Good discussion taking place on my lease. Argument is is that now is the most important time to protein feed with the bucks finishing rut. Protein feed now and by the time they shed and grow new antlers late spring, they are healthy. Their is no point protein feeding once they start growing their antlers because you are already past that point.

What do yal think?

Best time to supplement feed is now/post rut in my opinion, Unless your ranch is in Amazing shape and green. Protein/supplement feed will continue to help bucks throughout the whole antler growing process, not Just right when they begin to start grow new antlers.

I will add that we are in the northern hill country so I like to feed 1/2 corn ( as it does have 6% protein content) and 1/2 20% protein from the first freeze till March.
This insures that if we have a late winter cold climate event like last Feb. they still have plenty of carbs to keep the fat on.
As soon as that threat is over we go 100% protein till next winter with cottonseed in the spring to early summer.

Can you expand on not feeding corn only during hot months? I have not fed corn year-round but was considering it this year as I have a bunch on hand.

This fall/winter acorns were the feed of choice...and easy on the budget!

Keep protein out year round here. I put out cottonseed from Lyssy & Eckel. But it by the ton in 50 pound sacks.

Protien now, and especially when does are pregnant. A healthy momma that has a great food source will have more to do with healthy and bigger bucks than the antlers on bucks do.

During high temperatures the corn can develop aflatoxins. Gut damage can occur from such. Also the body is not in need of high carbs during hot months and it does much more harm than good as it does not digest well. Similar to colic.
Kinda on the same theory of not feeding a horse " hot" feed in the summer.
All from recs from vets who work with deer and exotics.
I'm sure some vets on the OB that work with deer can give a much more detailed explanation than me.

Supplement protein when there is a lack of protein in the normal deer forage. Look around you. Are there young, tender forbs high on a deer's dining list? How's the browse? Is the place lizard licked with poor livestock management? Is it April after 8 inches of spring rain? Feed is far too expensive to waste, so use it when it's genuinely needed.

Not a nutritionist, as I'm sure most on here or not. But IMO, unless you're feeding protein free choice, and not from a spinner, your bucks will gain very little if any benefit.

I read this in an article several years ago. We've done both on our place and when it was fed free choice there was a noticeable difference w/i a few years compared to spinning it. (soybean in the spin cast, and 20% pellets in the gravity feeders or cottonseed).

Thoughts?

AUAg92 said:

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Not a nutritionist, as I'm sure most on here or not. But IMO, unless you're feeding protein free choice, and not from a spinner, your bucks will gain very little if any benefit.

I read this in an article several years ago. We've done both on our place and when it was fed free choice there was a noticeable difference w/i a few years compared to spinning it. (soybean in the spin cast, and 20% pellets in the gravity feeders or cottonseed).

Thoughts?

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Why is that the case? I have free choice in one pen and a spinner in another for protein. My decision to use spinner was to eliminate all of the birds

I believe it basically comes down to the deer being able to eat as much as they want and whenever they want to gain the benefit that the pellets are designed to do. Nibbling a little here and there and at set feed times is negligible.

It depends on how you utilize your feeders. We have had our ranch for just going on 30 years. We live here and spend time out and observing the animals daily. We have used free choice bulk feeders, bulk feeders with timer mechanisims, and spin cast feeders.
At free choice bulk feeders the dominant animals will control the feeder......they will camp out at those feeders and dominate them. Younger or non dominant animals will not be able to receive the benefit of the feed because of this. Bulk free choice feeders usually have troughs or 4-5 tubes for the deer to feed out of.....this just more benefits the dominant animals.
We now solely use spin cast feeders at 2000lb capacity. We feed 4 times a day (24 hours) at those feeders and allow the feeders to run for longer times to throw a sufficient amount of feed over a very large area. This allows all the animals a better chance of obtaining feed and limits the ability of the dominant animals to control a feeder. We adjust that feed amount as the range and climate conditions dictate.
We also change the time of the feedings every month to deter habitual feeding. We dont hunt around our feeders..we leave them as sanctuary areas.
In comparrison to feed usage records we have kept over the years, we dont use anymore feed with the spinner type than we did the free choice but have much better overall herd improvement results than we did with the free choice.
We have little waste and that will only occur during heavy rains.

Thats just what we have found over the years that works for us.

That is what we have found has worked the best for us for the dollar investment.

I think it is important to note that our supplemental feeding plan is but a part of our overall deer mangement plan that has now been in place for around 25 years. More importantly is the intense management of the population densities as dictated by range conditions and available browse and natural foods. Maintaining proper deer per acre densities, proper buck/doe ratios, doe/fawn ratios are all keys to the total plan.
We spend a lot of time on food plot planting and also on insuring that all areas of the ranch have adequate water supplies as well.
You rarely, if never, can replace the benefits of mother natures groceries with protein pellets and corn.

