Absolutely prices have gone up during his time. And that's on him. But it was just conveniently left out of the conversation on that the BIGGEST driver in the price jump of Axis was the storm.

The other inputs count. No doubt. But they are second to the storm. Period.

@Gunny - I know a lot of good ranchers who did it all to try and save their animals, hard scrabble folks, dirt in the teeth kind of ranchers that were over powdered by Uri. That storm was borderline act of God bad in many places. Power out for weeks in rural areas, after temps being in single digits for many days in a row. Just saying, it was harsh. And even the best of ranchers were going to lose exotic stock in that kind of weather.

This! The other issue is that you just can't go out and purchase a Axis herd. To find trophy huntable Axis bucks right now is really slim because all the ranches that have mature bucks and does are selling them as hunts. They can make a lot more money on the hunts than going through the expense of capture, transport, and take the chance of killing the animals during that process.
I agree with you that it's going to take quite a while to build the herds up and go from the yearling fawn stage to the dinner table or trophy room....with lots of expense of feeding on top of that due to the continuing drought.
It's going to be the same with black bucks.
The cost of the " super exotics" like Kudu, Gemsbock, Addax, Impalas, etc. is going to stay really high for many years as they suffered more losses than the BB's and Axis because they don't stand cold well at all and also had lots of mortality.

I agree brother but... I've been doing this a long time in the northwest hill country with exotics. I had lots of help of being taught of how to plan and react.
The key is keeping the animals up and moving... and to have lots of hot feed ( Alfalpha, sweet feed, etc) out for them to eat.
We keep all of that in our barns every year for those catastrophic times.
Myself and my 4 neighbors all have the same plan and helped one another. Totally we all lost just 3 BB and 2 Axis.
I'm just passionate about this because I know of so many guys who buy ranches, high fence them, stock them with animals, then don't have clue or are simply too lazy to put out the effort to save those animals.
I worked with and helped lots of landowners during that time and it just made me sad and upset on how many just did not react or do anything to prevent their losses.
Most just did not have the knowledge to know what to do..... some did not listen to people who do.
Understand sir I am not arguing or challenging you on what you say.... that is no way my intent. I'm just saying that I am active in and involved in the exotic industry for bunch of years and saw a bunch of landowners who just did nothing to help their animals.

You are def in the top of the top with your efforts. And the minimal loses show that. Pretty damn good. I'd say write a book! You're correct. Lots to be learned by the next ranching Gen.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm positive there are much more knowledgeable than myself for sure. Most of what I have learned has come from bad mistakes and some old hands with those animals that have forgot more than I will ever hope to know.