Feeding Stratagies

this is with me: Ive seen alot of different feeds in all my different farm visits. I do know some who do run different mixes. Buck, doe, summer and winter. I personally do not know enough to be changeing every three to four months. With that said i would like to think that consistency is the key to all desirable measures. Meaning if im constently changing how do i know what is the real reason im hitting 200 inches or not. From a QC standpoint if i have only one verible i can manage and i personaly can tell you if it works or not. Blood tests yes great idea for tracking progress, animal size and weight to hard to tell im thinking that would be at least a 3 to 5 year study and compared to what, what would the control be? I just dont know enough about it i guess to jump on board with changeing ratios on a quarterly basis.



However i am open to it and want to know more.

This is what we recently switched over to...is it the best we've ever used? Don't really know yet...but the deer seem to like it pretty well and it seems to have fattened them up after we tried a feed that they apparently DIDN'T like and they all started losing serious weight (Kent Feeds Trophy Image 18 & 20). This is what some of the other guys in our area have switched over to and they seem to be having pretty good results with it...it's labeled as a calf feed because of the stuff they add to it for coccidiosis prevention (it has not been approved for deer use currently). They also feed it year round as opposed to going to a winter feed like we used to with our other pellets. We now feed the same for both bucks and does although we used to feed a higher protein feed to the bucks during their main growing season. Hopefully next year, we'll see a huge improvement...guess I should probably get out there and take some photos of the deer so I have some "before" photos. haha

I'm new here. Why don't the deer get most of the food from the fields that they are in and then the feed is for supplement. What is in the bag feed they are not getting from Grass, clover, trees and honey suckle vines. Salt block and mineral blocks. What is that magic supplement that is making there antlers grows other than genetics. Why do the Wild deer have nice racks if the genetics are there and no supplemental feeding with them.



Just asking 14 to 18% protein is the same in the bag or in the field?

B-Rad,



I'm not sure of the answer to that question so I'll refrain from trying to answer, however, I will say that when our bucks are in rut, we will usually stop feeding them pellets from around October/November until the 1st of January. It doesn't seem to bother them at all and they still maintain their weight just fine. Once the snow starts covering up all the grass, we do put hay out for them to give them some dry fiber, but that's the only thing we give them. That and clean drinking water.

I guess that what I was asking. Everyone here that I can tell feed there deer out of a bag. They are always talking about how expense it is. looks like they could get most of the feed from the fields and supplement the extra threw a mineral block? What are the mineral that they are missing from the fields? Salt potassium zinc iron calcium??? most of the these are in the mineral blocks that I have read.

What are other plants that could be planted in the fence rolls? Like honey suckle, Bi leazuima or some kind of bushy tree they can brows and not kill? There has got to be a way to get around the feed bill.

We use whitetail institute products. We used Chickory plus for the past two maybe three years and had good results. The drought killed it this year and we replaced it with Winter Greens also from the whitetail institute. Thats what we planted but we also substitute some alfalfa when its availible. The keeps down the chances over over grazing the food plot and alows you to get the full three to five years out of it.



Now with all that said our main focus is on the pellet or bag feed. With all that we put into our deer the pellet feed is about @ 75% of there perfered feed. The other 25% is browse or alfalfa. This insures us that we are controling what is going into our animals, from medication, minerals, probiotics.



Hands down you need a good feed! Balance i think is the key, i know some dont offer browse thats feed straight pellet and they have massive animals. Thats good to.