Round bale

[HUNTER2]

Does anybody throw a round bale out for the deer to munch on in the winter?

[HD]

I do throw hay out for the deer, but only when the snow gets real deep.
I always see them in my hay field when it's not to deep to forage.


Hunter

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[cobb]

I may be wrong, or as many, my memory is at fault, but.....

I thought I saw a report years ago that had to do with air dropping bales of hay in areas that the deer were winter starving and it didn't work.  I thought it had something to do with their diet during the winter and they wouldn't eat, couldn't eat or maybe digest the hay.

[HD]

I may be wrong, or as many, my memory is at fault, but.....

I thought I saw a report years ago that had to do with air dropping bales of hay in areas that the deer were winter starving and it didn't work.  I thought it had something to do with their diet during the winter and they wouldn't eat, couldn't eat or maybe digest the hay.

I don't know...... 

I got several pics of deer eating the hay.


Maybe it was the area, and they aren't used to eating hay.
I think the drops were in Northern Minnesota.

Or maybe they scared the  out of the deer..... How would you feel if someone dropped a bail of hay on your head from a plane? 
OK, I'm just kidding about the last one!



Hunter

[trout whisperer]

try an alfalfa bale if you can afford it...........

[Fawkinnae]

I may be wrong, or as many, my memory is at fault, but.....

I thought I saw a report years ago that had to do with air dropping bales of hay in areas that the deer were winter starving and it didn't work.  I thought it had something to do with their diet during the winter and they wouldn't eat, couldn't eat or maybe digest the hay.

I believe that is correct.
Because they are a ruminant animal they rely on the microbes in the rumen to digest the hay. It takes a while for the right kind of microbe culture to be developed. Unless they have been eating hay all along (which they may already have been) they will die of starvation before that culture can be created.

Someone else probably understands this better than I but I believe that is the gist of it.

[mnnate]

Yea. I have done projects on this. In northern areas and areas where deer do not have access to legumes(alfalfa) they actually starve when they eat it because they cannot digest it. I believe you are ok to put out lower grade grass hay because it is easier for them to digest and closer resembles their daily diet.  :scratch:Thats just what I've seen