When does it cease to be hunting and start to be farming?
When you begin growing their rack size.
Lakoskys do it. Drurys do it. Still technically free range wild deer but there's no question they are bigger than deer typically grow in the wild.
Not sure if they still have it but Lakosky had a 24/7 live feed showing one of his trough feeders. The thing would hold about a pallet load of feed and he kept it full year round. Within a number of years he begins dropping 200 inchers and his wife killed a nearly 200" 8pt. How much does it cost? I'd guess all in probably in the six figures annually for many years. But he proved it can be done.
Not my thing. I'm not even interested in hunting shows. But that one had me intrigued enough to look into it a little. While not technically a deer farm where the deer are confined, it's as close as you can get. And he gets results somewhere below deer farm quality racks but obviously well above what good habitat alone produces.