Many
hunters and landowners regularly plant food plots or provide
supplemental feeds to their deer in the fall. Most undertake these
practices primarily to observe deer and to increase their harvest
opportunities. However, if you want to build a healthier deer herd with
larger bodies and antlers, you should provide high quality feeds when
deer need them most—late winter, early spring, and summer. Maximizing
protein levels during these periods will help insure optimum body growth
and antler development.
In a free–roaming deer herd, it
is nearly impossible to manipulate the genetic makeup of the herd. On small
acreages, it can even be difficult to influence the age structure of the herd.
But, through proper harvest management, habitat management, and supplemental
feeding, you can control the amount and quality of feed available to your herd. Photo
by: Dan Moultrie.
Major Stress Periods For Whitetails
Throughout much of the whitetail’s range, one of
the most important times of the year to supplementally feed deer is immediately
after the rut until spring green–up. This allows deer to overwinter in good
condition and not have to play “catch–up” before the onset of antler
growth in spring. “But, many hunters quit feeding their deer at the end of
deer season, when in fact, this is the time that the deer often need the feed
the most,” Dan Moultrie, president of Moultrie Feeders, explained. “Stress
levels in deer are extremely high as they come into the spring, which means they
can benefit greatly from supplemental feeding. You also can increase the
survival rate of the fawns and bucks for the next year by continuing to
supplementally feed after deer season ends.” Photo by Dan Moultrie
Supplementing your deer herd’s
diet during the summer months when forage quantity is high but forage quality is
low also provides additional benefits. This is particularly true in areas where
summer food plots are unreliable due to frequent droughts or poor soils or not
possible due to a lack of available planting areas or landowner restrictions.
During summer the quantity and
quality of nutrition consumed by does directly influences the health and quality
of the fawns they will produce. Research has shown that buck fawns provided with
a high quality diet develop quicker and have a greater likelihood of growing
larger antlers as yearlings. “I believe that nutrition plays a greater role in
antler development than any other factor,” said Dr. Keith Causey, a deer
researcher at Auburn University. “Body and antler development depend on the
amount and quality of foods ingested. These two factors are the easiest for the
sportsman to control.”
New Research
Recently researchers discovered a
“new” high protein supplemental feed for whitetails—whole soybeans.
“Although feeding corn is one of the best ways to attract deer, corn typically
contains only 5 to 7 percent protein,” Moultrie said. “So while you may be
attracting deer with corn, you are doing little to improve their overall
nutritional level. A few years ago, research from Auburn University showed that
soybeans could be used in a spin feeder and that deer would eat them.” Until
this discovery, no one had found a way to use a spin feeder to distribute a high
protein feed to deer. This was because when high protein pellets were used in
spin feeders they would break down when exposed to moisture and not come out of
the feeder. As a result, deer managers had to use some type of covered trough to
feed commercial pellets to their deer. However, trough feeding requires more
time, labor, and allows deer to feed primarily at night instead of during
daylight hours when hunters can observe and potentially harvest them.
The Learning Curve
In many ways, deer are like
children. If you want to teach a child who doesn’t like broccoli to eat it,
then add a little ice cream. As the child begins to look forward to eating this
dish, you can reduce the amount of ice cream. In a short time, the child will
start eating broccoli without the ice cream.
Deer love corn as much as children
enjoy ice cream. In some cases deer will reluctantly eat soybeans before
they’re trained to eat them by mixing the soybeans with corn. To increase the
level of protein in your deer’s diet, mix corn with the soybeans, which
contain up to 45 percent crude protein. Then eventually feed only soybeans as
the deer become accustomed to eating it.
“We suggest that the first time
you fill your feeder you should use a mixture of 75 percent corn to 25 percent
soybeans in the late winter and early spring,” Moultrie explained. “The
second time you fill your feeder, increase the soybean level to a 50:50 mixture
if you see the soybeans are beginning to disappear like the corn. The third time
you fill up your feeder, you often can use 100 percent soybeans.”
The Economic Advantage of Soybeans
Every wildlife manager interested
in providing supplemental feeds to deer must consider the cost factor. “On
average, a 50–pound bag of corn will cost from $4.50 to $5 a bag,” Moultrie
reported. “A 50–pound bag of soybeans will cost $6 to $10, and a 50–pound
bag of high–protein pellets may cost as much as $15 a bag. So, when you
compare costs, the soybeans are only slightly more expensive than the corn and
much less expensive than the commercially prepared high–protein pellets.”
“However, when you compare the
nutritional value of the soybeans with corn and high–protein pellets, you see
that you’re dollars ahead by feeding soybeans. The corn will have a 5 to 7
percent protein level. The soybeans have a 35 to 45 percent protein level,
depending on how much fertilizer was used to grow them and the quality of the
soil. Most high–protein deer pellets have 16 to 21 percent protein. To deliver
the most protein to your deer for the least amount of money, you can’t beat
raw soybeans.” Photo by: John E. Phillips.
Feeding deer soybeans during the
off–season can have two benefits, increasing the herd’s nutritional levels,
and attracting the animals so that you can determine the general health of your
herd.
“Using a timed feeder to feed
soybeans during the off–season allows managers to observe the growth and
development of their bucks,” Moultrie said. “Then they will know ahead of
time what type and size of antlers the bucks will have when the hunting season
arrives.”
You can’t harvest quality bucks
if you don’t have quality bucks on the land you hunt. Supplemental feeding can
help you determine the relative number, size, and quality of bucks in a given
area; the buck–to–doe ratio; fawn recruitment levels; and an overall
assessment of your management program.
Cautions
Although feeding deer soybeans
allows wildlife managers to increase the protein level available to their deer
throughout the year, you must observe several precautions before you begin a
feeding program.
