What to get for winter deer feed?

[holden222]

I am curious what others suggest for deer feed. I have looked at a few different things I think I am tied between just getting cracked corn or the molasses mix. They are the same price and I bout a protein and mineral mix to add some nutritional value to it. What do you guys think?

[JBC]

A lot of things to consider. Good luck.

A Position Statement of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife
The Practice of Supplemental Feeding

http://tinyurl.com/y8fhga7

[upstatehunter]

Very good presentation. Wish other states would broadcast this message!

[holden222]

Wow good read for sure, might have to second guess my plan after all.

[halfrack33]

a lot of places sell the high protein mixes like "sweet feed". some will sell the ripped bags they can't sell for half price, like 5 bucks. Corn is bad for deer period

[FrankM]

I got a "Chia Obama" head for Christmas.  I was thinking of purchasing several of them and placing them in my deer woods once the chia grows in nice and thick.  The deer can browse off the chia for nutrition and eat the ceramic heads for antler growth.

[Corporal Punishment]

Corn is bad for deer period

When did you come to that conclusion,prolly read it somewhere HUH?

Prolly should stop feeding it to cows as well if its bad food!!!!!

[bucksnort]

When did you come to that conclusion,prolly read it somewhere HUH?

Prolly should stop feeding it to cows as well if its bad food!!!!!

i feed corn to the hogs all summer long and they grow from 40lbs to 300lbs,if you read the nutrition label on a bag of corn you will see that there is a min of 7%protein,a min of3% crude fat and a min3%crude fiber and you can also buy corn with additivs like soybean oil and other grain products, all that being said i still don't think anyone should feed deer espicially during hunting season and winter

[Corporal Punishment]

i feed corn to the hogs all summer long and they grow from 40lbs to 300lbs,if you read the nutrition label on a bag of corn you will see that there is a min of 7%protein,a min of3% crude fat and a min3%crude fiber and you can also buy corn with additivs like soybean oil and other grain products, all that being said i still don't think anyone should feed deer espicially during hunting season and winter

Yep and corn wont go to mush with a little water,unlike the sweet feed of whatever it is!!!You shouldnt feed deer if your gonna quit feeding them this time of year.You already concentrated the herd to your feeding area,and there relying on it IMO!!!

Supplemental feeding is a big help for healthy deer,if you put enough food out for all the deer to get a bite daily..........

[Corporal Punishment]

Also a bullet through the rib cage of your doe doesnt help out on your future deer numbers....

[Stuck-on-Seven]

Also a bullet through the rib cage of your doe doesnt help out on your future deer numbers....

Cant agree with that. Nothing wrong with shootin a few does. We are not just deer hunters but deer MANAGERS as well. Also dont forget does taste just as good as bucks.

[halfrack33]

wow the list goes on.... shooting at running deer is a good thing, corn is now healthy for deer, and shooting does is bad. LOL!!!

[upstatehunter]

 
Some people will never buy into shooting doe's as a management tool. It's just the way they were taught and learned about the whitetail deer. So let me try to explain why we have as some say bought into it.
It's all about carrying capacity. Lets take 150 acres, say it can carry without starvation 10 deer.In a perfect world you have a 1:1 ratio of bucks to doe. So 5 of each. All doe are mature healthy animals. So next spring the bred doe's have 1 fawn each. We lost 2 bucks to hunters.
Percentages say of the five fawns 2 will be bucks and 3 doe. So if we don't harvest any doe, we stand to lose 3 deer to starvation. Remember the property can only provide for 10 deer. I know at this point someone will say what about predation. The other plus to managing the herd to carrying capacity is they tend to spread out a little more in summer and as we all know yard in the winter. With fewer animals to target the predator has a harder time and the deer an easier time getting away.(use as an example, you have a house that can hold 5 people, but put ten into it. Would getting out in a fire be easier with 5 people working together or with 10 people running over each other) I know it seems nice to see deer every time you go out, but the truth of the matter is if we leave our herd un checked, keep just killing bucks, we are doing it more harm than good. Think back to the early years of the 1900's, the deer population was growing very fast, so they put in doe tags. Those areas the hunters chose to use them, the herd responded and flourished, I have pics of my Grandfathers farm where they guided sports as they called them. They were taking trophy mature bucks. They were hard sells to a doe tag, but the  southern zone hunters weren't. By the 40's and 50's my father took a job during hunting season to patrol a preserve in the southern zone and they said it was night and day the difference from hunting up here. I still say the difference between hunting the southern to the northern zones is they have always taken doe's in the southern, when offerd the tags. Also the food sources are more agricultural so the deer can survive easier, I think instead of throwing corn out for deer, we should be planting crops. Also the argument of how much protein is in corn is mute with regard to whitetails. Until we domesticate the whitetail they need a different % of different proteins than cows or pigs. It has been prov-en over and over that without sufficient woody browse the whitetail will starve with a belly full of corn. I know some will bring up deer farms as examples of feeding and deer survival. But as I said before domesticated, as they have changed their system to process feed, are a different animal than the deer walking in an Adirondack wood lot.
I guess as I get older and a little more observant to my surroundings I get more ornery to people that can't except new ideas or ways to do things.But i respect them for their opinions.

[bogmanjr]

Well said upstate, I will confess to throwing out as many coyote carcasses as i can for the deer to feed on.They dont seen to eat them though

[bucksnort]

well put upstate,first let me say that i agree with every thing you said about shooting does for heard management and keeping a balance of the number of deer to the amount of food per acre of land,and as for the eating of corn in my previous post the only point i was trying to make is that its not all bad for deer,that there is some nutrition in corn it may not be enough to sustain wild whitetails but its not like there just feeding on a food that doesn't offer any nutrition at all,either way i still say that feeding deer is NOT a good idea and i am all about shooting does to keep a balance