increased demand for biofuels in which corn is a key ingredient;

2. The Midwest floods this summer affected a sizable percentage of the nation's corn acreage.

Unlike many hunters in my part of Texas, I don't spend much time hunting near feeders. I do however, spend lots of time photographing wildlife over feeders and have several of them scattered around here. I try to keep the feeders filled with corn year-round but that has become an expensive proposition.

To counteract the price increase, I've set my feeder motors to only spin for about two to three seconds only in the morning. Since only about a half pound of corn comes out in one feeding, a fifty pound sack lasts for just shy of a month.

However, I wonder what Texans who hunt over feeders are doing?

Are high corn prices causing you to cut back or do you just grin and bear it chalking it up to the price of doing what you love?

Do you feed an alternative to corn?

I'd love to hear your strategies for coping with the high prices.

Russell Graves - Son of the Alamo

Labels: Texas

Published by The Whitetail Team on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 8:53 PM.

Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]

Please visit our sponsor.