A seed. There is perhaps no better symbol of the Whitetail Institute and its contributions to deer management as the company reaches a major milestone — its 20th Anniversary. The word “seed” is used in several contexts in the English language. An obvious use is to describe the seeds that we plant in the ground, where they sprout and grow into plants. But, the word also has analogous meanings — just as a seed is the physical body from which a plant grows, so too can “seed” describe an idea that is capable of growing into something great.
Both meanings aptly apply to the Whitetail Institute’s pioneering role and its continuing leadership in successful deer management.
RAY SCOTT’S IDEA — THE FIRST SEED OF A NEW INDUSTRY
The entire food-plot and deer-nutrition industries owe their birth to one thing: an idea that sprouted in Ray Scott’s fertile mind over more than 20 years ago. Ray believed that deer hunters could become deer managers and grow better deer by boosting nutrition. That idea was the seed that started the Whitetail Institute, gave rise to the food-plot and deer-nutrition industries, and played a major role in fostering the growth of what is now commonly described as quality deer management.
It’s amazing to think that more than 20 years have passed since Ray Scott got the idea that forages and other deer-nutrition products could be developed to help deer hunters and managers everywhere produce better quality deer. It started simply. Ray had stopped by his local farm-supply store to pick up his customary load of cereal grains to plant in his green fields. As usual, he was a little frustrated by all the different advice he got on “the best planting.” It happened every year, and every year he was somewhat disappointed.
As a favor to his friend and long-time customer the store owner tossed a bag of clover onto the back of Ray’s truck along with the rest of Ray’s purchase and advised him to try it. Ray planted all the seed in a buffet-style plot, and by pure chance, he just happened to plant the grains near the woods and the clover farther out toward the center of the field. The first time he hunted his buffet plot with the clover in the middle, he noticed that when deer entered the field in the afternoon to feed, they made a beeline straight through the grains and to the clover, and that they remained in the clover, feeding until dark.
Ray describes what went on in his brain that evening. “When I saw those deer head straight for the clover, something clicked in my mind. I wasn’t sure what it was, but something just clicked. I went back the next evening, and the deer did the same thing,” he said. The next week, a friend visited to hunt, and Ray decided to use his friend for an additional test. “When my buddy got here, I sent him over to the plot that had the clover in middle of it. I wanted to see if he noticed what I had, but I didn’t want to sway his comments, so I just said, ‘Hey, while you’re over there, see if you notice anything unusual about how the deer act.”
When the friend returned after that afternoon’s hunt, he confirmed Ray’s observations. As Ray describes it, “When he got back to the house, I asked him if he’d noticed anything interesting about how the deer acted, and he said, ‘Yes! I don’t know what you’ve planted out there in the middle of the field, but the deer love it!When they came out of the woods, they walked a straight line to the middle of the field without ever putting their heads down, and once they got to whatever is planted in the middle, they started feeding, and they were still there when I got out of the stand.’” As Ray listened to his friend’s report, the click in his brain became an exciting idea. “That was all it took,” he said. “I was absolutely convinced that if I could get the message out to other hunters like myself, they too would be really interested in a forage planting that would help them not only attract and hold more deer, but also help them grow better quality deer. It was a win-win situation for the deer and the hunter.”
THE SEED GROWS AND THE INSTITUTE IS BORN
Ray clearly remembers the early days when he took the first steps toward turning his idea into reality. “I knew that if forages could be specifically developed to help deer hunters improve the quality of their deer, demand would be huge. When we started out, though, we had nothing other than the idea — no facilities, scientists or other personnel. I knew that bringing the idea to reality would be a tough job, and risky from a business standpoint, and I might never have gone forward had it not been for one thing: I believed in it. I believed in it so strongly that I decided then and there that nothing would stop me.” It wasn’t hard for Ray to decide on what his first step would be: he needed to find out all he could about the clover he had tried by pure chance in his buffet plot. He already knew firsthand that the clover was highly preferred by his deer, but that was all he knew about it. For assistance in further investigating the clover, Scott contacted Randall Rogers, a certified wildlife biologist in Auburn, Alabama.
