Home-grown business has hunters hooked

 Deer Crack kills.
Once dispersed, deer herd to it like moths to a flame, and Deer Crack creator Tom Parshall said a standard 4.4-pound package — which retails at about $6 — will attract deer for a good part of the whole Michigan hunting season.
The precise formulation and balance of 13 minerals is to the deer what crack is for humans, Parshall said, thus the aggressive product name.
If he's boasting, it's only because he can back it up.
The product Parshall began formulating in 1995 in his grandfather's barn — "with two shovels, a wheelbarrow and $79," Parshall said — is now sold in countless Michigan gas stations and general stores, and even sporting goods retail giant Dunham's Sports.
In fact, Parshall and business partner Rich Owens — who make up Deer Crack LLC — sell Deer Crack to retailers in 46 states.
The duo still make Deer Crack in the same old Hartland Township barn, but now they make a whole lot more of it: several batches, each one weighing in at nine tons.
"Initially, hunting-supply stores laughed us out of their places with our product," Parshall said.

But they aren't laughing anymore.
"So we went on a marketing attack, targeting gas stations, because we know hunters a lot of times go to gas stations before they hunt," Parshall said. "We couldn't make it fast enough."
Now, everyone wants it, he said, and the reason is primarily its resounding results.
"Deer Crack works fantastic, and after a good rain, it penetrates the ground, letting those minerals in, and the deer can't stay away," said Miles Gee, a Hartland Township hunter who has been a Deer Crack buyer for many years.
"It's great, especially for people who go up north hunting and aren't there all the time," Gee said. "You put a little Deer Crack down, and you're good to go."
With Michigan's archery deer season in full swing, Parshall has noticed a 10 percent growth in business, a growth he mostly attributes to the state lifting the baiting ban it had imposed since 2008.

Parshall said the ban, imposed to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease, was "shameful." It cost his company in the realm of $500,000 over three years, with some hunters fearing tickets from the DNR over that period despite controversy over whether the product was actually bait or not.
"The baiting ban killed us," Parshall said. "Shame on them for passing that law without thinking about all of Michigan."
Brent Rudolph, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources deer-program leader, said the bait ban was difficult to enforce. In 2008 and 2009, the DNR issued approximately 1,300 baiting tickets, compared to 4,000 baiting complaints and nearly 1 million total hunters in the woods each year.
With the bait ban lifted, hunters will be able to use two gallons of bait spread over a 100-square-foot area. Rudolph said products like Deer Crack are categorized as mineral blocks, and count toward a hunter's two-gallon limit of bait.
Potent as it is, though, most hunters won't need close to that much Deer Crack to have deer hanging out near them.
"Because of its formulation, deer generally get access to Deer Crack within a couple days, so if you refresh your site with a standard amount maybe four times per year, you'll have plenty of deer coming around the whole time," Parshall said.

Written by

Frank Konkel