Deer Feeders and growing antler inches

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Oh i'm sure. We just went from 2 straight brutal winters where deer were lucky to survive and had little quality browse until very late in spring and then straight into drought. Contrasted with this year where winter basically never came and then we had constant moisture until a couple weeks ago - thus theres 1.5 YOs with racks like 2.5 YOs of years past and probably 2.5 YO that look like 3+ of the last couple years because of overall body condition improvement.

Round here is a little different. Yearlings are protect but the first 3.5 to pop his head into a corn pile is dead. 2.5 are generally high graded if they are shot. The feeders kill more deer than save. If I had to paint with a broad brush, most of these folks couldn’t hunt without a bait pile effectively, which tells me that bait is the single biggest determinant for success.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Was at the company leased ranch in TX last week for business planning. I think they have baker level animal feed bills but it’s not all for whitetails or natives.

You might be in TX if:

 

[Baker]

I'm not a fan of infused genetics. Never has appealed to me. Very popular and common in Tx. Easy to spot. But...to each his own

 

[Turkish]

The new Land and Legacy S&F podcast is on this exact topic. Discussing MS harvest data over 10-15 years of baiting as well as MSU research on the topic. Interesting stuff but not likely to cure any confirmation bias. ;)

 

[Ikeman]

I use feed to keep doe groups close.

This year I started doing roasted soybean free choice from a trough. Just a couple doe groups will put a HURTING on free choice beans. They were going through about 80lbs a week.

I know that I won’t make a nutritional difference in more than the couple resident deer. Summer is the hard time of year on our herd due to the heat down here. Maybe the extra calories will keep a few does in better shape and give a couple fawns a better start.

I’ll take the bucks that swing by to check on them in the rut.


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