ORIGINAL: appleater25
That was helpful, thank you. The minerals are not always easy to find at certain points in the year and they don't just need the salt...it's ideal to provide them with calcium and phosphorus as the two substances best linked to antler growth.
Read the following and save yourself some money--unless you just want to bring them to your trail cameras.
A classic study on the mineral needs of deer was conducted at Penn State University in the 1950s (French et al. 1956). In this study, researchers did detect a difference in yearling buck antler development between supplemented and unsupplemented groups. However, these herds were fed a nutritionally deficient diet below what most whitetails would have access to in the wild.Furthermore, when the same deer were examined the following year as 2.5–year–olds, no differences were detected between the two groups.
In a similar study conducted at Auburn University (Causey 1993), researchers tried to detect differences in body and antler size between an unsupplemented and supplemented group. The difference in this study and the Penn State study was that both herds were fed a nutritionally complete diet. In addition, one group was provided a commercial mineral supplement. Over a 4–year period the researchers were unable to detect any differences between the two deer herds.
A Louisiana study (Schultz and Johnson 1991) compared supplemented and unsupplemented wild herds in similar habitats. Although problems always arise when studying wild populations, they were unable to show any differences in body size or antler development using mineral supplementation.
Use of Mineral Licks by Deer
Without question deer need minerals and will readily use mineral licks. In fact, many licks 15 feet or more in diameter and several feet in depth have been documented. Why do deer use these licks and why is their use restricted primarily to the spring and summer? Many hunters mistakenly believe that it is simply because deer need the minerals for antler and body growth. However, several studies have shown that while deer will readily use mineral licks high in salt, they rarely, if ever, use pure mineral supplements. If deer were lacking minerals, why wouldn’t they use the pure mineral supplement even if salt wasn’t present? While the answer to this question is unknown, it is probably because minerals like calcium and phosphorus, by themselves, are bitter.
Could the use of salt/mineral mixes be due to an increased need for salt? According to research, the most likely answer is yes. During the spring and early summer, deer operate at a sodium deficiency due to the high potassium and water content of the forage (Weeks and Kirkpatrick 1976). This interferes with efficient sodium conversion in the body and increases the need for sodium intake. This makes deer actively seek out concentrated sources of sodium such as natural or man–made licks. Almost all soils more than 25–50 miles from a seacoast are low in sodium (Weeks
1995). Therefore, in these areas, salt may be as necessary as calcium and phosphorous to whitetails during the spring and summer.