MATADOR, Texas -

Plenty of improvements have been made over the years to the livestock business at the Matador Ranch, but many things are still much the same as they were a century ago. The old-timers would surely be surprised at the new hunting program, though.

In a little more than 10 years the ranch has gone from selling a few quail leases and deer hunts to building a complete deer breeding facility and managing the entire ranch for the benefit of both cattle, horses and wildlife.

Bob Kilmer, manager of the 130,000 acres in Motley, Floyd, Dickens and Cottle counties, says that until about the mid-1990s, none of the ranches in the area knew the amount of hunting potential they were sitting on. About the same time, those same ranches started needing a little extra income.

“This ranch was like all the other ranches. As things got tougher and cattle markets started to pinch us, everybody had to start looking for other revenue,” he explains.

Kilmer says in those days many hunters could find ranches willing to let them hunt for free, but that changed when the landowners realized there was value in what they were giving away. Matador Ranch began by leasing a few tracts of land to quail hunters, and they slowly began taking on a few package deer hunters. After a time they began selling some day quail hunts.

“The whole time we were studying and trying to learn more about the wildlife side of the business, and more and more we realized that what we were doing with the cattle fit hand in hand with the wildlife management,” Kilmer says.

They did have to make a few adjustments to their cattle business, such as reducing stocking rates on parts of the ranch, but Kilmer says they needed to do those things anyway because of drought conditions. Managing for wildlife as well as livestock ended up enhancing the cattle production as well, he claims.

Kilmer says when he started working for Matador Ranch (he has also worked for other Koch Agriculture Company operations in Montana and Kansas) back in the 1970s, the practice was to spray every pasture for brush from fence to fence. That method worked great for quail, but there weren’t many deer.

In the 1980s and 1990s, things got a little tighter and the brush control suffered because it didn’t fit the budget as easily. The deer population immediately increased, and the quail did not suffer. Today, they still control brush, but not in the clear-cut methods of the past.

Several other changes were made that benefited both the cattle and the wildlife. Water was piped into areas where the animals were previously forced to travel long distances for a drink. New grasses were introduced, fences were built, and some rotational grazing programs were implemented.

Assistant Manager J.D. Russell says these different management programs have made them give more thought to the business side of ranching and has made better managers of them all.

 “It’s been a win-win for us. There are a lot of synergies there, being able to capture value from both sides and make the production better on both sides,” Russell says.

None of the changes were made without first studying the effects on income. Kilmer says they compared the loss of income from reducing stocking rates to the increase in wildlife income, and they also took into account the individual pastures and the type of habitat they contain.

“There are some areas that don’t sustain quail, so we don’t worry so much about them, but we sure may be concerned with the deer habitat there,” Kilmer explains. “We’ve had to alternate hats quite a bit.”

When Matador Ranch first began selling a few hunts, the cowboys were in charge of all the wildlife activities. Russell says when they were out feeding cows they might dump a little corn in the deer feeders and go on. Now several employees are devoted entirely to wildlife, and they work with a consulting biologist regularly.

Kilmer says this consulting biologist is important to them because in some cases they have progressed beyond their own knowledge and capabilities and need some specialized knowledge. The biologist surveys the deer numbers and suggests how many bucks should be harvested. Mule deer on the ranch are somewhat limited, so only a few mule deer hunts are offered each season. Last year the biologist suggested they only take 15, which they did; this year the number has been cut to 12.

The ranch has moved away from the old method of leases to package hunts, though they do still have a few quail leases. There were never any deer leases, only day hunts.

One of the most recent additions to the hunting program is the 1000-acre, high-fenced whitetail management area. The rest of the ranch is under a low fence. Deer are released into the managed area for the managed whitetail hunts. Kilmer says high fences come with some negative connotations, some deserved and some not, but he explains that 1000 acres in their country does not make for any type of easy or canned hunt.

“You think that we turn those deer we raise here in these pens loose and you can just walk up and pet them. Buddy, I’ll tell you what. They get out there in that brush and they figure it out really quick. They really do revert back very, very quickly,” Kilmer says.

To manage their genetics, Matador Ranch has entered the deer breeding business. Kilmer says it was another decision that was given a lot of thought beforehand and based on customer demand. The specific demands of their customers pushed the program forward. The ranch now owns 47 whitetail does, plus semen interest in several bucks in Ohio.

A new deer breeding barn is nearly complete, with pens and alleys outside to hold the breeding does. Working deer is somewhat similar to working cattle, but with a few alterations. The deer come into the breeding barn through an outside door that leads directly into a solid, completely enclosed and dark alley. This snake curves around just like many of those built for livestock, but toward the front are several boxes for individual deer. There is a small, covered window in each box that deer can be sedated through. Once they are sedated they can be taken out through large doors in the side, placed on a cart and wheeled into the AI laboratory.

For deer that need some sort of treatment that doesn’t require them to be unconscious, there is an enclosed chute at the front of the snake. It has the V shape of many chutes, though much more narrow, and the floor is raised about a foot off the ground. Once a deer is in this chute, a lever drops the floor from beneath them, wedging them down in the V.

To release the deer, the floor is raised and the head gate opened. When the deer leave the chute they go straight into a large room with many individual recovery stalls, all with solid and black walls, doors and ceilings. Does that have been sedated are wheeled into these stalls to recover.

Deer are worked in near total darkness, so only dim red bulbs are used. Kilmer says the same deer that try to jump out of the outside pens will have to be pushed along by hand in the darkness. They will go to a light, though, so white lights are used to draw them up the snake or into certain rooms in the recovery area.

A new hunting lodge was built to accommodate all the visiting hunters, and it is several steps above the hunting cabins of old. The 10,000 square-foot building has 12 bedrooms, all similar to a snazzy hotel room, as well as a pro shop, kitchen, dining room and great room.

“It’s certainly very plush for a hunter,” admits Kilmer.

The lodge isn’t just for the hunters, either. The cowboy crew eats lunch there on occasion.

Matador Ranch offers several types of hunts, and they haven’t had any trouble filling the book. All the deer hunts are four days and include lodging, meals, one-on-one guide and field and trophy preparation.

The ranch packages are for deer not in the managed area and are all for trophy bucks. The whitetail hunts cost $5000, mule deer $7000, and the ranch combo package of a whitetail and mule deer goes for $11,000. Repeat customers receive a discount.

Three-day turkey hunts for two toms are priced at $2500, and quail hunts are $1000 per gun per day for at least two hunters. Plans are in the works for a released quail package.

The managed whitetail package, which is inside the high fence, is priced according to the buck the hunter chooses. The guide who accompanies the hunter knows the bucks and their individual prices. These managed bucks score from 160 to 240, and the hunts range from $6500 to more than $20,000.

Most of the hunters go into the managed area already knowing what size and type of deer they would like to harvest, and like to pay for. Even so, Kilmer says, many times the hunters’ budgets change when they spot some big antlers.

 Kilmer tells of one hunter who had finished his hunt in the low-fenced area but planned to come back and hunt the managed area the following year and wanted to go look around. Before they drove into the pasture, though, he took his rifle out of the pickup.

When he was told that removing his rifle wasn’t necessary, the self-aware hunter responded, “No, you don’t understand. I don’t have any self-control, and I do not want to have to write you a check.”

By John Bradshaw, Livestock Weekly

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