When Rogers reported back with the results of his investigation into the origins of the clover variety and the identity of its breeder, Ray got quite a surprise. “It turned out that the clover I had planted was a variety developed by an agronomist and plant geneticist less than an hour up the road from my home, Dr.Wiley Johnson, an agronomist and professor at Auburn University. Once I had the name of the man who had developed the clover I had planted, I set out to find out all I could about him as a plant breeder. As I continued to look into Dr. Johnson’s credentials, I became more and more impressed. Every source showed that Dr. Johnson was truly a world-renowned plant scientist.”
Ray immediately did two things, and the Whitetail Institute of North America was off and running. First, he hired Dr. Johnson and assigned him the task of developing a superior forage specifically for whitetail deer— one that would not only attract more deer but also provide them abundant nutrition to grow and reach more of their genetic potential. Next he brought in William Cousins, who still serves as an Institute vice president and its director of operations. Ray recalls, “At that time, Dr. Johnson had his hands full developing our first forage blend. We knew, though, that just having a forage blend that performed well for deer wasn’t the whole picture.” Having spent a lifetime hunting across North America, Scott already knew that the climate and deer genetics vary greatly in different areas.
“In those early days, there were somany questions that no one had really addressed yet in a scientific way. For instance, even though deer around Montgomery, Alabama had been restocked by translocation from other areas of North America where deer are comparatively large, some of central Alabama’s deer were still comparatively small and scrawny. Quite simply, we wanted to know why. That was the only way we could go forward in a real way to help hunters make up the shortfall. That meant that in addition to our forage research, we had to go much further and extend our research into such things as deer biology.”
With Dr. Johnson already working to develop the forage blend that would eventually become the Institute’s first and still the number one food plot planting in the world, Imperial Whitetail Clover, the rest of the newly expanded Institute team turned to the task of preparing the Institute’s first deer-research facilities. These initial elements included the purchase of property south of Montgomery, Alabama and the construction of enclosures and other structures where deer could be observed, segregated as needed and periodically removed for the collection of scientific data. As one of its first research efforts, the Whitetail Institute obtained the necessary permits and transported 19 fawns from areas famous for producing big whitetails, including Montana and Alberta. Upon arrival, the fawns were ear-tagged and eventually placed with equal numbers of Alabama fawns in the Institute’s new research enclosures.
The fawns were provided the same forages, consisting of free-range browse and a variety of plantings, including the Institute’s new experimental clover blend. It was immediately clear that the deer preferred the new clover blend over all other planted offerings. Over the next years, the deer were captured in the fall, their antlers were removed and measured. Other vital research data was also collected. “The first year’s results were not that surprising,” says Scott. “The northern deer were notably larger and had bigger, heavier antlers. The next year, though, the gap began to narrow, and that trend continued in later years.”
This was one of the first experiments of its kind in the deer-management industry. The study confirmed the importance of allowing deer to grow into maturity before harvest where maximum weights and antler sizes are the goal. Ofmost interest to Ray, though, was the role that nutrition played in the deer development. All the deer, those from the North and the native deer in the enclosures, showed huge gains when provided access to high quality nutritional supplementation. These observations only served to strengthen Ray’s conclusion that high-quality nutrition is critical in improving the quality of deer.
IMPERIAL WHITETAIL CLOVER — THE SEED THAT STARTED IT ALL
As a world-renowned scientist and plant breeder, Dr. Johnson began his work on developing the Institute’s first forage blend according to strict scientific methods.When it came to delivering the results hunters needed, he knew that the new product’s performance couldn’t be a gamble. It couldn’t just be a bag of seed. Instead, proper scientific procedure required that fixed goals be set and that product development be tailored to achieve those specific goals. And for the first time ever, the goals set for the new plant-breeding project would specifically concern whitetail deer. These included attractiveness and palatability to deer, high protein content, year-around availability, cold, heat and drought tolerance, early plant vigor, the ability of the forage to tolerate a variety of soil conditions and climates, and other factors.
