Article taken from
www.progressivefarmer.comTo Feed Or Not?
Feeding deer is controversial, but experts say it does help in managing herds if it's done right.
By Carolee Anita Boyles
In recent years the supplemental feeding of deer has become increasingly popular. Landowners feed deer everything from corn to apples in an attempt to increase not only the carrying capacity of the land, but also the quality and size of both antlers and deer.
Brian Murphy, executive director of the Quality Deer Management Association, believes providing feed properly is more than just baiting.
"If done correctly, supplemental feeding is a year-round program," he says. "People who are serious about supplemental feeding are moving toward either a commercial ration designed for deer or soybeans."
Still, many landowners ask, does feeding really do anything for carrying capacity, antler quality or body size? That depends.
"If supplemental feeding is providing more than just a token spotting of food, it can increase carrying capacity, antler growth and body weight," Murphy says.
But its effectiveness depends on how it's done. One feeder with corn won't mean a hill of beans to the deer herd. Put out multiple feeders loaded with high-quality feeds, however, and you can make a substantial difference.
Still, experts say there are limitations to the amount of improvement that supplemental feeding can make in antler growth.
"Supplemental feeding can improve antler growth if you spend a lot of money doing it," says Clayton Wolf, a deer biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife. But in many cases what you're contributing is pretty minimal. With hogs, raccoons and other animals feeding there too, deer don't get much of a share of the food.
If you have a supplemental feed available free choice so that the feeder never runs dry, you can have an impact. However, Wolf says, providing feed in amounts that can affect antler growth can have some negative consequences.
"Operations that do that often have a much higher recruitment of fawns," he says. "Typically, the range can't handle that buildup of animals. And as a result, those operations have to work even harder to get an adequate deer harvest. "
Another potential negative aspect of feeding is the increased potential for the transfer of diseases, including chronic wasting disease and tuberculosis, among animals.
Supplemental feeding isn't a panacea to create big deer. "Creating big deer takes a mixture of age, nutrition and genetics," Wolf says.
"Unfortunately, people like to go for the silver bullet," he adds. "They think if they buy a supplemental feed and put it out there, they'll grow bigger deer. But it's just not that simple.
"The deer may already have plenty of nutrients, and that's just the maximum potential of that animal; nutrition won't change the genetic potential of the deer herd. Antlers are an expression of all three factors, so you've got to work on all three factors at once," he concludes.