Because of his passion for the hunting tradition, Brandon Dowdy went from being an occasional guest to becoming a co-host on Southern Woods and Waters TV. Brandon was born and raised in Tennessee and loves hunting southern whitetail deer. He started hunting at a young age and pursued a degree in Wildlife Management because of it. Later on, he ran a landscape and irrigation company while managing a farm. In this episode, Brandon teaches his tricks and techniques in managing your property for a healthy deer herd.
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Southern Woods and Waters Whitetails – Brandon Dowdy
We’re heading down to Tennessee and we’re going to connect with Brandon Dowdy of Southern Woods and Waters. It’s all about the outdoors in Tennessee. Brandon got invited on the show as a guest because he specializes in small farm management for whitetails. He graduated from Texas Tech University and he likes helping people figure out how to keep deer and grow deer and have a balanced deer herd. Every once in a while, he see a big deer on his property. Saying all that, he got connected with Hugh McNaughten and as they say, that’s the rest of the story because he is now the co-host of Southern Woods and Waters TV. I’m excited because Brandon is one funny guy.
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We’re heading down South and you’re going to hear from Brandon Dowdy. Brandon is with Southern Woods and Waters TV plus his a wildlife manager in the area where he lives. Brandon, welcome to the show. I’m excited to hear some of the tricks and techniques you have, especially for those guys that don’t have 1,000 acres but they’re running 40, 50, 100 acres. They are killing big deer. Let’s talk about that guy who has a small patch of land but he’s making it happen.
As soon as I meet them, we try to look around. One of the first things you would do is find out what your neighbors have and try to see if you can offer those deer something that your neighbors are not offering them. That’s one of the first things we want to look at. Beyond that speaking to neighbors, the next biggest thing that you’ve got to try to do is to work a co-op with your neighbors. Get your neighbors involved. Let those neighbors know your management plans and what you want to accomplish. Many times they’ll be on the same page already. You just didn’t realize it.
What does that mean to me? I’m from Midwest and then out in Colorado where I live, we have a lot of lands. A small farm is 180 acres, a big farm is 500 acres. How do we relate to that?
I’ve got an example. We’ve got a farm down the road from me here that it is 116 acres. Around here, that’s a big piece of land, but it’s still not enough to hold a deer on all the time. What I’ve got is a deal with my neighbors where I’ve got four neighbors that border me. We’re all on the same management practice, the same plan working together. We have taken that 116 acres and turned it into around 500. I can’t hunt the whole 500 and they can’t hunt the whole 500, but the whole 500 is managed and kept under the same management practice as if it were all one continuous farm.
How does that work? Does everybody sign up on the QDMA?
Not necessarily. It’s usually just a handshake and a cup of coffee deal. Everybody sticks to it pretty tight. We have exceptions. We get kids in there, but everybody pretty much sticks to what our goal is and it works out good for everybody. We’re working together until you might have a bigger buck that disappears for a couple of days or something and you can reach out to those guys and one of them might say, “I saw him at my place two days ago.” You keep up with what’s going on in the area as well.
There's nothing like having a good neighbor on the other side of that fence and not just for deer hunting reasons. Share on XWhat about costs? Does everybody cost share or co-op the cost?
Not necessarily with us. This is all private landholders that people would own and they want to manage. One of the guys on one of the corners is about 30 acres. It’s hard to manage 30 acres, but them being involved in that big massive land, he gets to hunt the 30 acres of the 500-acre managed area.
Are we talking micro plots or small water holes?
We have both. We do a lot of micro-plotting and things like that. We’ve been out working. We’ve been doing some brassicas, things like that. The average food plot that we’ve put in here is easily no more than around 1 acre to 3 acres. We did a lot of 0.25-acre and 0.5-acre plots. They’re efficient, what I call a kill plot. It’s not something that’s going to draw in hundreds of deer and grow monster bucks, but it’s something that’s going to put a feeding deer in front of a hunter.
You hear a lot of different stories about kill plots where people say, “If I hinge cut, do everything right, he’s going to come in here and I’m going to be able to smoke him.” That isn’t necessarily true. Let’s go back to the micro-plots in your big co-op where everybody’s pitching in and everybody’s hunting a 600-acre plot. They might only have one stand, but if it’s the right position, they got a great opportunity.
You can take ten acres. If it’s ten acres and it’s in the right spot, it can be a fantastic 10 acres. I tell people a lot of times too, I know it is different in the Midwest and all, but around here when you’re sitting in any given stand, you are usually aren’t looking at any more than a few acres of property. If you have ten acres and it’s in the middle of 500 managed acres, it could still be a fantastic place.
