As a speaker at the 6th annual Quality Deer Management’s national convention in Valley Forge, PA, Jeff Foxworthy shared that “Next to my God, my family and my friends, my greatest passion in life is the whitetail deer.”
Foxworthy, noted for his redneck humor, owns a 2,400 acre spread not too far from Atlanta, Georgia where he actively practices quality deer management – growing foodplots and managing his own deer population.
The pratice of quality deer management is a controversial one. Many feel that growing food plots for deer is nothing more than a glorified means of baiting deer which waters down the “fair chase” ethics most hunters pratice. Supporters of the practice say it is the future of deer hunting and that it provides for a healthy means of deer management.
Foxworthy describes his efforts at quality deer management as an obsession and says he lays awake at night thinking of ways to improve his food plots or of a better place to erect a treestand.
He interjected some humor into his talk with the crowd in attendance just to make sure people knew he hadn’t gone all serious on them, with a spinoff from his “you might be a redneck if” tradition of jokes. He uses quality deer manager instead of redneck.
”If you have more pictures of deer than your children, you might be a quality deer manager.”
”If your deer eat better than your family does, you might be a quality deer manager.”
”If your deer have new bedding cover, but your wife doesn’t, you might be a quality deer manager.”
Foxworthy says his efforts are paying off. Last year he bagged his best buck ever from his land – a product of his quality deer management program. Having passed up on this buck the year before, it weighed in at 255 pounds and had 12 points. It also scored 178 6/8.
Tom Remington