In developing the Institute’s first proprietary perennial clover strain, Dr. Johnson gathered 100 different clover varieties from across the globe. These included selections from the U.S. commodities market, Europe and Turkey. After initial testing for the characteristics mentioned above, he selected forty varieties, which he had found to be the best candidates of the lot, for use as breeding stock. The winners were then repeatedly crossbred, and each time only the offspring that best exhibited the target traits were retained for additional breeding. After seven years, a new hybrid was found to satisfy the specified target goals. That new hybrid, Advantage Clover, ultimately became the backbone of Imperial Whitetail Clover and remains an important part of the blend today, along with Insight, another perennial clover specifically developed by Dr. Johnson for deer. Imperial Whitetail Clover was the first food-plot product specifically for deer. It truly is the seed “seed” of the entire deer-nutrition industry.
QUALITY DEER MANAGEMENT — ANOTHER SEED IS PLANTED
As testing of the newly finalized test blend continued in the Institute’s deer enclosures and a new 1,600-acre free range facility, Ray began to develop the next stage in the product-testing system — the network of testers across North America that over the past two decades has grown into a network of tens of thousands of field testers, along with certified research stations across the United States and Canada. In selecting the very first field testers, Ray didn’t have to look hard. As he recalls, “I already knew where to find the toughest testers on earth. They were the professional bass fishermen and other dedicated outdoorsmen I had already been working with for years on other projects.”
These early field testers included professional bass fishermen Hank Parker, Larry Nixon and Ken Cook. As Ray traveled the country conducting bass tournaments, he would package the new clover blend in unlabeled bags, mark each bag with “Formula X” written in heavy black marker, and give them to the fisherman, all of whom were also avid hunters. “Lay it on the line,” he said . “Tell me how it works or doesn't work next to your other plantings.” Ray knew that he had to be absolutely certain that the test blend would succeed with his new testers. One reason he cites is that he had a professional reputation to uphold.
“In any business, you can develop a good reputation or a bad reputation. It’s hard to develop a good reputation. It takes a long time and consistency for people to accept that when you say something, they can count on it. And once you have their respect, you have to be extremely careful not to tarnish it. Even the best reputation in the world can be lost overnight if folks think that you’re not being honorable with them or that you’re trying to use them for something. I believe I had developed a reputation among my fellow bass fisherman as a man of honor and principle, and if I had any doubts that the new test blend would perform well, I can guarantee you that it would have never made it out of our warehouse.”
Scott knew that failure of the new test blend would spell a quick end to the young company. “These guys, especially the professional fishermen, are approached all the time by people wanting them to endorse new products, and they really have to be convinced that a new product is great before they’ll say so.” But, he was sure that it would not fail, and the results these early field testers reported showed that he was right. Finally in 1988, after thorough research and testing, the small staff knew they had a product worthy of the Whitetail Institute. Randall Rogers named it Imperial Whitetail Clover. Ray Scott smiles when he’s asked about the early days of the clover. “I remember when the Institute first introduced Imperial Whitetail Clover to the public. I met with a big seed-industry executive and asked him how much he thought we’d sell in the first year. He said we’d be lucky to sell 100,000 pounds total in all of North America. I looked him dead in the eye and said that we’d sell over one million pounds. And we did. The demand for it was that high, and we knew it would be. People were hungry for it, and the product was that good.”
THE SEEDLING BEGINS TO GROW
As business exploded, Imperial Whitetail Clover bags filled the warehouses that had been purchased along with the Institute’s new property. The small staff couldn't handle the volume of business and requests for information. By 1990, it was make-or-break time; the Institute could grow or stand still. To the great benefit of hunters and managers everywhere, it chose the latter course. Ray invited his sons, Wilson and Steve Scott, to invest and work in the Institute. Both were avid outdoorsmen and had business degrees and years of hands-on business experience under their belts. Fortunately for Scott, they were ready, willing and able to step up to the plate, and Wilson and Steve remain vice presidents of the Whitetail Institute to this day.
The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and once again, Ray found that he had made a good move. The business more than doubled in the first three years after the arrival of the Scott brothers, and it has doubled several more times since then. “I couldn't have done it without Wilson, Steve and William Cousins” says the elder Scott. “They put their hearts and souls into the business and built a reputation in the deer-nutrition business that is second to none.”
