mtclev5651
Senior Member
For a stable population of deer at multiple properties ( mature breeding does and a couple of shooters) should I cause disruption in order to feed in north ga or wait for spring to start feeding again?
Corn and protein mix?IMO, this is THE most important time of the year to feed.
Any intrusion now is typically daylight hours and is of little note to the deer.
Corn and protein mix?Deer don't really care too much what you do as long as you aren't trying to poke holes in them. Feeding now would be the most beneficial time for deer.
What about protein (adm) if it hasn’t already been in their diet?I should have said, I wouldn't introduce corn to them right now. You can obviously do what you want.
Huck
So in conclusion, you are a proponent of year round feeding?I heard some biologists an a radio show a while back talking about a study that was being done in South Dakota. Traditionally deer from the black hills averaged way less body weight and antler inches than deer from the ag regions of the state. It was something like 50lbs and 30 inches but I don’t remember exactly. They trapped a bunch of deer from both regions of the state and put them in captivity. They conducted the trapping when fawns had just hit the ground within a day or two. So they have bucks, does, and new fawns in captivity and on the exact same “optimum” diet. At maturity those fawns that were trapped basically grew into what their ancestors were. The black hills fawns we’re still significantly smaller than the ag deer.
Now here is where it gets interesting. The does that had given birth to those fawns were then bred in captivity to bucks from their respective regions and the whole time being kept on the high quality diet. The black hills fawns than were bred and born in captivity to the does that had been on the high quality diet closed 80% of the size and antler gap between the blacks hills deer and the ag deer.
Their theory is that when a doe is getting proper nutrition before and during pregnancy in turns on some kind of a “genetic switch” in the dawn that allows the fawn to grow bigger at maturity. They were going to continue the study to see if the gap would completely close within a few generations. I thought that was pretty interesting.
So in conclusion, you are a proponent of year round feeding?
Corn and protein mix?
Question?? Just what are "you all" trying to accomplish with year 'round feeding?
So in conclusion, you are a proponent of year round feeding?
The other question to ask is can you create a herd who's health will deteriorate if the supplemental feed is taken away?