Morani River Ranch Breeding Operations

As I drove through the whitetail pasture on my way to fix the water trough, I caught a glimpse of horns at the edge of the brush. I slowed the jeep and reached for my binoculars. Just at the edge of light and darkness stood one of the most impressive whitetail bucks I had ever seen. My heart was racing as I struggled to retain all I could of this incredible sighting for future reference.

He was a real jaw dropper! His dark chocolate horns blended into the mesquite around him, but at the same time, stood out. He was massive, wide and symmetrical. The dark hair on his forehead contrasted with the light grey body and his massive, swollen neck. The only non-typical points were his double split brow tines and an eight-inch drop tine on his left side. He looked to be over 24 inches wide and very heavy. As he turned sideways to check his escape route, I could see the four bladed tines stair-stepping down his long sweeping main beam. They lined up perfectly with his other side, so it looked as if he only had one antler. His T-2 was slightly shorter than his T-3 (typical for our south Texas genetics) but was still over 10 inches in length, with the T-3 close to 14 inches.

There was nothing weak about him. Before I could study him any further, he had enough of me and disappeared into the brush like a ghost fading into the shadows.

My mind was racing. Where had he come from? How could it be we had never seen him before?  How had this image evaded capture on one of the scouting cameras scattered around the ranch at water troughs? How old was he, and how long had he eluded the many hunters and hunting seasons on the ranch? Was I crazy? Was this some sort of stealth phenomenon, or was my mind playing tricks on itself? I sipped my coffee in the cup holder and took another look. Then, with a great feeling of satisfaction and a big grin on my face, I thought, “I guess we must be doing something right.”

When people see and compliment Morani on our deer, I like to tell them that it only took us nine years to become an “overnight success. ” After years of intense breeding and deer management on the Morani River Ranch, our whitetail deer breeding program has grown into one of the most sophisticated in the state of Texas. What started as a way to replace native deer that once roamed our ranch but were decimated due to drought, diseases and overgrazing, has turned into a passion, an obsession with the most incredible and unique animal in the world, the whitetail deer.

Our current breeding operations consist of a wide range of methods including live breeding in both our breeding pens and in the pasture, laparoscopic and cervical Artificial Insemination (AI), as well as purchasing strong DNA lineage foundation-bred does from other breeders. No matter what the method, they all have one thing in common, and that is to utilize only superior and hearty South Texas genetics from some of the top breeders and top deer in the state of Texas.

From our pasture-raised deer to the deer that come out of our breeding facility, I think you will agree we are producing some of the largest South Texas whitetail deer there are. We like to call it “Large typical frames, with a little trash here and there.” Please enjoy looking through the selection of our unique line of Morani Whitetails and feel free to contact us for a tour of our state-of-the-art whitetail handling facilities and pens. We are proud to show off what we have created and continue to strive to produce deer anyone would be proud of. Let us know if we can help make your dreams of monster whitetails roaming your ranch come true as it has for us at the Morani.