Feeding Deer

[Spinach]

We hunted all day today and didn't see any deer at all, we had 3 people in the woods and I only took a 1 hour break from my stand for lunch. The wind was terrible from sunrise until about 5 minutes before dark, so that didn't help much either.

At lunch, my dad and i were discussing the lack of deer activity on the property this season compared to years past. Typically at this time of year i have at least one or more and our party is right on target for our goal of 10 deer during shotgun season. Well, this year we only have 3 deer, whick puts us a little behind our goal. I told my dad, that i figured someone close must be feeding the deer and keeping them away from our property, I have only seen 2 deer out of my stand this season, on a normal day i will see anywhere from a couple to a dozen or more, my stand is by far the best morning stand on our property, I would estimate that over 75% of my deer were taken before 10am, I'm just not seeing any activity like years past.

On the way home, we decided to drive around and see what was happening after dark, we got about a half mile from our property and pulled next to a driveway and found approximately 30 deer in someones yard, she had feeders and piles of corn on the ground, while driving away, we saw 7 more coming into her yard. Then we drove a few more blocks in the opposite direction and found another property that had piles of corn and a feeder, with about 10 more deer. That was enough for me to call the local CO, It is illegal to feed deer during hunting season in this area, the CO will be paying a visit to these homes and scouting the rest of the area in the morning. Both of these properties are about a half mile from us and in city limits.

I'm just hoping that the deer will go back to there normal routine and come back on our property. I just hope its not too late for this season, otherwise i 'll be spending a lot of time in my stand with my bow during late season.

[deadeye]

Spinach,
I am absolutly 100% against deer feeding.  Other than giving the person feeding a good view of feeding deer, I can't think of one good thing to come from it.  Oh, I could write a long list of bad things but we have all seen them.   

[Mayfly]

Here is my stand on feeding.

If it is going to be legal to feed deer in the state of Mn than it should also be legal to baith deer as well.

If is is going to be illegal to bait deer in Mn than it should be illegal to feed deer.

I like feeding the deer because there are deer always around and I along with my daughter love to see the deer. Also I learned if they don't get it here then they go to the next yard that feeds them and they dissapear from here. It really is a mess. I have actually been doing a few tests with my feeders and the results are very different depending on where the deer are and how they move. Just like any other animal food is their main motivator. 

[TNT]

Spinny,
you say it is illegal to feed during the season in that area, are you in the no feed area or what? if not and they don't hunt the piles what is the problem other than keeping the deer from your area?

[kenhuntin]

We had this same thing happen on property adjoining ours. The Woman thought she was saving deer from hunters.The deer really had no reason to travel their regular places. They just ate and laid down in the woods nearby.So we just hunted the nearst legal area. She was horrified at the thought that she made it so easy to harvest deer that the feeding stopped.

[TNT]

let's try this and see if it works,  http://www.progressivefarmer.com/tabid/1002/Default.aspx

[deadeye]

Thanks TNT, good article.  This indicates it takes a big effort to get any benefit from feeding deer.  Most people aren't willing to go through the effort to really make a difference.

[Super Star!]

So are you saying that food plots are bad to? on are deer land we have 4 food plots that have three differnt kinds of plants in them so the deer can eat year round. in the center of the plots there is a feed that throughs out minerals for them. every year they are full of deer at all times of the day. we have been doing this for about 6 years now.   Are you saying im a bad person and should be finned by the wardon for this???

[Realtree]

Article taken from www.progressivefarmer.com

To 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.

   

[Super Star!]

yeah so you can copy and paste something 

The deer on my  land were very small  since we have had the food plots and the mineral out there for them they have grown in body size and in rack size..

[Realtree]

Personally, I think that year-round feeding (as in food plots) is a good tool to use, if used correctly and monitored.

As this article states:

"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.

If someone is making the time, energy, and financial committments required to sustain such food plots, I would imagine (and hope) that they are doing so with the best interest of the land and the deer in mind, not just to "get them onto" or "keep them off of" a specific piece of land for hunting purposes. I applaud the folks who are doing this correctly, and for the right reasons!