Sometimes we get all wound up, “I’ve got to these acres and I’ve got to have this big of a food plot and everything.” If you’re in the right place, a pinch point, a funnel point, throws in a saddle or something like that, you can have 0.5 acres and you’re going to be able to shoot deer because they’re going to come.
The biggest management tool that any of us have, no matter where you’re at in the Midwest, anywhere. It is right here, it’s your thing. That’s what I tell people too. A lot of times you hear so much, “If I don’t shoot him, the neighbor will.” We hear that a lot here. Sometimes you’ve got to look at yourself and say, “Am I that neighbor? Am I that guy?” It’s the one that’s shooting the deer and the other guys are saying, “I’m going to shoot it if they don’t,” or vice-versa. The deal is if your management goal is let’s say for example, “I like to manage 4.5 years old,” if you see a 2.5-year-old deer, you can’t talk yourself into shooting it because you think your neighbor will. Number one, he’s not going to see all the deer. On top of that, if you don’t go and talk to your neighbors and get on the same page as them, you could be, “That neighbor.” He could be trying to manage that 4.5 and you’re shooting 2.5-year-old deer because you’re afraid he’s going to shoot him. That’s why it’s important to get our neighbors involved. Even if they don’t want to be on the same management strategy as you, at least you will know what strategy they have and you can better format yours to fit that.
I had one guy who I liked to go around with a cold Coca-Cola and a peach pie during the summertime and go meet my neighbors. I don’t care where you are in Canada or whatever, that works.
You’d be amazed at how much it can help and that’s what I said. There’s no contract for signing things. It’s usually a cup of coffee and a deer hunting discussion. We all love that. That’s all it usually takes. At least know where they stand. Know what their goals are and what their practices are. It’s helpful for everybody and you allow him to come out with some good friends out of the deal. I know I have over the years and a lot of the people that I’ve helped managed have ended up as good friends and there’s nothing like having a good neighbor on the other side of that fence and not just for deer hunting reasons. There are lots of other reasons. If you get that guy in your good graces, he’s going to help you look after your property and keep an eye on things if you’re not around all the time. Keeping good relationships with your neighbors is invaluable in deer management and in other areas also.
What about absentee owners? I know in the Midwest, especially Buffalo County where I hunt a few days in farms, a lot of the neighbors are out of Chicago or they’re out of Kansas City, but they sure are not out of Buffalo County. They’re only up there twenty days a year. How do you manage that?
It would depend on what you were hunting off, whether you’re hunting a hunting club or on a big acreage lease or however it might work out. What I would tell people to do in that case is to try to get with those people when they are there. Take an afternoon. It may be the hunt is not going to be great or there’s not a lot going on. Try to go over there and meet some of them or even maybe that evening after everybody’s done hunting, see if you can go over there and meet them. You may end up sitting around the fire for a little while and enjoying things with them. The biggest thing is you have to get in front of them. In the case like you’re speaking of, it may be that you have to take one of your afternoons, go over and spend it with them, but it’ll be well worth it once you do in most cases.
I know you are a wildlife manager. In your estimation, how big is too big? How small is too small of a piece of land?
To be honest, I think it’s possible on any of the above. As far as a small property, the biggest thing I will say is making sure that it’s large enough that you can safely hunt in. There are no dwellings or anything close as it would be unsafe to hunt in. If you had a couple of acres behind the house there that was huntable and you could safely hunt on it, that would be fine. Everybody wants as many properties as they can get, but I have some guys that have so many properties they can hunt that they have a hard time narrowing down where they want to sit that day. Where do they want to try to focus on that week? The main farm I hunt is a little over 100 acres and there are only many choices there and I can keep up with the deer movement on that piece of property a little bit better.
Keeping good relationships with your neighbors is invaluable in deer management and in other areas also. Share on XI pretty much know what’s going on before I get there through the use of trail cameras and things like that. There are only many places I can move to and go and it keeps me on those deer. There are advantages and disadvantages to either one, but I don’t think there would be anything too large or too small. You need to figure out the area that you want to be in and what those deer are doing in that area at the given time of the year.
Let’s switch it up and let’s talk about Southern Woods and Waters TV. Let’s give the back story because that’s an interesting one. Here you are doing something you flat out love.
There’s nothing but blessings from above that all that worked out. Southern Woods and Waters has been on television for a long time. Here in Nashville there was a gentleman by the name of Jimmy Holt that hosted a show that was under the name of Tennessee Outdoorsman. He hosted it for 34 years. Towards the end of those years, a man named Hugh McNaughten became his co-host for a while. When Mr. Jimmy retired, he carried the show on. At that point in time, we changed to News Channel 5 here in Nashville, Tennessee. When that happened, the name was changed to Southern Woods and Waters. Hugh McNaughten has hosted that now for several years.
