Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Redmond Minerals on Food Plots

T

tmeaton

Yearling... With promise
I have heard men like Jim Ward and others discuss spreading minerals on their food plots. Simply using Redmond Natural Trace Mineral Salt and allowing it to be absorbed into the plants as they grow.

Has anyone tried this? Has anyone sampled any plants to see if their is a difference in nutrients?

I am in Southern Indiana and was considering it yet this fall. Is it too late?
 
I think I'd skip the salt. Salt can kill stuff. I don't know how much it takes but if you dump salt on the ground nothing will grow
 
tmeaton said:
I have heard men like Jim Ward and others discuss spreading minerals on their food plots. Simply using Redmond Natural Trace Mineral Salt and allowing it to be absorbed into the plants as they grow.

Has anyone tried this? Has anyone sampled any plants to see if their is a difference in nutrients?

I am in Southern Indiana and was considering it yet this fall. Is it too late?
Click to expand...

Plants are by far the best delivery system for minerals. Each plant has a different ability to mine different minerals. Since free ranging deer have such a varied diet of native plants, mineral deficiency is pretty much absent in free ranging deer. Having said that, applying minerals to food plots can be a great practice. I spread N-P-K most years and in some years I add Su and B. It all comes down to what a soil test shows your crops need.

I too would avoid spreading most salts on food plots. You won't improve free ranging deer herds by applying minerals but you may if you provide sufficient amount of quality food during times when nature is stingy.

Thanks,

Jack
 
tmeaton said:
I have heard men like Jim Ward and others discuss spreading minerals on their food plots. Simply using Redmond Natural Trace Mineral Salt and allowing it to be absorbed into the plants as they grow.

Has anyone tried this? Has anyone sampled any plants to see if their is a difference in nutrients?

I am in Southern Indiana and was considering it yet this fall. Is it too late?
Click to expand...
I have talked to Jim a few times in person and have always forgotten to ask about this. I will see if I can get ahold of Jim or a client of his I am familiar with. Also consider that in IN (I am a fellow Hoosier) it could be considered bait as well. So you could potentially set yourself up for some trouble. Spreading a bag of triple 15 or so should give an actively growing plot a nice boost as well and NOT be considered baiting. I am not sure of the affects of the "salt" on the soil and why I haven't tried it yet.....
 
Thanks guys. I'll check the actual salt % in the bag. I'm guessing it must not be too terrible high as I have the exact bag Jim Ward recommended. Although, I do not know the amount per acre he spreads it so that would be an important thing to have.
 

Attachments

  • 20180926_085519.jpg
    20180926_085519.jpg
    606.7 KB · Views: 32
Here is what I pulled off the internet..... seems pretty salt heavy!
redmond.jpg
 
OK - so I talked to my forage guy and he tells me that lots of folks are doing this. These trace minerals and micro nutrients are not found in fertilizers and as such by doing this you are amending the soil. He also says it may take up to a year to see any real impact from the deer liking where you applied more so than other areas. He also says that even at 100 to 200 lbs per acre the salt content is not enough to have a negative impact and that you could apply every year to every other year.... but a detailed soil analysis would be the best guide. I also remember reading that because the sea salt is simply ground and remains in the natural compounds that it don't act the same as the salt we are all familiar with. I can get 50# for $10.50 so I may get a bag and do some side-by-side in a few clover plots and see if I notice anything over time.
 
j-bird said:
OK - so I talked to my forage guy and he tells me that lots of folks are doing this. These trace minerals and micro nutrients are not found in fertilizers and as such by doing this you are amending the soil. He also says it may take up to a year to see any real impact from the deer liking where you applied more so than other areas. He also says that even at 100 to 200 lbs per acre the salt content is not enough to have a negative impact and that you could apply every year to every other year.... but a detailed soil analysis would be the best guide. I also remember reading that because the sea salt is simply ground and remains in the natural compounds that it don't act the same as the salt we are all familiar with. I can get 50# for $10.50 so I may get a bag and do some side-by-side in a few clover plots and see if I notice anything over time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your info!!
 
The other thing to keep in mind is the objective is not to apply minerals so deer can uptake them. The objective is to apply the minerals your crops need to produce high quality forage. Yes, deer will uptake the minerals, but deer will get ample trace minerals that they need from their varied diet of native vegetation. Different trees and plants mine trace minerals from different depths of the soil as well. Soils would need to be quite depleted across a large area and if this is the case, there are likely much more limiting factors for deer than the minerals.
 
I would actually like for the deer to get them. I've learned from observing the deer in two different areas...one mostly ag and the other primarily hills and woods ... the ag area the deer barely hit mineral licks of a variety of kinds...the wooded area they will have a hole in the ground in no time. I'm convinced the soil is terrible. If I can get it in the soil, then into the plants, the deer will know when they eat it. Eventually it should be a win win. Good for me and the deer. At least that's my thinking at this point.
 
