Originally Posted by
Topgun 3006
"Sigh", then spit it out will ya, LOL! Regardless of what you're going to do it for, its best that the deer aren't concentrated in a real small area. That's why MI requires that any feed put out for deer is spread in a minimum of a
10'x10' area.
Feeding deer during the winter like Lunkerdog mentioned can do more harm than good if a person doesn't know what they're doing. It takes quite a while for a deer to change over from one feed to the next and you need to start feeding early and continue through the entire winter if you're talking about supplemental feeding to get them through a harsh winter. Feeding alfalfa all of a sudden once the weather gets bad like it is up here now is too late and they'll literally die laying on the alfalfa with a full stomach because they can't digest it properly. I'd rather see a person plant food plots they can use at their pleasure from Spring until they can't get at it any more. Before that happens then you should start the supplemental feed to give them a lengthy time to change over before the dead of winter hits.
Great job of expanding the point Top... I can't speak for the Southern, or Western regions, but am guessing that most here in the North don't fully understand the biological changes that a deers digestive system goes threw throughout the seasons.
Okay, as a caveat I'll add that I don't "fully understand" it either, but do know that the digestive system, enzymes and such change throughout the year.
As Top said, if you intend to feed deer in the North Summer/Fall types of feed you need to start early. If a deer in the North has been eating the natural feed here for this time of year, it's body's biology literally can not digest Summer/Fall types of food. The biology change take place over time as the variety of foods available change. They can't just flip a switch and change their biology back to Summer/Fall types of feed.