Deer Supplemental Feeding

Deer season may still be months away and the weather is uncomfortable but it is a great time to prepare for the upcoming season. Before supplemental feeding became such a successful program to improve your deer herd, most hunters left their hunting property at the end of the season and left the deer to survive on what Mother Nature had made available. Some years are lean for wildlife with little rain. Other years, like this year have had record rain fall.

In times of drought, deer suffer silently. To the novice outdoors person it may appear that there is plenty for them to eat. But the person with a trained eye looks closer at the native habitat and realizes the strain it puts on animals. Many times the nutritional stress results in poor antler development, low fawn survival, lower body weights of all deer for the upcoming season and even death.

In years of heavy rain, native habitat is in better shape to provide nutrition for the deer. As a result hunters will notice increased size of antlers, body weights and fawn survival. Hunting may prove to be more difficult simply because the deer don’t need to travel as far to feed. Historically, years of abundant rainfall have produced some good bucks. But the most exciting thing produced is the potential some 5 years down the road for a large number of mature bucks. Reason is, more fawns today mean more bucks down the road. But there is a catch. Mother Nature is not always generous with rainfall and most certainly the deer will need a supplemental food source at times. It is for that reason supplemental feeding deer has become an accepted practice for serious deer managers. But supplemental feeds are not all the same and it can be confusing and difficult determining which feed is best.

Although all feeds have nutritional value that is comparable, the main difference in feeds is palatability. No matter how good of nutrition the feed contains, if the animals don’t eat it then you are wasting time and money. The recommended way to determine which feed is best is to let the deer decide.

About a year ago, I took 4 bags from 4 different manufacturers and poured each of them in separate piles. Then I returned the next day to see which feed the deer preferred. Today, it is obvious the deer are getting better nutrition. Their antlers are much larger, body weights are up and best of all; the upcoming season should be exceptional.

The wet spring and early summer helped out the deer but I also attribute the improvement to supplemental feeding. Due to limited space in this column, I am unable to share with you more tips on how wildlife biologists use supplemental feeding year round. But you can find that report on our website at www.keithwarren.net.