Another little trick if your hunting a plot you can sweeten a spot by lightly spreading a little fertilizer higher in N in your kill range a week or so before you hunt it... that little pocket of extra green up will draw deer - they seem to know where the best / greenest food is... just another thought.
 
Soil types and mineral content vary greatly from area to area, state to state, and region to region. Just because deer survive in an area doesn't mean they have what they need to thrive (and produce the giant antlers and heavy bodies that we are all after). It's very likely that most of the country is lacking at least a mineral or two that limits full potential and health.
 
I think in part the hope would be to make the forage more desirable taste and mineral content wise... something that the deer intuitively would feel they need and draw to it. Deer in general get more than enough crude digestible protein just from their normal browse diets in general... our food plots I believe and I think science would likely support it , just helps to keep the fat on them in leaner times. Genetics and old age make big bodied deer and big racks, minerals may help but not significantly - arguably in areas where winter starvation might come into play it would maybe play a bigger part. I am a big fan of Redmond minerals and once could get small boulder sized "trophy rocks" when they were still joking about maybe hiring people to pick bigger chunks out of the conveyor and shrink wrap them for resale to hunters. Their mineral is the real deal and deer do seem to prefer it over others I've tried.
 
Catscratch said:
Soil types and mineral content vary greatly from area to area, state to state, and region to region. Just because deer survive in an area doesn't mean they have what they need to thrive (and produce the giant antlers and heavy bodies that we are all after). It's very likely that most of the country is lacking at least a mineral or two that limits full potential and health.
Click to expand...

Necropsy studies don't show that a lack of trace minerals are the limiting factor in free ranging deer. The big factors for body weight and antler size are nutrition, age, and genetics (and epigenetics). Deer are attracted to mineral licks by salt or sugar. Remove those from your mineral licks and deer don't use them.

It is a matter of identifying and plugging the lowest holes in your carrying capacity bucket. Your deer herd will run into nutritional gaps, age, or genetics long before they run into any other limiting factor. Mineral supplements are effective on livestock and penned deer who have a restricted diet. The amount of trace minerals deer need is small and if you have varied native habitat, they will get them.

There are strong replicated studies showing how improving nutrition, and age on a sufficient scale can improve body weight and antler size in free ranging deer. There are not studies on free ranging deer that show mineral supplementation has any effect. Having said that, if you believe mineral supplements help deer, that is fine. We just don't have any science based evidence to support the position. If you are going to use them, you are much better off spreading them over a field rather than creating a point-source attractant as that can contribute to the spread of disease.

Thanks,

Jack
 
tmeaton said:
I would actually like for the deer to get them. I've learned from observing the deer in two different areas...one mostly ag and the other primarily hills and woods ... the ag area the deer barely hit mineral licks of a variety of kinds...the wooded area they will have a hole in the ground in no time. I'm convinced the soil is terrible. If I can get it in the soil, then into the plants, the deer will know when they eat it. Eventually it should be a win win. Good for me and the deer. At least that's my thinking at this point.
Click to expand...

The soil may be worse, but there’s way more available forage within the reach of deer during the growing season for ag land deer vs big timber deer. I think your big timber deer need more high quality forage to get the nutrition into the deer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
yoderjac said:
It is a matter of identifying and plugging the lowest holes in your carrying capacity bucket. Your deer herd will run into nutritional gaps, age, or genetics long before they run into any other limiting factor. Mineral supplements are effective on livestock and penned deer who have a restricted diet. The amount of trace minerals deer need is small and if you have varied native habitat, they will get them.

There are strong replicated studies showing how improving nutrition, and age on a sufficient scale can improve body weight and antler size in free ranging deer. There are not studies on free ranging deer that show mineral supplementation has any effect. Having said that, if you believe mineral supplements help deer, that is fine. We just don't have any science based evidence to support the position. If you are going to use them, you are much better off spreading them over a field rather than creating a point-source attractant as that can contribute to the spread of disease.

Thanks,

Jack
Click to expand...

I disagree in your statement that you should only focus on the low hanging fruit. I agree that age, nutrition, and genetics are huge in determining antler size and should be focused on but they aren't the only things. I attempt to manage native plant nutrition, native plant diversity, plot nutrition, intrusion stresses, and soil health as well. When deer eat plants that are high in nutritional and mineral content they have a better chance at growing large than deer that don't have access to such complete forages. Your assessment that every soil in every part of the country has every mineral (and they're available for plant uptake due to chemistry and microbes) is far fetched. Not sure why you are bringing up mineral supplements as "point source" as the discussion is solely based on improving mineral content in plants, but your assessment of free range livestock (cattle) not benefiting from mineral is completely wrong. There are huge health benefits for cattle to having mineral available at certain times of the yr... namely better health and weight gain. I'm talking free range cattle and not feed-lot cattle. Which once again is not part of the discussion and cattle are completely different animals anyway. Anyway, I think you are arguing for the sake arguing. Which in your words means that you are trying to stimulate discussion.
 
" I think your big timber deer need more high quality forage to get the nutrition into the deer. "

Yep. Thus a few minerals into the plot soil and into the plant.


Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top