Bobby Deeds

Texas has one of the largest deer populations in the United States, and Cargill Wildlife Specialist Bobby Deeds is at the forefront of keeping that deer population thriving. “I’ve been with Cargill ever since I finished my master’s at Angelo State University in 2004,” says the 37-year-old from Goldthwaite, Texas. “I was a territory manager for them and then I went into the wildlife specialist role. It’s the fastest growing segment in the feed side because of recreational hunting. I love getting into the country and working with different land owners, helping them grow bigger deer. I never would have thought in college that a job like this existed – I wanted to keep rodeoing and not go to work. If I’d known the job was here the whole time, I would have been running hard to get it!”
Bobby grew up on his family’s ranch in central Texas, where hunting and rodeoing were not hobbies, but lifestyles. Bobby started rodeoing when he was five or six, beginning with riding calves, then steers. He worked up to riding in all three roughstock events, and after rodeoing in high school for Texas, he competed on the Angelo State University rodeo team. “I had a back injury and I wasn’t rodeoing, and I think it was God telling me to get a real job,” Bobby jokes. “I had a graduate professor, Doctor Cody Scott, who was one of the most influential people besides both my parents, driving me toward what I had a desire and passion for. It’s by the grace of God that this all fell in line, and I’m lucky to be where I am today.”
A day in the life of Bobby has him traveling anywhere in Texas to perform habitat analyses and design a feeding program for whatever the habitat is producing. “I go from one ranch to the next, and the first thing we talk about is their goals,” he says. “Every ranch and its resources are different. Whether they want the biggest deer they can grow, or exotics, we can figure it out. Nutrition is the easiest thing to change, but if everything else isn’t dialed in to it, you won’t get a lot of response from it. I make recommendations other than nutrition and make sure the habitat is doing the most for them, because feed is a big investment from a management standpoint. Nutrition, age, and genetics are the three things that grow big whitetail deer. Texas is probably ten to thirty years ahead of some states with what we’re doing with whitetail deer, and we have a pretty lengthy hunting season. The forefathers of deer management like Aldo Leopold managed habitats and were really dialed in on the deer management standpoint.”
Every other moment of Bobby’s is spent with his family. He and his wife, Ashley, have three sons, Ethan, 9, Evan, 6, and Easton, 6 weeks. “When I’m not working, I’m typically coaching one of their baseball games or I’m in the practice pen with them,” says Bobby. “Ethan is in the top ten of the AJRA steer riding, and we have a small practice pen behind the house with a bucking chute. There’s a reason rodeo kids are typically the best I come across in manners and how they succeed in life because of what’s engrained in them from a work ethic standpoint. My number one goal in life is to raise good kids and have God in their lives.”
Bobby also breaks colts for his dad, who runs 20 head of broodmares. “We have no shortage of horses! We’re training those for our own horses since my boys are getting started in roping, and we have two or three good roping prospects. I’m really happy with where I’m at right now with Cargill,” Bobby finishes. “If I have an idea, we run with it, and they support me and get behind it. I want to continue being successful and leading on the wildlife management side. I want to think of something that will take it to the next level on the feed side, and I want to be remembered as someone who helped raise really good whitetail deer, and great kids.”