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When do healthy deer look their best?

T

T-Hat

Joined Aug 2014
84 Posts | 0+
Montgomery, AL
Question for you experienced guys. Been deer farming for a few years now and as I understand it, the body condition of a deer will go through a sort of cycle. Rut/winter will bring them down in body weight, but summer and early fall they look healthy and fat. Does this match with most everybody else. I always worry some when i see them post rut.

Question rephrased: When do your deer look their best and when do they look "not their best"?

Thanks so much.
 
What are you feeding? I fed mine a homemade pellet and they didn't do very good going into winter. I then switch my feed to ADM and you could almost watch them put weight on. Now I think they look good 90% of the time. The other 10% is from the fawns sucking them down for a few weeks. The bucks always look good now after switching feed. When are yours not looking so good?
 
They seem not as "robust" coming out of winter.

Switched to Record Rack feed several months back. The do seem a bit picky about it. Not eating it quite as well. That's why I wonder if it is they backed off the feed because of preference or if its just the seasonal low for them.
 
Hi T-Hat,
I feed Record Rack Textured Breeder and I see the same thing as your seeing. Sometimes they seem to eat like crazy then other times not so much. Good Lord the textured breeder smells so good I want to eat it!!!! LOL!!! I have a buddy who mixes his own feed and says the samething that his deer also cut back..
 
This is a low time of the year for feeding. Wait till a few weeks before the first freeze and you won't be able to fill the feeders fast enough lol.
 
Do not judge your deer by looking at the bucks. Monitor the girls. That will give you the better perspective of how the herd is doing overall. If you can touch your deer, feel their chest area and their ham areas. Also the back towards the rear of the doe.
 
I must have a problem with some of mine. Ran them through fri for tb testing and quite a few had lots of hair missing. A few fawns had the whole side missing hair.
 

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