How To Do A Mineral Lick

[AliBubba]

Great post Elfiii...thx for sharing your experience!

 

[Joey Youngblood]

Check out the main ingredient in deer cane. It is sodium bicarbonate a.k.a common baking soda.

Save a few pennies.

 

[elfiii]

It also has msg. If you do the analysis on that home made mixture it comes out to a very small amount of calcium and phosphorus. I figured it once and I think it was like 4% calcium. Dr. James Kroll gave an analysis in his book "A Practical guide to Producing and Harvesting whitetail deer" he recommend it have 16-19% calcium, 8% phosphorus, 120,000 IU/lb vit A, 50,000IU/lb vit D, 50IU/ lb vit e as well as other micros. One important thing is low selenium of 2.5ppm. Selenium toxicity is possible in deer and many commercial mixes have too much. I'm wortwith a mineral manufacturer on a formulation but so far the best I have used is the Lowcountry Deer Mineral. It's a maximum calcium range between 13-15.6% and a min of 7% phosphorus. Selenium is 3ppm and salt is 32-38%

Dical Phosphate is 22-25% calcium and 18-19% phosphorus.

http://www.drugs.com/vet/di-calcium-phosphate.html

 

[gahunter70]

Dical Phosphate is 22-25% calcium and 18-19% phosphorus.

http://www.drugs.com/vet/di-calcium-phosphate.html

Yes that's correct, The analysis I figured was on the homemade on you find all over the net which uses the dical, red mineral salt (96%salt) and a bag of stock salt and some molasses and maybe something else. Most dical I have seen for sale is in the 18%-20%. At the formulation given with all ingredients listed the end percentage of calcium was low and my memory could be off but 4% ish is what I remember. This homade mixture still lacks vitamins essential to aid the absorbance of the mineral as well as lacks many other that a properly formulated mineral would. But it's better than nothing.
I know the regular deer Caine has msg, I don't want my deer eating msg much least me. There are some good deer mineral blends out there, just read the ingredients and watch the selenium levels are below 10ppm

 

[elfiii]

Yes that's correct, The analysis I figured was on the homemade on you find all over the net which uses the dical, red mineral salt (96%salt) and a bag of stock salt and some molasses and maybe something else. Most dical I have seen for sale is in the 18%-20%. At the formulation given with all ingredients listed the end percentage of calcium was low and my memory could be off but 4% ish is what I remember. This homade mixture still lacks vitamins essential to aid the absorbance of the mineral as well as lacks many other that a properly formulated mineral would. But it's better than nothing.
I know the regular deer Caine has msg, I don't want my deer eating msg much least me. There are some good deer mineral blends out there, just read the ingredients and watch the selenium levels are below 10ppm

I use the Deer Caine and molasses in my mix as a starter to get them coming. After the lick is established a bag of Di-cal and trace mineral is all you need to add each year to freshen it up. Between the two that's most of what they need and anything else is either overkill, bad for them or a waste of money. The habitat in the Piedmont region is not conducive to producing lots of monster bucks unless your pour the protein feed to them. I'm already deer farming at the current level of expenditure I can afford.

 

[gahunter70]

I use the Deer Caine and molasses in my mix as a starter to get them coming. After the lick is established a bag of Di-cal and trace mineral is all you need to add each year to freshen it up. Between the two that's most of what they need and anything else is either overkill, bad for them or a waste of money. The habitat in the Piedmont region is not conducive to producing lots of monster bucks unless your pour the protein feed to them. I'm already deer farming at the current level of expenditure I can afford.

How much is the dical these days?

 

[one hogman]

Keep the thread going, Hey I didn;t see a comment about hunting over or close to the lick[ 200 yards and insight] Mr. Green Jeans will not like that. Northern Zone that is,

 

[elfiii]

How much is the dical these days?

Don't know this year's price. I'll be picking some up next weekend and let you know.

Keep the thread going, Hey I didn;t see a comment about hunting over or close to the lick[ 200 yards and insight] Mr. Green Jeans will not like that. Northern Zone that is,

Nope. Once the ingredients have dissolved they are no longer visible and it is legal to hunt right on top of the lick if you want, but that isn't advisable.

 

[Bowhunter Matt]

about time to get these started up

 

[dawgvet]

Very cool post

 

[jimbar]

I am also concerned about hogs. Do hogs ignore mineral licks or hop in and destroy them?

 

[Core Lokt]

I am also concerned about hogs. Do hogs ignore mineral licks or hop in and destroy them?

I read the entire thread and several post say hogs love them.

 

[smitty]

Hogs love them,they will eat them gone, all gone !!!

 

[porter314]

Good info. For anybody near white county the farmers exchange will order the di-calcium phosphate for you, all I did was give them a call and he said he would have what I asked for middle of next week. He priced it at $26.00 per 50lb bag.

 

[whitetaco02]

My local Academy has the Black Magic deer cain on sale for $4.48 a bag! My dad already bought one for around $8 the other day at another location so I bought one tonight to freshen up the one we are going to be starting in a week or so later in the summer. Already have the molasses as well I just have to get the other two ingredients.

 

[riskyb]

I found your recipie a while back and decided to try it recently the deer are loving it thank you I'm getting a lot of pics and happy deer can't wait to see how much it helps as we progress

 

[bradleyjanes06]

I have a mineral site it was the deer cane in a bag then I used the liquid cane to dissolve it into the ground. That was last year in August. This spring they are tearing it up. 3 ft wide and maybe two inches deep but with the small amount of time it's been out there not bad being most of the use has been the last few months.

 

[Westdawg14]

Elfiii I’ve been using this mixture last couple years it works great thanks for the post

 

[deast1988]

Spot on, I like lucky buck. Black magic, record rack. Get the hole set up correctly and it'll do wonders. A few weeks back I checked two of my sites had been reopened. I added just big cheap blocks from tractor supply to refresh first time I've tried them. But the sites were already being used.

 

[Browning Slayer]

Elfiii is a closet "baiter"...