I am on a lease in Madison County. It is about 4000 acres. We are trying to set up a plan where the lease pays for and maintains protein feeders. Is there any "rule" of roughly how many protein feeders per acreage? Any input would help.

I have no idea what smart people would say but I'd think one for every 500 acres maybe. 8 or 10. I think we've done 3 or 4 typically on our 1600 acre place.

And of course there would be no harm in doing more.

That's what we are thinking too roughly. We are budgeting for 10. I just want to be sure we aren't way off.

Also depends on the capacity of the protein feeder. I have (4) 2500# feeders on 640 acres & when they're hitting the protein hard, it last about 6-7 weeks.

Hunt a property that is very similar in size but we have free range exotics, too.

We have about 10-12 500-750lb feeders. A 500lb feeder lasts us about 2-4 weeks, depending on the location, but can sometimes last only 7-8 days.

I would recommend consolidating feeder locations and only putting out 5-6 bigger feeders. It's a lot easier to fill 2-2.5 tons of protein in a handful of feeders vs 10-12. I would also recommend placing the feeders in a non-hunted area and be sure to have hog panels around all of them.

4k acres in Madison Co? Where about are you?

I doubt this is an issue but it's worth mentioning... most protein feed contains copper and is highly toxic to domestic sheep. Again, doubt you have sheep given location but make sure you fence it off if you do.

Domestic goats (feral ones) appear to be just fine, given they eat out of a couple of our feeders every month.

Most wildlife consultants will recommend supplemental feeding at least 1 feeder per 400 acres. Ideally, you try to get that to 1 per 250. Even though it would be convenient to consolidate feed sites, you need to spread them out because dominant deer can monopolize certain areas.

AgEng06 said:

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4k acres in Madison Co? Where about are you?

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Look man, it ain't his place so he's not at liberty to say. It's around Madison Co. Thanks for asking.

The experts say one every 200-300 acres. That's a lot of feed but it's because there is a lot of mouths.

Dammit

Southern end, not very far off 45.

Thanks everyone. We will start with 10 and work our way to 15. That was our plan so nice to get confirmation.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Hunt a property that is very similar in size but we have free range exotics, too.

We have about 10-12 500-750lb feeders. A 500lb feeder lasts us about 2-4 weeks, depending on the location, but can sometimes last only 7-8 days.

I would recommend consolidating feeder locations and only putting out 5-6 bigger feeders. It's a lot easier to fill 2-2.5 tons of protein in a handful of feeders vs 10-12. I would also recommend placing the feeders in a non-hunted area and be sure to have hog panels around all of them.

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I am intrigued by this. Can you explain more why you think this? (genuinely curious as I've debated moving my protein feeder to a different area in hopes it gets more use than my regular feed pen).

It comes at the recommendation of a couple of biologists, I believe because of one of the original studies on supplemental feeding whitetail deer.

I don't remember all of the details of that study but placing the feeders in areas that don't have any hunting pressure and tend to be more remote, ideally get more traffic from more animals.

Now, we don't do that yet. But i have wanted to this for a long time. For us the primary advantage is the total number of feeders you're having to feed. I don't think it makes that much of a difference but it's how I would do it if I started today and not 18 years ago.

Drillbit4 said:

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The experts feed company say one every 200-300 acres. That's a lot of feed but it's because there is a lot of mouths.

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FIFY

ought1ag said:

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Drillbit4 said:

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The experts feed company say one every 200-300 acres. That's a lot of feed but it's because there is a lot of mouths.

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FIFY

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I get the sentiment, however, if the goal is to grow bigger critters then getting them the groceries they need should be the goal. One feeder for every 125-300 ac would be ideal. Things that impact the amount of feeders needed are terrain/topography, proximity to water, livestock, and layout of the ranch. On a ranch that's roughly square/rectangular with some fields and brush then 300 ac or more/feeder may be good. However, if it's shaped like an L or something odd more feeders will typically be needed because deer movement will be limited by a high fence or they will be more transient in a low fence operation if there's nothing to hold them. Finally, not feeding enough is just as wasteful as severely over feeding deer when it comes to results per $ spent.

obviously the more you feed the better....was only trying to be funny. high fence/low fence does make a difference as you mentioned. a buddy has 1000 acres high fence and they were told they should target one feeder every 120-150 acres with the goal of ever deer being able to eat 3# per day.......they used to have five 250# feeders and now have upgraded to four 2000# feeders. time will tell if it will pay off.

figure out how much you want to spend.

then figure 1500;bs a year per feeder,

divide what you want to spend by $15/50lb bag

that will give you how many feeders you need.

Buy 750lb feeders

I would start in the middle fo the property and work your way out with placmeent

Try to put out at least 8

we have 3 on 550 acres and they all get hit.
If you are concerned with loss, add coonhoods to the feeders, they help.

Trust me, I thought it was funny, and that is my livelihood.

Unless there is a drought and you have the protein feeders filled 100% of the time, feeding protein is a waste. We have been doing it at our lease for 10 years. Unfortunately, I am in the minority so I get outvoted and still have to pay for it. But I shake my head every time i write a check. Even if it does work slightly, I could care less if a 140" deer become a 143". Not worth 7.50 a bag.

Howdy Dammit said:

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Unless there is a drought and you have the protein feeders filled 100% of the time, feeding protein is a waste. We have been doing it at our lease for 10 years. Unfortunately, I am in the minority so I get outvoted and still have to pay for it. But I shake my head every time i write a check. Even if it does work slightly, I could care less if a 140" deer become a 143". Not worth 7.50 a bag.

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I'm not gonna sit here and say that I can guarantee that the feeding is the cause of our better deer, but I can say with certainty that before we started feeding, we never ever ever saw any deer that were even 115" and them after we started feeding, we are now seeing 120-130" deer every year and shooting an occasional 140" deer. I'm a believer. Yes, there are other factors that might be working in our favor, but the difference has been so stark and times perfectly with when we started feeding that I think it had to play a meaningful role.

Where are you buying protein for $7.50/bag?

Howdy Dammit said:

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Unless there is a drought and you have the protein feeders filled 100% of the time, feeding protein is a waste. We have been doing it at our lease for 10 years. Unfortunately, I am in the minority so I get outvoted and still have to pay for it. But I shake my head every time i write a check. Even if it does work slightly, I could care less if a 140" deer become a 143". Not worth 7.50 a bag.

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Just out of curiosity, does your $7.50/bag deer protein pellet have a somewhat diamond shape to it, is very yellow, and strongly resembles a corn kernel?

The $7.50/bag may be your problem, you do know the saying you get what you pay for?
$7.50 isn't giving you any research based, high quality horn growing protein.

Helps to buy in bulk and have yearly agreements with the feed store! Also, the bag comment was just an equivalent, as we have a silo on our place and put out protein via augers.

Good advice and good post. We used 1 3000lb feeder per 200 acres but have exotics to feed as well. We also used the timed bulk feeders as it allowed us to regulate and change the feed times every so often. This allowed the non dominant animals a chance at some of the feed. You are also spot on to place them in non hunted areas or secluded areas to allow better distribution.
We definitely saw an increase in animal quality as in body weights, fawn production/survival, and of course, antler growth. We fed 20% pellets or mix of pellets and peas. The only time we mixed corn in was during the cold months for the carbohydrates and then only at 25-30% of the mixture. Never fed corn during warm months.

Lot of good and varied info here . . . in W TX I try and figure the number of feeders (spinner and free choice) to the population. We generally don't need any more than 1 to 500-600 ac. The density I'm usually working with is around a deer to 50 ac. I'd guess density is little higher around Madisonville?