From the very outset, the Whitetail Institute has maintained a unified understanding that started with Ray. “There is only one way to build a business that will be successful and continue to grow over the long term,” he said. “You have to provide the best quality products in the industry, and back them up with superb customer service. Once a customer honors you with his business, you owe it to him to give him his money’s worth. But if you want him to come back again and again, you’ve got to do more than that — you’ve got to give him the support he needs. Some customers need very little help. Others need a lot and will call you again and again with questions. You have to treat each one the same. You have to give each one full service every time he calls. If your products are the best available, and if you are there to help him when he needs you, every time he needs you, and you give him your best every time, he’ll be back again and again.”
This philosophy is clearly evident in everything the Institute does, and it became evident early on that hunters weren’t just looking for information about Imperial Whitetail Clover alone. As use of Imperial Clover spread across North America, it became increasingly obvious to Scott that hunters were literally starving for nutrition and management information about deer, and that education would be critical to help them grow bigger and better deer and to improve their hunting experience. After the need to educate hunters was recognized, the Whitetail institute again took concrete steps to do what was necessary. One such step was the Institute’s publication of Whitetail News, the original journal of the whitetail and wildlife farmer, beginning in 1991.
You can’t help but smile if you compare those early issues to today’s Whitetail News. The first issue of Whitetail News was an annual publication and only 12 pages long. Although the information contained in those early issues is solid, it’s also rudimentary compared to the information provided in current issues. And there’s a good reason why:
Today’s hunters and managers are far more highly educated about what it takes to grow bigger and better deer. Today, Whitetail News is published three times a year and averages 80 pages. In its pages, the Institute educates hunters and wildlife managers, not only about Whitetail Institute products but also about other available plantings and a wide array of deer-nutrition topics. The Institute also provides advice on responsible and highly effective deer management techniques, including articles about selective harvesting, which includes letting young bucks walk and harvesting does.
To further meet customer demand for information, a 20-minute how-to video on producing trophy bucks was also created. And as is still the case today, the video is provided free to anyone who calls; all they are asked to cover are the shipping and handling costs. Over the decades, the video has been revised and updated eight times with the latest information available, and it now runs nearly a full hour. The eighth edition has just been completed and is now available.
In keeping with the philosophy that still drives the Institute to go the extra mile in servicing the needs of its customers, the Whitetail Institute also began staffing a new, toll-free customer help line in the late 1980s. In hiring those first consultants, the Institute had three over-riding criteria that remain to this day: they had to be deer hunters themselves, they had to be eager to learn about the Institute’s products, and they had follow the Golden Rule — to treat customers the way they would want to be treated. The consultants relayed information from one customer to another and kept up with the field testers, and they built their own database of what worked best and where and when. That single act of providing Institute customers with immediate human contact has perhaps done as much as anything else to keep the Institute in its position as the industry leader. By making the extra effort to provide a source of free information to the public, the Institute realized an unanticipated benefit. It got something back in return: the Institute discovered the best Research and Development Department ever — its own customers and field testers.
“The interest in nutrition and good management was amazing,” Ray said. “We found out there were hunters all over the country who were totally ready to go the extra mile for good deer herds and good hunting. They were willing to invest time, effort and money to improve their hunting environment. The unexpected thing, though, was that many of them told us of specific planting issues they had that they wanted us to address with new products. In other words, we had a precise way to measure customer demand for a product even before that product had made it to the drawing board.”
In fact, more ideas for research and development projects have been generated by field tester comments and suggestions than any other source. It’s one of the most important links the Whitetail Institute has. Not surprisingly, some of the loudest voices were from the many recreational hunters who did not have enough land, time or equipment to engage in “farming.” “They needed what was essentially a ‘quick ‘n easy’ seed forage,” said veteran hunter Steve Scott. “And I can understand it. Many of our customers have very small hunting areas and no access to tractors and farming equipment. We needed to formulate a good seed blend that could literally be thrown on the ground and still provide a good quality forage.” This need was met when, after several years of intense research and testing, Imperial No-Plow Wildlife Seed Blend was ready for the market. It scored big with the hunters for both whitetail and turkey.
