How do you successfully raise aoudad on high fence ranches

So we got Seven rams
Six Ewes
Thirteen total aoudad delivered on October 21st 2022
I have seen one in my cameras what happen to the rest of them

What kind of condition are your fences in, and how big is the property? Any water gaps?

Aoudad are incredibly good at not being seen. Some places I've been on, they were literally like ghosts....especially if there is thick cover available. One summer when I was in high school, I worked on a ranch in Bandera County. One pasture of that ranch (HF) was 1,800 acres with a population of approximately 100-200 Aoudad. I lived there for the entire summer (house was in that same pasture), and I only caught a glimpse of Aoudad twice. Several other ranches I've been to know they have substantial herds of Aoudad, but only see them every few months.

Exactly. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not there. We have a decent sized herd on our place. Some times we'll catch them on cam 2-3 days in a row, then we may not see them for weeks.....or months. Just when you think they're gone, they'll show up again. And sometimes that return is one pic of one sheep on one cam, then gone again for weeks and then you catch the whole herd.

We've seen them in person 2-3 times tops in the past 5 years.

730 acres are fences are eight feet high they are in great condition the water gaps hang down Reliable Water gaps that made out of old conveyor belts from a factory and there very, very heavy

Just my feeling/opinion but if I had 730 acres of HF and wanted to focus on having good deer, I'd eliminate all the aoudad or shoot on sight as much as possible.

Can someone more knowledgeable comment?

Aoudad are too cheap to buy. Why try to raise them?

We take care of a 500 acre place that has a high fence pen that’s roughly 35 acres for raising fallow deer. The pen has a steep dry creek bed, a bluff hill side, part of a canyon and considerable brush. Those aoudad are rarely seen if you don’t sneak in from a long ways off and are really patient.

As mentioned above, I would prefer NOT to have them. They will keep you up at night on a smaller place by banging into your protein feeders. :-)

Turn them loose and they will take over.

I'd bet my paycheck they are there your just not seeing them. I'd make the same bet that you eventually regret putting them in your enclosure.

I know peeps who bought HF ranches and then go to great lengths to get rid of them.

Yeah I'd be feeding every one I could lead starting with the ewes first. They are damn near impossible to get rid of.

These are type of water gaps we have Reliable Water gaps that made out of old conveyor belts from a factory and there very, very heavy

Most people who put an exotic on that they can get cheap learn to regret the decision. Aoudad, Blackbuck...etc are cheap for a reason. They reproduce fast and most people let them get over-populated. I had a friend that bought 10 blackbuck females and 5 bucks. I told him he would regret someday....5 yrs later he called me and said "you know I should have listened to you". He killed a ton of them and still had well over 100 head on his ranch.

And now female BB are selling for around $700 each. He might wish he still had them.

Yes and my buddy is spending all winter trying to live capture everyone of his before the market does back to normal. Taking money and buying more kudu

Yeah and feed is $550-600 per ton so do the math. You will loose money on them at $700 per blackbuck. They eat what deer eat and produce offspring twice per year. My friend was never more happy than they day he was back down to 10 hd....3 does and 7bucks. Only exotic he had. He sold the ranch not long after that.

We have water gaps on our ranch could they get through those when we got the aoudad delivered we sealed a lot of the water gaps but it floods 0 to 3 times a year

The fences are in great condition. We have blackbuck and the are skinner then aoudads we seen the black buck a lot. We have axis too
On August 12 2019
6 Blackbuck Females .
2 male blackbuck delivered also two male and female aoudads

October 21st 2022
Aoudad
Seven rams
Six Ewes
Thirteen total aoudad delivered.
I have seen one them on the cameras.
One comes to the camp feeder everyday.

By the way the one with the water that flooding the rubbers was taken in November 2018

i've never been a fan of aoudad. the ones i've tried to eat just weren't palatable to me. to eat it occaisionally i suppose ok, but if i was going to hunt htem and eat them with any frequency its just not what i'm interested in. that i understand they are a sheep and so they'll eat just about anything and evertying. compete heavily with other deer or livestock. the only plcae i ever hunted on where we had any we basically shot them and left them like the feral hogs. except i'd butcher some of the hogs.