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John's Journal... Entry 129, Day 3

MORE PROTEIN FOR YOUR DEER QUICKER AND CHEAPER

Peas and Corn for Bucks and Does

EDITOR'S NOTE: During the late winter and throughout the spring and much of the summer, maximizing the amount of protein the deer on your property ingest will help your deerherd build stronger, healthier bodies and larger antlers. Most sportsmen who manage their deerherds plant greenfields and use feeders in the fall, primarily to observe deer and harvest the bucks in their herds. However, if you want to build a healthier herd with bigger-bodied deer and specifically bucks with heavier antlers, you must provide greenfield plantings and supplemental feed immediately after the rut until the first green-up. But don't stop your feeding there. If you merely insure the survival of your herd until green-up, you haven't increased your odds for growing bigger bucks quicker. This week we'll learn what Dr. Keith Causey, a longtime deer biologist and Dan Moultrie, who has intensively researched the feeding habits of deer for many years, recommend for producing bigger, healthier deer.

You'll find deer are just like children. If you want to teach a child who doesn't like broccoli or turnip greens to eat these two vegetables, put a little melted cheese on top of the vegetables. As the children begin to look forward to eating this particular dish, you can reduce the amount of cheese you melt on top of the broccoli or turnip greens. In a short time, the child will start eating these two vegetables without the cheese. Deer love corn as much as children enjoy cheese. Many times they will reluctantly eat soybeans before they're trained to eat them by mixing the soybeans with corn. To increase the level of protein in your deer's diet, mix corn with the soybeans, which contain up to 45-percent crude protein. Then eventually feed only beans to deer during the late winter, early spring and throughout the rest of the year.

"We suggest that the first time you fill your spin feeder you use a mixture of 75-percent corn to 25-percent soybeans in the late winter and early spring," Dan Moultrie, the creator and owner of Moultrie Feeders in Birmingham, Alabama, explains. "The second time you fill your feeder, increase the soybean level, and reduce the corn level to a 50:50 mixture if you see the soybeans are beginning to disappear like the corn. The third time you fill up your feeder, you often can put 100-percent soybeans in it, and the deer will eat the soybeans."

To learn more about how to use spin feeders and soybeans to improve deerherd, write or call Moultrie Feeders at 150 Industrial Road, Alabaster, AL 35007, (800) 653-3334, or visit the company's website at www.moultriefeeders.com.

TOMORROW: THE ADVANTAGE OF FEEDING SOYBEANS AND CORN VERSUS
HIGH-PROTEIN PELLETS


 





 

 

Check back each day this week for more about Protein For Your Deer ...

Day 1 - Need for Protein
Day 2 - New Research
Day 3 - Peas and Corn for Bucks and Does
Day 4 - The Advantage of Feeding Soybeans and Corn Versus High-Protein Pellets
Day 5 - Cautions


John's Journal