I have known Hugh for a long time. We’ve gotten to know each other a lot better over the last few years and after a speaking engagement that he did at my church, we talked. I was invited to the show at that point in time to come and talk about deer management on small properties. Everything went well and there was a good viewer response. Within a couple of months, they came and spoke to me. They’re looking for someone to come in and co-host with him full-time and eventually carry on the torch when he is ready to retire himself. I was the one that was blessed enough to be able to do that.
I told you you’re a rock star. That’s so cool. What’s cool about that? Everybody wants to be on TV or be on the radio. Anybody can be on a podcast, that’s not hard, but you did it right. You said, “I was on the show and I followed-up. We had conversations,” and all of a sudden, by the grace of God, here you are and you’re doing something that you love. It doesn’t happen overnight. Speak to that career path.
It doesn’t happen overnight. I’ll tell you, a few years ago, if you were to say, “Brandon, you’re going to be doing the full-time hosting of an outdoor television show,” I would have looked at you like you had three heads. Here we are. It’s been fantastic. We’ve reached out to many people. Hugh has taken me under his wing and taught me many things. I know a lot about management and hunting. I’ve done that my entire life, but I didn’t know that much about TV production, especially live television because it’s a live show for an hour every week, you got to be on your toes. He’s been crucial in the way that he has taught me and introduced me to people and let me learn the ropes. We reached out to many people and there are many viewers that are able to get local information here. There are lots of places you can go on television and watch a deer hunt or a turkey hunt, whatever it is that we’re interested in, but there’s not a lot of places you can go and get true information on it, not only how it was done or the best ways to go about it.
With this show, we reach a little over one million people, but it is pretty much all across the state of Tennessee and a little bit of Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia. My point is they’re getting local information. They’re getting information on deer that are right in their area or on the bass, whatever it is we may be covering at the time. The community support is fantastic. It’s been a blessing in it and I hope to carry it above and beyond where it’s even been before. He has done a fantastic job with it. There are many people that he has reached out and touched and kids, has gotten involved in the outdoors and I want to continue that going, and I plan on doing that fully.
One of your goals was inviting new people or recruiting new people. How do you do that? How do you get those people outdoors?
We have events and things like that. First of all, get them interested and get them some more information on hunting or fishing in their area. Here in the state of Tennessee, we’re blessed to be here where we are. We have lots and lots of public land opportunities, so people don’t have a hard time, at least knowing where to go and hunt. We have excellent fishing around here, so it’s easy to get them out there. We do fishing events where we can get lots of people involved at once, but obviously we can’t take everybody hunting. At the same time, we do take several kids a year. It’s our dove season here in Tennessee. That’s a huge traditional thing around here with lots of good food and fellowship.
We had a kid that we took. He was twelve years old, never fired a gun, never hunted his whole life and was terribly interested in it, raised by a single mother. She has no way of getting him out and getting him going. She reached out to us. People can reach out to us anytime through Facebook or we will give out our emails and she reached out to us and was trying to find a way we could get him involved. I had him shoot at my personal farm and we invited him and a couple of others to come out and got them involved. They’re grinning ear to ear. He’ll be on it for the rest of his life. All it took was that one day.
By simply reaching out and giving them a few hours for an afternoon or something, you can change their whole life and their whole perspective at the way they look at the outdoor industry. Things like that, that’s what we try to do. It’s not necessarily just children. I’m also an administrator of a Facebook site here that’s called Tennessee Deer Hunters. We answer questions all the time. There’s a wealth of information there. We have over 35,000 members there. My point is many of them are adults that are now getting into hunting for whatever reason it may be. There are a lot of questions out there that are asked and answered every day. To guys like me and you, it may seem as simple as day and night, but to them they don’t know. The biggest thing is keeping information out there for everybody. As I said, it’s not just kids. We’ve got to keep our heritage and tradition going. I’m looking to help anybody, whether they’re 40 years old and never hunted or twelve years old and never hunted. It is important to remember that it’s not just kids.
Do you have somebody sixteen and somebody 40 on Southern Woods and Waters TV? Have you ever interviewed them?
We have interviewed several kids. We’re going to have kids on prior to our statewide juvenile hunt and we’ll be talking to them. We’ll have some kids that in particular that will be their first time to hunt. One is a sixteen-year-old. For his age, it’s amazing what this kid has learned. He was a blast to be like me and he’s been able to spend his whole life out in the woods. He’s a prime example of what happens when you do raise them up and teach them every day the ways of what we do. He’s fantastic. We like to get the kids on and have people get to know them and interview them a little bit too and see things through their eyes. They see things so much differently than we sometimes do. Many times they can open your eyes to things.