For the few folks who practice baiting or feeding deer only around hunting season to help their own or hinder someone elses hunting success, I am thouroughly disappointed and disgusted.

Hunting is a sport and an adventure. It's about taking the time to learn about and familiarize yourself with the "general tendencies" of your intended prey and putting yourself in the position to harvest said prey. You need to invest time, thought, and energy into this process...it's more than just throwing some corn out in a feeder and strapping your stand into the nearest tree for easy pickings. What is the sport in that????  

[Realtree]

yeah so you can copy and paste something 

The deer on my  land were very small  since we have had the food plots and the mineral out there for them they have grown in body size and in rack size..

Well, if you would have waited a couple of minutes mnminkman, you could have read my post after the article also   

[deadeye]

I gather from reading these replies that feeding deer means different things to different people.  To me feeding deer is dumping a pile of corn beats or some other feed for a short period of time and a limited area.  Food plots on the other hand tend to be more of a natural food source.  It grows throughout the year giving deer time to adjust to the food source.  In the fall it slowly dwindles to nothing and the deer switch to other browse.  If they are feeding exclusivly on a pile of corn, they do not have time to adapt to other sources when it runs out.  (I assume most people won't be dumping loads of corn all year round.) 

 

[Super Star!]

yeah so you can copy and paste something 

The deer on my  land were very small  since we have had the food plots and the mineral out there for them they have grown in body size and in rack size..

Well, if you would have waited a couple of minutes mnminkman, you could have read my post after the article also   

ok sorry i jumped the gun......  yes i agree with what you said 100% i was thinking you were saying something differnt. I spend a lot of time and money keeping my food plots up and in good order. there is a lot  more to a food plot than most think. to have a good food plot you can not just till the ground and toss some seed out. you have to get your soil tested to see what the soil needs to help the plots grow. you also need to monitour the deer that are useing the plots to see how they grow.... i could go on and on it like a full time job but i enjoy it

[Realtree]

Right on mnminkman and deadeye+ !!! I agree completely.   

[Mayfly]

I visit the feed mill in Forest Lake once in a while and I was there a couple days before the rifle opener here in Mn. They were telling me that this is their busiest week for corn sales (week before firearm opener). There was a line.....there is never a line there.

 

[Realtree]

That would be the folks on the "other" side of the coin unfortunately Mayfly! The ones who throw some temporary feed out to enhance their hunting success or hurt someone else's in that general area. 

[deadeye]

mnminkman is right about food plots being a lot more than just a place to pick off a deer.  We started putting in food plots about 5 years ago.  We primarily seed clover and alfalfa.  Corn and beans require a lot more work.  We started by simply using roundup on the area we were going to seed and then used a no till drill to seed it.  It was amazing to see deer in the seeded area almost as soon as the plants grew.   Over the years we expanded the plots to include several in the woods.  Once we got into this we became more conscious of the deer we had in the area.  We now called them OUR deer and became more interested in managing the deer herd than just shooting them.  So far this year we have taken 15 deer off the property and only one was taken (by bow) by a food plot.

[Spinach]

Spinny,
you say it is illegal to feed during the season in that area, are you in the no feed area or what? if not and they don't hunt the piles what is the problem other than keeping the deer from your area?

Yes, many of the areas in the Metro are no feed areas now, the herd is too large and too many accidents and roadkills.

It turned out that my area is right on the border of the no feed area, making it legal on our property. My problem is these people start dumping corn in their yards 2 weeks before the season starts and stop feeding the last day of the season. They think they are saving these animals when in fact they are making things worse.

The deer get used to being fed and get lazy, they dont have time to adapt to the rest of the winter and bulk up. They get used to an easy meal for a few weeks and then when the food disappears they have to move on to another source, these houses are also located a block off the highway which keeps them in harms way. All I can say is that the locals also have a problem with this temporary feeding, not just me.

I have no problem with food plots though!