“We were also hearing from folks who had soils that were drier,” Steve said, “which made perennial plots harder to establish. So we went to work again and, after six years of research and a lot of testing, developed Imperial Alfa-Rack. It’s a unique alfalfa-clover blend developed specifically for well-drained soils.”
All of the consulting staff and researchers work extensively with experts within the company and outside consultants as well. Together, the research staff at the Whitetail Institute has more than 20 college and higher degrees and hundreds of years of combined experience in deer-nutrition- related work.
THE OFF-SHOOT OF QUALITY DEER MANAGEMENT
As the first forage product specifically engineered for deer, Imperial Whitetail Clover changed hunters’ mindsets. No longer would they plant just for the fall. No longer would their planting goal be just to bring deer within shooting range. Now, they had a new goal: to actually improve the quality of the deer they hunted. No longer were they just planters and hunters. Now, they were becoming something else. They were helping create what are now commonly referred to as quality deer managers. As was previously mentioned, the founders of the Whitetail Institute knew before they started that the new company would not be a strictly “food-plot” company. Instead, they were determined to be the No. 1 source of scientific information concerning the entire deer-nutrition leg of the age/genetics/nutrition triangle, and they immediately set out to do just that by developing mineral, vitamin and other nutritional supplements as well. To that end, the Institute enlisted the assistance of Brent Camp, who brought to the table more than 25 years experience in the feed-and-supplement business for both livestock and whitetails.
“At the time, products being marketed as mineral/ vitamin supplements for deer were little more than just glorified salt licks that did very little in the way of whitetail nutrition,”Wilson Scott said. Following critical research into the specific minerals deer need, especially during the critical spring and summer months when bucks are growing antlers, does are lactating and fawns are growing, the Institute introduced Imperial 30-06 Mineral/Vitamin Supplement in 1991 and Imperial 30-06 Plus Protein in 1995. Not content to rest on the successes of these supplements, though, the Institute pushed the envelope again with a revolutionary Seasonal Supplement System appropriately called Cutting Edge. The system provides three different formulations of nutritional supplements designed to match the specific nutrition needs of whitetail at different times of the year.
And have the Institute and its efforts to help hunters had an impact? Judging by the records of the Boone and Crocket and Pope & Young clubs, the question can be answered with a resounding, “Yes!” According to those records, the annual average number of record-book bucks taken each year has increased 500 percent. Without question, the huge improvements in the quality of deer all across North America can be credited, in large measure, to the continuing efforts of hunters and managers to learn and implement quality deer management practices. It had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was the Whitetail Institute of North America.
THE FUTURE
As the Whitetail Institute of North America enters its third decade of service, it can do so with great pride in knowing the leadership role it has taken in improving the quality of deer herds and hunting nationwide. The Institute’s efforts have led the way in educating hunters about good management as well as providing highly nutritious forages and other nutritional supplements for their deer.
Ray assures us that the Institute will continue to maintain its high standard in product development and customer service in the future. “There’s a new breed of hunters and landmanagers out there, and they're doing one heck of a job. Our job is to continue to provide them the best deer nutrition products, information and support possible." With the recent loss of Dr. Johnson, who passed away in 2006, the Institute has brought to its team another world-renowned plant breeder and hall-of-famer, Dr.Wayne Hanna, whose impressive credentials and achievements were outlined in Whitetail News, Volume 17, No. 1. (www.whitetailinstitute.com) Dr. Hanna already has numerous research and development projects well under way. So, what will the next 20 years bring? Although nothing in the future is certain, our field testers can remain confident about several things.
First, the Institute will be in tune with the wants and needs of hunters and managers. We always listen. Second, research will continue to be the No. 1 focus at the Whitetail Institute, with regard to new and existing products alike. We believe there is always room for improvement. Third, the Whitetail Institute will continue to back up the best deer-nutrition products in the world with the best personal service, education and other support. Those are the reasons the Whitetail Institute is the leader of the deer nutrition industry. And those are the reasons it always will be.
