“I found out many years ago that getting a customer is only a small part of a successful enterprise. Keeping a customer is by far the most difficult — and rewarding — task. Also the most profitable,” Scott said. “So you have to have two basic things: an unquestionably good product and an outstanding customer service. I founded the Whitetail Institute on these principles and after 20 years I am extremely proud to have the best products in the industry and knowledgeable and responsive customer service that is second to none.”
Has the Institute succeeded in following Scott’s philosophy? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” And the facts show why.
THE WHITETAIL INSTITUTE IS COMMITTED TO HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCTS
Fact: The Whitetail Institute of North America pioneered the deer nutrition industry. Imperial Whitetail Clover, the Institute’s first forage product, is still the No. 1 food-plot planting in the world and the gold standard by which all other food plot products are measured.
Fact: The Whitetail Institute is the only food plot company that actually breeds many of the plant varieties included in its blends through an exhaustive process of genetic selection, cross-breeding and realworld
testing.
Fact: Whitetail Institute forage products contain Advantage and Insight, the only clover varieties scientifically developed for deer food plots.
Fact: The Institute’s research and development team is lead by top scientists in the fields of plant breeding and genetics. The Institute’s first director of forage research, Dr. Wiley Johnson, developed Advantage and Insight. The Institute’s current director of forage research, Dr. Wayne Hanna, a world-renowned expert and member or the Department of Agriculture’s Research Hall of Fame, is continuing to develop new plant varieties for the Institute.
Fact: The Institute conducts its plant research and breeding according to strict scientific protocols. For example, Advantage clover was developed by gathering more than 100 clover varieties worldwide, crossbreeding them, retaining only the best offspring for further breeding and repeating theprocess for seven years.
Fact: The Institute’s forage research and development are scientifically goal-oriented toward producing the highest quality forages for deer. Goals include high nutritional content, early seedling vigor, and tolerance to heat, drought, disease, browse and cold — and, of course, extreme attractiveness to whitetails.
Fact: Imperial forage products are blends rather than single plant varieties. The reason is that blends of multiple plant varieties help the overall blend perform well in all areas mentioned above better than any single plant variety could — at least, if those blends are painstakingly developed and tested. And Whitetail Institute forage blends certainly are. Imperial Chic Magnet is all WINA perennial forage chicory, which is a component of other Whitetail Institute forage blends, such as Chicory Plus, Alfa-Rack Plus and Extreme. The Institute began packaging WINA chicory separately as Chic Magnet to meet customer demand.
Fact: After initial research and development are completed, potential new products begin the next stages of the Institute’s exhaustive testing process. The process begins with testing on deer in enclosures, followed by free-range testing at the Institute, free-range testing at more than 100 Certified Research Stations from Florida to Canada, and then additional free-range testing under real-world conditions by field testers everywhere Imperial products can be grown in North America.
Fact: The Institute goes to the extra effort to pre-inoculate Imperial forage blends that will benefit from inoculants.
Fact: The Institute goes to the extra effort to coat its seeds with the finest polymer coatings available to maximize seedling survivability.
Fact: The Institute spares no effort in seeking plant varieties that will perform well in deer food plots. These efforts have resulted in revolutionary food plot products, such as Imperial Whitetail Extreme, a perennial that will grow with roughly half the rainfall required for other perennials, and Imperial Whitetail Winter-Greens, a unique brassica blend that outperforms standard brassicas by a wide margin.
Fact: Imperial Whitetail Results is a full-spectrum deer feed available exclusively through Southern States retailers and even includes WaterShed rain technology. The Whitetail Institute has used an extremely high-quality deer feed of its own formulation for years in its testing and research. However, until now, it could not be produced economically enough to be made a mainline Whitetail Institute product. Faced with the choice of reducing product quality or not selling the feed, the Institute chose the latter. Now that an economical way has been found to produce the feed, it is now being made available to the public.
Fact: Whitetail Institute 30-06 and 30-06 Plus Protein mineral/vitamin supplements are scientifically formulated to contain the correct minerals and vitamins in the proper forms and in the correct ratios to provide the best possible nutritional benefit to deer. And, they are formulated with taste enhancers, scent enhancers and Devour, a proprietary ingredient that can be addictive to deer, to make these supplements as attractive as possible to deer.
Fact: Whitetail Institute Cutting Edge products are a wholly unique form of nutritional supplements designed in three stages, each to meet the unique nutritional requirements of deer during a specific part of their annual cycles. No other product has ever attempted to address the cyclical nutritional needs of deer in this way.
THE WHITETAIL INSTITUTE IS COMMITTED TO HIGH-QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE
As mentioned, the Whitetail Institute still adheres to the philosophy of its founder,
Ray Scott, by backing up the best quality products in the industry with the best customer service in the industry.
Fact: The Whitetail Institute has a staff of highly trained in-house consultants on staff and available on a toll-free line so field testers who have questions can immediately get someone on the phone during business hours and be assured that the information they receive will be knowledgeable.
Fact: Many of the Institute’s new product ideas come from interaction with its field testers. By far, the most common way the Institute gets its new product ideas is by noticing trends in customer requests.
Fact: The Whitetail Institute maintains a network of experts on its in-house and adjunct staff in a broad range of disciplines related to deer nutrition. This network includes Dr. Hanna, Dr. Carroll Johnson, farming expert, Mark Trudeau and numerous others with wildlife biology and other degrees. Each member of the Whitetail Institute team is also cross-trained in other disciplines.
Fact:The Whitetail Institute publishes Whitetail News, the Number One deer nutrition journal in the world. Whitetail News features informative articles on Whitetail Institute products, but that’s not all — not by a long shot. In its pages, you’ll find extremely useful articles by the top outdoor writers in the country. Past articles are also available on the Web. The Whitetail Institute does this for its field testers for free.
With as many new companies and products flooding into the deer nutrition and food plot markets, be sure you don’t fall for a sales pitch that might leave you wishing you hadn’t. To be sure that doesn’t happen, look for the Whitetail Institute name on any product you’re considering. That way you can be sure that you are buying the highest-quality, most heavily researched product in the industry, and that it will be supported by informed, timely customer service.
