10 minute read
FATE VS. LUCK
from KY FALL 2020
by DandKDesign
IN THE DEER INDUSTRY
By: Gail Veley • Sponsored by IDEFA
Does “fate” really exist, or is it just a word we use when there is no explanation for a peculiar sequence or happening? Deer farmer and Habitat Enhancement Specialist
Derek Borkholder wonders how “fate” versus “luck” plays a role in a deer farmer’s success. The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes “fate” as the predominant or determining cause or will in which things in general are believed to come to be, or why events happen as they do. “Luck” is defined as the ability to prosper or succeed especially through chance or good fortune (rather than through one’s own actions.)
Perhaps today the more modern definition of “fate” has a karma-like meaning akin to mystical and unknown powers that determine the outcome of certain things. “It must have been a score of round-glass wearing Atheists who had a pow wow and came to this ludicrous conclusion to determine the more modern definition of fate,” Borkholder said. “They try to take God’s will or blessings out of the definition. But I believe fate makes something happen.”
Borkholder, 25, has spent considerable time wondering “what could this possibly have to do with deer farming? Deer industry experts know that experience and technique have shaped the industry into exactly what it is today,” he said. Borkholder has also often contemplated “what if a few perhaps incidental situations had a different outcome? What if Kurt Waldbogel had lost Max as a button buck?” Known to all in the industry as one of the greatest whitetail bucks to ever exist, Max’s pedigree can still be found today in 95% of all auction catalogs.
There are other questions to ponder as well, such as what if Henry Woodard was overcome with the crazy notion to release Gladiator into a hunting preserve? What if Blue 37 had run headlong into a fence as a two-year-old and never recovered? The infamous doe, responsible for producing so many fine bucks, lived to be nearly 20 years old. Borkholder believes there are still other questions worth considering such as what if Gene Fleece had been a star baseball player instead of a deer farmer? Instead, Fleece produced deer whose genetics everyone wildly sought after for their farm. “Everybody has bred everything he ever produced,” Borkholder said. “He was lucky. (Or was he?)”
Borkholder recalled a time that could have so easily gone wrong, but didn’t, for his family. On the side of busy U.S. Route 30 in Ohio a decade ago, a quick-thinking Lamar Borkholder closed the trailer door only a second before Patrick does 110, 111 and 112 could have leapt out, almost certain to become roadkill. After vaccinating all three does, Borkholder’s father Eddie Ray climbed deep in the trailer, mistakenly thinking they were all dead. But in the blink of an eye all three leapt up and were making a beeline for the open door. Had Lamar not been standing there, perhaps the Patrick line as we know it today would not exist. “They were lucky. (Or were they?)” Borkholder wonders.
If those five situations had turned unfortunate “what would out industry look like today?” Borkholder asked. “I would dare wager that much of the deer in a farmer’s herd would not exist today.” He also relates the positive outcome of these circumstances, to his own experience harvesting a wild deer of a lifetime.
“Let’s travel from the deer inside your pens and into the wild deer roaming the wilderness of north America,” Borkholder begins. “Most of us have a passion for deer hunting. I have a particular passion for managing and enhancing properties to help increase the odds of harvesting mature bucks. In March of 2016 I had yet to kill a mature buck. I only dreamed of one day achieving that goal. On a cold afternoon I was helping my Dad fill the feeders on our family hunting property. We were on our way to filling a second feeder and had just turned onto our pine tree lined trail, when I spotted a shed a few hundred feet ahead,” he said.
“I jumped from my perch and onto the feeder and then sprinted the short distance to pick up the left side of a 125” three-and-a-half year old buck that had been living on our property that we had never seen in person,” he explained. Later recognized by his right-sided crab claw, this wild buck was every free-range hunter’s fantasy. “I let out a little screech and immediately set a seemingly impossible goal of finding the right side and harvesting him the next year. Deep inside I knew it would take a lot of luck to achieve that goal. (Or would it?) A week later my Dad and my brothers were working on the property and Dad had grilled burgers for lunch. He wanted me to tell the others that lunch was ready. On my way to get them, I spotted something in the one tree-lined trail a half mile from where I found the original shed. I ran as fast as I could. The closer I got to it, I started to realize was lie ahead. Picking up Part Two of an impossible dream I held in my hand the right side of a buck I now called Big Boy. Luck struck again!! (Or did it?)”
“Fast forward to eight months later and countless hours of studying trail cameras and pictures of Big Boy,” Borkholder said. “I was in my blind awaiting sunrise. None of my brothers or father or I had seen anything of Big Boy since mid-September except trail camera pictures. Soon after sunrise an old buck we had been watching for three years came trotting through. He had been on the decline and barely scored 110 inches. I had a decision to make. By the time I decided to take him, he was on the way out and never responded to my whistle. Soon after I spotted a nice buck chasing a doe. I recognized the crab-claw. Then the doe came through an opening in the woods about a 100-yards away. I put my crosshairs on the scope on that spot until he half walked half trotted through it. I pulled the trigger and he jumped and disappeared. I just knew I had him.”
However, things at that point took a different direction. “I turned around to watch a nice nine-point and obviously I didn’t think of shooting him because I had my buck already. Forty minutes later, a nice buck appeared from where mine had disappeared to. The closer he got I started to realize it was Big Boy,” Borkholder shared. “My heart sank. What in the world do I do now? Did he have a look alike? He gave me a perfect shot and even turned his head, showing he his imperfection on his right side that identified him. So, I took aim and fired a perfect shot, yet a sense of uncertainty dominated my excitement. I waited on my Dad and together we walked over to him and discovered another bullet hole in his neck a fraction of an inch from his main artery. My first shot didn’t faze him. He came back looking for his doe. I was one lucky hunter. (Or was I?)”
As Borkholder analyzed the story of this prized buck, he realized the odds of everything lining up were staggering, as was the deck that was stacked against him, for accomplishing his dream. “Vegas would have probably put the odds at one million to one,” he said. “But with every bit of effort I put into hunting for sheds and studying pictures or every time I went hunting, I believe my odds increased. Yet it was truly a blessing from God that everything fell into my path.”
“Let’s go back and make the connection everyone is trying to make sense of,” he said. “The chances of a deer farmer making that perfect cross and, for at least a year, having the most sought-after buck in the industry seems like a long shot for many a farmer. The odds are stacked against most of us. How many times have you thought you were going to hit it dead on and it turned out to be a ‘dud?’ So, you just kept on going to the next group and then that same buck, at three or four, turned out to be another ranch owner’s early Christmas present? Was it your fault? Not really, considering his full brother a year earlier was a huge monster.”
“Yet the more we breed top does A.I. to the top sires and the more we study genetics and the more effort we put into our feeding programs, the more spot on we are to be successful,” Borkholder reminds us. “When this happens, we tend to say we got lucky, but the more effort we put in the more “luck” visits our farm. This industry is a huge group of people with goals and dreams pursued with a huge passion for whitetail deer. So, the next time someone raises a huge whitetail that everybody is talking about and buying five straws of at a time, let’s he happy for him and congratulate him because with enough passion and effort it might just someday be you. So, as the bucks start growing out this spring, we will again have a buck that steals the spotlight and only one thing is certain. Someone is going to be lucky. (Or is he?)”
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