Supplemental Feeding? What do you recommend?

[Typical 10]

Just wondering what people on here would recommend putting out for some supplemental feeding for deer. What do y'all use or recommend for best body weight and antler growth? Thanks in advance!!

 

[scn]

The best recommendation would be to not do it.

There are a lot of management activities out there that will give you a lot more bang for your buck, (pun intended), than supplemental feeding.

 

[diamond hunter]

Go in the woods and find a low spot and look up towards the sky.Walk to the nearest tree that's not a mast producer or nice timber tree.Hinge cut that.Repeat until you have about an acre cut.That will produce more food than you can buy and it will be higher in protein and the deer will like it better.Later,they will sleep there and you have a new hunting spot. Move over a few acres and repeat.If you already know all of this,I hope this gives someone some inspiration.Release trees as in,find a nice white oak and cut the trees around in,giving it sunlight.Repeat.I personally don't cut poplars anymore cause I'm a beekeeper and they help bees and are fast growers and make a nice tree and good for stands.I personally hate beech trees but I have a mature stand of them and they get a pass,go somewhere and cut the smaller ones.

 

[nwsg76]

I would only supplement after you have created the best habitat possible and you have plenty of money you want to part with.
Supplemental feeding is meant to be the cherry on top of the whip cream on top of the hot fudge on top of the chocolate cake on top of the ice cream on top of the other piece of chocolate cake.....that is the cherry on a hot fudge cake.
I get to go on farms and make habitat recommendations for my job. I have never been on a farm in tennessee that supplemental feeding was the next step.
But it's a free country...so you have the right to do as you see fit.

 

[Typical 10]

Thank y'all for your advice and opinions. I'll just continue with food plots as usual, I guess. I was just wondering about doing something to help the deer during this time of year, but I guess they're surviving fine without any further assistance.

 

[Mike Belt]

In any event I doubt that you could do much to improve a deer herd by supplemental feeding unless you had very deep pockets and a well managed feed distribution.

 

[Hunter 257W]

One thing I've done in the past is to mix corn in with my food plots when those plots include vine type beans/peas that grow well with corn. That way the vines benefit from the corn because they climb the stalks and increase mass of the vines, and once frost kills the beans/peas, the mature corn is there for colder weather. Plant some strips of cold hardy plants nearby and you have a year round plot.

A 50 lb bag of Truckers Favorite seed corn can be had for around $55 and will grow a lot of "free" corn for later in the year. True it's not roundup ready, but once you get the taller plots going they mostly shade out the weeds. Besides, many of the plants that we turn our noses up to, calling them "weeds", are the very plants that deer would normally live on. :) If they come up in a limed and fertilized plot, they often make good deer feed.

 

[TheLBLman]

The best recommendation would be to not do it.

There are a lot of management activities out there that will give you a lot more bang for your buck, (pun intended), than supplemental feeding.

So very true.

IMO, there are two things that will typically provide more broadly utilized benefits than supplemental feeding, and at a fraction the monetary costs, and at much less "risk" of doing more harm than good.

1. Bush-hogging and/or mowing lots of scattered areas around your land, at least once annually. IMO, if done only once annually, the best time to do this is the month of February.

2. Purchase and scatter lime on those mowed areas (as well as any areas you sow in something for the wildlife). Lime may not be as needed in all places, but I've seen few areas in TN where it wasn't of good benefit for the money.

Other managers will point out that cutting trees (just something that allows more sunlight to hit the ground) is paramount. But this is not always an option, while most do have plenty of scattered places they could mow and lime.

A real key is to make the habitat as diverse as you can, so as to provide year-round and very well distributed food sources (as opposed to the focal point of a feeder). Deer are naturally "browsers", eating most their daily consumption while on the move. If you provide something "better" scattered in many locations, you may provide more of the deer more "supplement" than simply placing a feeder, and again, without the liabilities of concentrated feeding spots, without the harm that could be caused by over-feeding a single item (such as corn) possibly causing deer to consumer less protein (corn has essentially none) when protein is more needed than carbs or fat.

I'm particularly reluctant to use corn (in a feeder or poured on the ground) as a supplemental food source. Even though corn is the lowest cost item you can purchase for use in a feeder, it can be very expensive, especially if your time, extra gas, plus special trips to purchase and pour are factored.

Lastly, I really believe few consider the harm to the manager's ultimate goals that may be caused by increased predation at "feeding spots", as it's my opinion that more of this increased predation is particularly on button bucks.

 

[TheLBLman]

. . . . . many of the plants that we turn our noses up to, calling them "weeds", are the very plants that deer would normally live on. :) If they come up in a limed and fertilized plot, they often make good deer feed.

Exactly.
And they typically don't even need any fertilizer.

 

[TheLBLman]

Ah, then there's the fellow who says,
"Yes, but I've already done all the hinge-cutting, mowing, cultivated food plots, liming, etc., and now I want to add outright FEEDING."

I still say better to do yet more of the other stuff than add the feeding.
:)
But the advertising for feeders, feed, and general pocket-emptying can be compelling.

 

[treefarmer]

Foresters have a name for what diamond hunter recommends and it's called TSI - timber stand improvement. It helps your woods and the habitat. I do it most weekends after deer season till it gets too warm to work. I use a chain saw and cut down the junk trees and spray an herbicide on the stump. Something will grow in the spot the trees were in and it may be weeds, grasses, or a future quality tree. Areas I've done this in are now oak/poplar/cherry/dogwood.