In the 1960’s and 1970’s the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department received substantial criticism from landowners and hunters concerning the harvest of spike bucks. Opponents of spike buck harvest maintained that spike bucks must be protected to ensure adequate numbers of bucks in future harvests, while proponents of spike buck harvest contended that these deer are inferior animals and should be removed from the herd or receive no differential protection.

Other studies have been concerned with the relationship between nutrition and the formation of spike antlers with little or no emphasis on genetics. The influence of genetics on antler formation had not been investigated. This study attempts to evaluate nutrition and genetics as contributing factors to antler formation. These penned deer studies were conducted on the Kerr Wildlife Management Area located 13 miles west of Hunt, Texas in a 16-acre research facility consisting of 6 2/3-acre pens, 3 4-acre pens and 24 small individual pens (Fig 1). All deer involved in these studies were fed a commercial pelleted ration and provided free-choice water.