Growing up in Southwestern Wisconsin exposed me to a lot of what Mother Nature has to offer.  I was able to hunt and fish without ever having to get very far from home.  Whether it was fishing the Mississippi for walleyes and catfish, or hunting the river bluff country for deer, there was always something to do in my backyard.  Growing up in a family that lived for the outdoors and considered opening day of deer season a holiday, has helped to fuel the passion I have for the outdoors today.

In the early 90’s, my dad was lucky enough to buy a piece of property in Appanoose County, Iowa and that is when my hunting changed and my passion for whitetail management really started.  When I was growing up and hunting in Wisconsin, we didn’t have our own land.  As most of us have found out, if you don’t own the land you hunt, the deck is stacked against you as far as managing for a quality herd of whitetails.  Having said that, if you are not a land owner, don’t be discouraged.  There are still plenty of things you can do on someone else’s property to increase your chances for harvesting your trophy buck.

The property I hunt in Appanoose County has always had good deer numbers and some really nice bucks.  Although we already had some really good bucks, it didn’t take us long to realize that with a little hard work we could have some really great bucks.  It took us several years to start seeing the product of our hard work and many hours in the field, but is has been worth it.  In the first years of hunting this property, we saw a lot of deer and occasionally a really nice buck.  In recent years we haven’t seen as many deer as we used to, but we now see a lot more great bucks.  This past year we had six people bow hunt our property and every person had at least one 150 inch plus buck in bow range.

I must mention that I am also an outfitter.  I know that is a dirty word to some people, but I feel we are a different kind of outfitter.  We only hunt the ground we own; no leasing, and we only take 6-8 hunters a year.  Some years we don’t even have that many.  Outfitting in Iowa is not a way to make a living.  The difficulty non-residents have in obtaining a license does not allow an outfitter to make a living doing this in Iowa.  That is fine with me.  We do it because I love to take people hunting and let them enjoy some of the finest hunting they will find anywhere in the country;  right here in Iowa.  We use the money we make to help offset the costs of our true passion, which is managing our property for whitetail deer and turkey.  I think the greatest compliment I ever received was from a national hunting show host.  He wanted me to set up a couple of his buddies with a shotgun hunt.  I explained to him that we already had a group of hunters and I had promised them they would be the only hunters here.  He couldn’t believe I wasn’t going to take his guys.  He then said “You sure aren’t like any outfitter I have ever dealt with.”  I told him thanks and we moved on to talking hunting and management.  That conversation probably didn’t help our outfitting business, but that is fine with me.

Through the “In Your Backyard Iowa” shows and website, I hope to share some exciting hunts from our farm in Appanoose County and a lot of management tips I have found to be very effective over the years.  We will talk about everything from treestand placement to food plots, trail camera uses to supplemental mineral sites, proper buck to doe ratio to aging a whitetail on the hoof, scouting your hunting area to tips for tracking your wounded whitetail and a lot more.

I am very excited about the direction of this show and website and can’t wait to share what I have learned with you and hopefully learn new things from our viewers and watchers through this interactive website.  Thanks for reading and good luck in the field.

Dan Ketchum, In Your Backyard Iowa, Hunting Staffer
Old River Outfitters, Guide