Lush pens, good or bad

I am curious as to what everyone thinks is best to get the best production from your bucks. Lush pens full of clovers and chickory, or pens that have grown up with grass for cover but maybe not the most sought after browse, or basically a dry dirt or rock pen where they only eat what you give them.



Even if a pen is full of high protein clovers and chickory is to much a bad thing, you cannot get the lbs per head of feed with all of that free choice browse.



Let me know what you think or what you would like to have if you had your perfect pens



Matt Kirchner

Missouri Whitetails

660-341-0554

Matt K said:

I am curious as to what everyone thinks is best to get the best production from your bucks. Lush pens full of clovers and chickory, or pens that have grown up with grass for cover but maybe not the most sought after browse, or basically a dry dirt or rock pen where they only eat what you give them.



Even if a pen is full of high protein clovers and chickory is to much a bad thing, you cannot get the lbs per head of feed with all of that free choice browse.



Let me know what you think or what you would like to have if you had your perfect pens



Matt Kirchner

Missouri Whitetails

660-341-0554

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I try to do all of the above and let them make the choice! Full pens of Clovers and Alfalfa and feeders full of high test feed. I wish i had move cover for them as far as trees and such!

Very interesting topic for sure. I think it's hard to try and out smart mother nature in the long run. You don't see many free ranging deer living in a gravel parking lot. The again, you don't see many 200" deer grazing along the highway either. I have some 3 year old bucks in a pen that has quite of bit of cover and grass around 4 ft. tall. I rarely see those deer during the day. When I want a look at them I have to make them leave the tall grass. I would think their stress level is near zero. I give them the best feed that I can and hope for the best.

I do as Mike says above...I try to have it all for them and they can choose which they want.......I do keep half of my pen cut and the other half I let grow up for cover....they seem to feed where I cut on the fresh new growth and they love the cover to lay in......as far as the feed ...they are always hammering the feed no matter how much forage they have.......deer like a variety if it is available to them.....just my thoughts....

I as well offer pens with cover and all the imperial white clover they could ever eat and free choice top end feed, but I do notice when there feed intake drops and whenever you drive around the pen instead of being in the feed bunk they have their heads buried in the clover. I had the clover tested and it is 34% protein, and they look healthy as could be, but I am always thinking what if more feed and less clover would be better. I must be the only deerfarmer out there that second guesses himself. LOL



Matt Kirchner

Missouri Whitetails

660-341-0554

Matt, Your methodology is sound. Whitetail deer, as with all ruminating livestock, convert plant protein into microbial protein, specifically, protein with a complete amino acid chain. Meaning, this protein is perfect, with no limiting factors. Concentrate feeds by and large have limiters; they're missing a necessary element, most generally what we call the most-limiting amino acids, Lysine, and Methionine, which have to be added to make a complete protein chain. Working with farmed deer with the set-up you've described, energy, not protein, becomes the first-limiting factor, which is to say that when you factor in the clover and chicory, you MAY be able to lower the amount of protein in your concentrate feed, and elevate the energy, resulting in better performance along with lower cost...Wouldn't advise making any changes without further info, though...Chicory is a great choice, even with the extra cost, the chicory is providing you with 2 beneficial effects....the condensed tannins in chicory bind with protein for better absorption rates, plus it's also toxic to intestinal parasites(natural wormer). It's difficult to condense all the info here in this reply, but I believe you're on the right track...Good Luck!

Has anyone ever used Crown Vetch in their Whitetail pasture. Where I work it is used on the road banks and for strip cover. These areas are always full of grazing deer.

allenb said:

Has anyone ever used Crown Vetch in their Whitetail pasture. Where I work it is used on the road banks and for strip cover. These areas are always full of grazing deer.

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We have a couple kinds of vetch and they love it. Its great in the winter with baled hay!