MORE PROTEIN FOR YOUR DEER QUICKER AND CHEAPER

The Advantage of Feeding Soybeans and Corn Versus High-Protein Pellets

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.

Every wildlife manager who tries to grow bigger and better deer on his land must consider the cost factor. "On average, a 50-pound bag of corn will cost about $5 a bag," Moultrie reports. "A 50-pound sack of soybeans will cost around $6, and a 50-pound sack of high-protein pellets may cost as much as $10 a sack. So when you compare costs, the soybeans are only slightly more expensive than the corn and much less expensive than the commercially-prepared high-protein pellets. However, when you compare the nutritional value and the protein level of the soybeans with corn and high-protein pellets, you'll see that you're dollars ahead by feeding soybeans. The corn will have a 5- to 7-percent protein level. The soybeans have a 35- to 47-percent protein level, depending on how much fertilizer has been used to grow them and the quality of the soil. Most high-protein deer pellets have 16- to 21-percent protein. To deliver the most protein to your deer for the least amount of money, you can't beat raw soybeans."

Also, by using a spin feeder with a timer to feed the soybeans to the deer, you can help break the deer's nocturnal feeding habits. By setting the feeder to go off during daylight hours, you can have the deer coming to the feeder at a time when hunters can see the animals. Too, by feeding deer during the off-season, which increases the deer's nutritional levels, you can observe and monitor the growth and development of your bucks. "Using a timed feeder to feed soybeans during the off-season allows a land manger who's attempting to grow quality deer to observe the growth and development of his bucks," Moultrie says. "Then he'll know ahead of time what type and size of antlers the bucks will have in the fall when hunting season arrives."

You can't hunt trophy bucks if you don't have trophy bucks on the land you hunt. Supplementally feeding soybeans in a spin feeder to deer on your property enables you to determine the ...
* number of bucks you'll have to hunt in each area,
* size of bucks you'll have to hunt,
* antler development of the bucks in each region you hunt,
* buck-to-doe ratio on each part of your property and
* success of your feeding and management program.

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: CAUTIONS