This is very interesting and makes sense. Sounds like you run a top notch program and are fortunate to be able to have 24/7 access and monitor your deer herd as close as you do.
We're out in the Hill Country of Kendall County and can not plant food plots and have to fence in our feeders (cows).
We also hunt over our feeders.
What are you spinning and for how long typically? I know you said it changes, but just on average?

Edited as I see you already mentioned that above. Nm.

GSS said:

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This fall/winter acorns were the feed of choice...and easy on the budget!

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east Texas was flush with Acorns - I walked a few miles in the national forest duck hunting some creeks and was amazed at the sheer volume of acorns on the ground - I'm guessing it was a stress reaction to the drought ?

Oh man! You are truly in Gods's country!

At our place we have far better luck with free choice gravity feeders. Throwing protein generally means that the deer arent going to get much, if any, because the coons, possums, birds, etc are all more opportunistic.

We also have a lot of forage, so deer generally dont come to feeders like they do in other areas. They hit the protein hard from now until around Sept, then we put more emphasis on corn and sort of just halfway maintain the gravity feeders.

I can usually fill up a 55 gallon gravity feeder in Sept and dont have to touch it much throughout the season. In the summer months i may fill that same feeder once a month.

Food plots are next on my list, its a pain because of the cows though. Have to fence them out.

Feeding protein for only the spring/summer is a waste of money. The deer need it more during the winter than anything. You can't take a deer into growing season starving and expect them to explode.
Feed it year round.

My 450# gravity went empty in 1 week because of all the birds

You know I have never seen a bird even in my protein feeder or a racoon for that matter. What kind of birds?

What type of pellets us using in the spincast?

You are correct that ideally feed year around. But deer are under much more stress during very hot months and dry than typically the winter. Usually there is some moisture in our winters so there is some winter weeds and browse. Protein not carbs are much needed during the summer.

We use 20% "Hunters Edge" made by and milled by Behrends in Luckenbach.
Clark Benrends, the owner, is a Aggie and knows his stuff.
We have tried many brands and have used this for many years now. Low dust and well milled to hold together.

All of it.

drred4 said:

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You know I have never seen a bird even in my protein feeder or a racoon for that matter. What kind of birds?

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Dove, little black birds and ravens

They are going to empty my pockets quickly. I may have to get creative to get rid of them. They went through 400lbs in 1 week

Gunny456 said:

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During high temperatures the corn can develop aflatoxins. Gut damage can occur from such. Also the body is not in need of high carbs during hot months and it does much more harm than good as it does not digest well. Similar to colic.
Kinda on the same theory of not feeding a horse " hot" feed in the summer.
All from recs from vets who work with deer and exotics.
I'm sure some vets on the OB that work with deer can give a much more detailed explanation than me.

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Hell, I hunt in Laredo, it's hot year round.

We feed free choice protein January through September and then switch to corn. Sometimes the deer knock out 1000 lbs in as little as three weeks and sometimes it sits there 2.5 months. Spin cast would be either a waste or insufficient for us - and it can change rapidly. Mills county, high deer density area.

AUAg92 said:

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Not a nutritionist, as I'm sure most on here or not. But IMO, unless you're feeding protein free choice, and not from a spinner, your bucks will gain very little if any benefit.

I read this in an article several years ago. We've done both on our place and when it was fed free choice there was a noticeable difference w/i a few years compared to spinning it. (soybean in the spin cast, and 20% pellets in the gravity feeders or cottonseed).

Thoughts?

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I am a nutritionist and you are correct. Research, anecdotal observations and feed manufacturer trials have all shown that the only feeding that substantially improves the herd avg for repro, antler characteristics and longevity basically equates to approaching free choice access. Limiting feed availability either by amount (ie spincast) or access time (ie gate feeders and timed trough feeders) benefits only a small portion of your deer. If you're going to feed protein of any type (pellets, roasted soybeans, etc) by a spincast save your money on the protein and do something else. The waste is very high and target animal intake is very low.
Free choice feeding works in three ways that benefit the majority of the herd. First it gives nearly every animal access to feed regardless of age or dominance. Two, animals can self regulate intake to maintain improved levels of production. And third, free choice feeding allows animals to replace enough of their natural diet (~1% or greater of BW) to make significant improvements in performance. One last thing, if you put a pen around your feeder utilization of the feeder by does will be significantly reduced. Finally, bigger is always better when building feed pens.

"Look at me I had rain in July"

But seriously, is that date right?

Good info!

I can attest that bigger pens absolutely make a difference. The primary spot I feed protein started out as a 32x32 pen, then a 48x32 and now a 48x48' pen. I never used to have more than 2-3 deer in the pen at once when it was smallest and now will regularly have 4-6 deer at once.