Many management projects are aimed at maximizing antler size and quality. This investment in the future will need time to produce maximum results. The best results come from bucks that are born, well into the management program. These buck fawns have been born to mothers that had been treated very well all of their lives. Consequently, these doe bear the healthiest fawns, that when at maturity have the best possible conformation and antler size.
Bucks mature and age, much as a man does, from boyhood to adulthood.
I use the 4.5 year old buck as the breaking point between the three classes. A buck s body matures at 4.5 years of age and tends to be heavily muscled such as an athletic man in his prime. At 4.5 years of age their bodies deepen from the back to the brisket much as a teenager s chest develops. These 4.5 year olds present a straight back, and straight line from brisket to belly. Also, a very important point, for the first time, at 5.5 years old a buck can direct any surplus nutrition into antler growth, building his body has been the number one demand for the first 4.5 years.