Texas Hunting Leases

You gotta love technology.  I remember as a kid being the youngest and having to get up and change the channel by hand for my dad and brothers.  Being the human remote control on college football days was enough to give you finger cramps by dinner time.  Fast forward to today and you have the internet for watching the show of your choice without commercial interruption and the ability to playback, freeze and fast forward.  Recently, I had a chance to watch some of the online episodes of the Academy Outdoors Show on my laptop.  Academy is smart to put this content on their website for more than the obvious reasons of advertising their already popular brand.  The popularity of web-based video content has been growing tremendously.  One need not look further than YouTube as an example and Academy is ahead of the competition with this one.

The Academy Outdoors show is a first rate program hosted by BASS Fishing Circuit Pro, Chad Brauer, and features incredible photography and a variety of hunting and fishing programming.  The programs run commercial free online and last about twenty minutes each.  You can also see them regularly on the Outdoor Channel from your television.  From Spring Turkey hunting in Tennessee to catching trout and redfish in south Texas, the Academy Outdoors Show has something for everyone.  Go see for yourself!

Brad Paisley’s hit song “Ticks” has come at time where checking for them on something other than a wife or girlfriend may be a good idea for South Texas hunters and ranchers.    Hunters along the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Brownsville as well as Starr, Maverick, Dimmit and Webb counties are being notified that the state quarantine zone has been expanded by the Texas Animal Health Commission.  Under this quarantine, landowners may be required to treat deer and exotic populations for the disease. Hunters should leave harvested animal hides behind and both are encouraged to call the TAHC for inspections.

The disease does not affect humans but can be devastating to untreated cattle.  Texas Cattle Fever has a history dating back to 1886 where cattle in Illinois were killed by infected herds moving in from Texas cattle drives.  Cattle in Texas have long been treated for ticks by using a dipping method developed on the King Ranch by Robert Kleberg.  However, Mexican herds still carry the disease over the border where wildlife can be infected.  Modern ways of treating deer populations include a “four-poster” method designed to distribute tickicide to the head, neck and ears while feeding.  This method was originated by some Kerrville scientists for other tick-transmitted diseases such as Lyme disease.  “Use of ivermectin-treated corn and 4-poster technology is vital to the ongoing campaign to eradicate cattle-fever ticks introduced to southern Texas on hosts such as cattle, horses, white-tailed deer, or exotic ungulate wildlife that come across the Rio Grande from Mexico,” says entomologist John George, who leads the research at Kerrville. “By using all our resources and knowledge, it will be possible to minimize or eliminate ticks on white-tailed deer and other ungulate wildlife, keeping U.S. cattle free of Texas fever.”

When hunting these areas of South Texas, make sure that you work closely with your land owner and the local state and health officials to keep this disease in check.  The Texas cattle industry is an important one to our state and is connected to providing private hunting lands that we all enjoy