By Kristopher Klemick
Take a moment to think about this: three decades of excellence. In today’s challenging environment, in which products, deer management principles and even companies come and go like heavy-racked bucks to a scrape, you might wonder what these boys from Alabama seem to do so exceptionally well year in and year out when others have fallen short. I’ve often heard that asked, so as any whitetail enthusiast would do, I set out to find the answers.
Some companies try to
capitalize on what’s hot at the moment or spend loads of time and money trying
to create the impression and excitement about a new must-have item. Typically,
though, marketing is priority No. 1. Research and testing in developing the
product are minimal, corners are cut, quality is subpar and customer service is
almost nonexistent. Honestly, how many gadgets or gizmos ever lived up to your
expectations? Fortunately, more than 30 years ago, the Whitetail Institute of
North America came into our lives, and hunters and deer managers across the
whitetail’s range are thankful for it every day. So where did it start? The story begins in the
mid-1980s with longtime deer hunter Ray Scott, who for years had planted what
Southerners call green fields. Ray struggled with the annual plant-and-pray
dice game, hoping that Mother Nature would cooperate, as would the cereal
grains he planted each year.
One year in the early
1980s, the owner of a farm-supply store Ray frequented gave him a bag of clover
and encouraged him to give it a shot. That year, Ray planted a dozen green
fields with various cereal grains and, ever the opportunist, left an area in
the middle of one plot for the clover. The stand took hold, and Ray hunted it
one afternoon. Six deer came to the field and walked through the cereal grains
to feed in the clover. Ray shot a nice 7-point, which wrapped up the day. He
went back to the stand several days later and witnessed the same deer behavior.
“That’s when the light came on,” Ray
said. Deer were entering the plot and
going straight for the clover, feeding on it for hours. They passed over a
smorgasbord of other forage in favor of the clover. Later that season, Ray put
a friend in the stand and told him to watch closely what the deer fed on. After
dark, Ray’s friend said, “I don’t know what you planted in the middle of that
field, but all the deer that came in went straight to it.” Case closed. Ray wanted to know why. It took some time and a lot of investigating,
but Ray eventually discovered the person responsible for developing the clover
variety that had produced such incredible success. To his surprise, the man
was less than an hour from him: Dr. Wiley Johnson, a well-respected and
world-renowned agronomist, plant geneticist and professor at Auburn University.
Ray asked Dr. Johnson why deer preferred
the clover to the other forages. Dr. Johnson replied, “It’s just the nature of
the plant. Not only is it more attractive, but it’s much more nutritious as
well.” Ray asked him if he could develop a new variety of clover specifically
for deer, and when Dr. Johnson replied, “Yes I can,” Ray hired him and the work
began. Researchers gathered more than
100 varieties of clover from across the world for extensive study. They knew
they wanted something that would thrive across the whitetail’s range. It had to
be heat and drought-resistant and cold-tolerant, and it had to establish
quickly.
Plus it had to offer an extremely high protein content and be exceptionally attractive to deer. After seven years of repeated testing and crossbreeding, the Institute’s first proprietary perennial clover variety created for whitetail deer was developed and ready for hunters. At the time, however, skeptics wondered how many people would see value in what could essentially be considered as part-time recreational farming. After all, farmers plant fields to earn a living, so why would anyone spend time, money and other resources feeding deer? Having seen what was possible, though, Ray knew. Today, business continues to grow for the Whitetail Institute of North America, and at a pace exceeded only by the growth of many state record books. Such success isn’t by chance. The Whitetail Institute is the leader in deer nutrition because that’s all the company does. You won’t find its name on other products outside that wheelhouse. The Institute has never wavered from the mission of providing hunters and deer managers with the highest-quality nutritional products that are scientifically developed and proven in the field. All Whitetail Institute products must pass years of relentless testing and study followed by even more tests before a bag makes it into your hands. Whitetail Institute’s commitment to research and development is second to none in the industry, but it doesn’t stop there. Its customer service can be summarized in two words: world class. Nowhere else will you find the level of professional support and information than what you’ll get from the Whitetail Institute of North America. In fact, the magazine you’re holding is an example. Offered to all Whitetail Institute customers, Whitetail News has helped educate and entertain legions of hunters and habitat managers with the most comprehensive information about whitetail nutrition from the day the first edition was published in 1991. And although this magazine is an excellent resource, the Whitetail Institute’s priority is to serve you. Its employees want to be certain you enjoy the same level of success as what you see and read about on these pages. How can they do that? The answer is simple: their people. William Cousins and Ray’s sons, Steve and Wilson, run the day-to-day operations. In fact, when you call (800) 688-3030, the first friendly voice you’ll hear is Steve’s. Within seconds, you’ll speak to one of Whitetail Institute’s qualified consultants, who can answer questions ranging from soil testing and fertilization to planting techniques and equipment.
They have an endless
clearinghouse of information. What
makes that part of the Whitetail Institute experience so special is you’ll
never be transferred to a line that just rings or cycles you back to the menu
where you were 12 steps earlier. You also won’t be handed from one person to
the next in all the wrong departments. But perhaps the most fundamental
difference and most important? You’ll never hear, “Your call is important to
us. Please hold, and the next available representative will be with you
shortly.” Everyone, including the owners, are ready to answer the phone the
minute you need them. Standing in the middle of a field scratching your head
wishing you had someone to talk to? Have a problem with weeds? Not sure what
plants would do best in your area? Curious about mineral supplementation? Call
the Whitetail Institute. Its professional consultants are available to serve
you. It’s that exceptional level of dedication to you, Whitetail Institute
customers and friends, that keeps Whitetail Institute products at the heart of
managing deer. Two of the pillars from
which the company was built — its commitment to you and the whitetail deer —
continue to be the company’s guiding principles. Providing exceptional
customer service and products that deliver on their promise are foundational to
an honest day’s work at the Whitetail Institute, and folks there would not have
it any other way. “In any business,” Ray
said, “you can develop a good reputation or a bad 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 careful not to
tarnish it. Even the best reputation can be lost overnight if folks think that
you’re not being honest and honorable with them.” “We’re proud of the reputation we’ve built
over the past three decades, and we plan to work hard to continue to earn
respect from hunters across North America,” Steve said. “Our philosophy is
really fairly simple. We follow the Golden Rule, which guides us to treat each
and every customer or potential customer exactly like we would want to be
treated if we were on the other end of the conversation.”