For Southern Woods and Waters, we know the back story. Where’s it going? How do people find it?
By simply reaching out and giving people a few hours an afternoon, you can change their whole life and perspective of the hunting industry. Share on XAs far as where we’re going, we’re going to continue a lot of the things that had been done over the last several years. That is providing people with information, whether it be fishing reports or deer hunting reports. We have people come in and talk about new laws. One of our sponsors is the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. We have them close by for any questions or things that people might have. There are going to be a lot of things from the past. We’ll have vendors come in and things like that. We may have new products that we want people to know about. There are some things that we’re going to do a little bit more in the future. There’s going to be a little bit more in the field filming and things like that. There’s not been a lot of that in the past. We’re going to get to a little bit more of that. I don’t necessarily mean going in the field to film us shooting a deer or something like that. There may be some of that. We’re doing some video about hanging tree stands and safely putting up your stands and how you want to trim the limbs and things like that. It’s just general information that to someone like us may seem fairly simple, but to someone that doesn’t know, it could change their season for them.
As far as people finding us, we’re on Facebook at Southern Woods and Waters. We’re also on Instagram. Every Thursday night at 8:00 Central time, we’re live. We’re on News Channel 5 Plus, which is here in Nashville, Tennessee. They’re a major news network here out of Nashville and we’re on there live. For those people that are not here around Nashville or in our viewing area here in Tennessee, we can also be found on YouTube. The best place to find all of your past episodes beginning 24 hours after their film is on the News Channel 5 website here in Nashville. On that News Channel 5 website, you can simply start Southern Woods and Waters and it will show you all past episodes.
Also a lot of people will have this Roku television now and I myself have it here at the house and there’s a Channel 5 Roku app and we’re also available on there. You can watch each episode weekly on the Roku app, but it only holds one episode at a time. You can also preset and have it come onto your DVR or something like that. We’re pretty readily available now. We’re not just on the national network anymore. With all this internet and ways of other people reaching us, we have fans from Texas and Canada. We have people in Vermont. It will surprise you, being a Tennessee-based television show, it’s pretty amazing how far out the outreach is.
It’s amazing. Why don’t you give some shout outs to your team members, to the family, to whoever you want to?
First of all, Hugh MacNaughten, who’s also on Southern Woods and Waters. The way that he has taken me under his wing and let me be a part of this and live this dream has been fantastic. My next piece would have to be to my wife because she puts up with all the time that I spend doing these things and, and doing what I love to do. Shawn Tyson with X-Out Odor products and Pure One Outdoors. Shawn’s a great guy. I’ve been involved with him now for a couple of years and he’s helped me along the way. This is certainly not something that I’ve got to be involved in on my own. I’ve had a lot of fantastic support. I’m sure there are plenty more. As far as hunting too, I definitely would have to say my dad, Bob Dowdy, for all the time that he spent getting me out here and doing this from the time I was knee-high. He taught me the things that I know and built the passion that I have.
Thanks for that. With that, on behalf of thousands of readers across North America, check out Channel 5 Tennessee. See what Southern Woods and Water TV’s all about. Brandon, he’ll make you laugh for sure.
We try to get a good laugh every week.
Important Links:
- Southern Woods and Waters
- Tennessee Deer Hunters – Facebook group
- Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
- Facebook – Southern Woods and Waters
- Instagram – Southern Woods and Waters
- News Channel 5
- Land & Legacy
- YouTube News Channel 5
- X-Out Odor
About Brandon Dowdy
Being born and living in Tennessee his entire life, Brandon was blessed to have been deeply involved in hunting tradition his whole life.
He started out hunting small game as most do, and at the legal deer hunting age of ten (in TN) he killed his first whitetail and has been hard after them ever since.
Though he killed many deer over the years, it wasn’t until while in college pursuing his degree in wildlife management that managing whitetails was taken to a whole new level. Once graduating from Tennessee Tech University, he continued running his landscape and irrigation company, while beginning to manage farm for himself and some friends. He likes to specialize in small farm management.
Over time, more people began to call on him for management strategies, which is what eventually led to being a guest on Southern Woods and Waters TV http://www.southernwoodsandwaters.com/, filmed liver every week in Nashville, Tn. After several guest appearances and viewers response, he was asked to become a full-time co-host.
He and longtime host of the show Hugh McNaughton cover all sorts of topics each week involving the outdoors in Tn. When the day come that Hugh is ready to retire, Brandon will carry on the torch. He will tell you that his number one goal is to get more and more new people into the outdoors and carry on our hunting heritage.