A deer with a purple tag reading 221 looks toward a small hole in the wall of a containment room, in the Major League Whitetails facility on Fisher Rd in Athens, Ohio. This deer would be among the first in a process known as artificial insemination.
An unconscious doe is placed on a stretcher where their legs are fastened in order to ensure they remain still during the lengthy process of artificial insemination. From left to right: Herb White, Jon Nese, Greg Severance, Russel Ogle, and Brandon White. Herb White takes the deer's left leg while Jon Nese, secures the right leg to the stretcher as Greg Severance watches. Russel Ogle and Brandon White prepare to secure the deer’s front two legs to the stretcher. This process brings together deer farmers from around the country to help Major League Whitetails complete the process with their deer; in return MLW allows those farmers to bring deer in for artificial insemination at their facility.
The next step in the AI process is to prepare the deer for the sperm injection. Angel Kenard, a worker for Advanced Deer Genetics, shaves the deer's underside allowing for access to the deer's reproductive organs.
Jason Coe, owner of Advanced Deer Genetics, examines the ovaries before injecting the chosen buck sperm, and completing the Artificial Insemination process.
Russel Ogle awaits a trailer that contains a recently purchased deer from another farm. This occurs every now and then but tends to be more frequent at the end of August because of the yearly Auction at Mt. Hope.
A .22 caliber rifle, belonging to Rachel Bahl, leans on the side by side’s bench seat. The rifle is only brought when Rachel performs a fence check. These mandatory checks can be for a number of reasons including fallen trees, animals that have gotten out, and sometimes animals that are getting in. The rifle is brought to ensure outside animals don't get into the hunting preserve.
The newly purchased white tail buck leaps out of the trailer into the hunting preserve. This buck was purchased from Whiskey River whitetails, a deer farm paid for by Whiskey River communications.
At 8 A.M. Rachel Bahl pours a bucket of grain into a food bowl in the juvenile buck paddock; the deer are fed with a molasses, grain mix. This mix allows the deer to get real nutrition which will help them grow into something worth hunting. The white tails alone require 490lbs of grain that is distributed through each paddock.
While moving through the bison enclosure the path is briefly blocked by the seven bison that are kept at Double Play Hunting Preserve, on Fisher rd in Athens, Ohio.
A lone deer stands in the back off the hunting preserve, he most likely smells that the does are in heat. The bucks at MLW are bred specifically for their antlers, those are the appeals, those are what draw customers.
