my father has been using corn on his land for like the last 20 years and there doesn't seem to be aproblem

Look - its not that feeding corn is always a problem - but it can be - especially when the deer aren't adjusted to digesting it yet. Especially stopping feeding them in a tough winter. Other factors figure in as well.....

There is tons of information out there, here's a couple links that explain it - use GOOGLE to find more info if you're not sure.

http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/reso/toughlov.html

http://www.umext.maine.edu/WildaboutNature/0101.htm

http://beef-mag.com/mag/beef_range_feeding_vs/

FH

Your profile doesn't indicate where you live and that will have as much to do with it as anything. Do you have mild winters with plenty of natural foods available? Anything you feed (corn or anything else) should be viewed as a supplement to the deers normal diet and not attempt to be the sole source of food. Obviously if you have been feeding/baiting since August then the Deer have the ability to digest the corn since it has been continuously available. If there are enough natural foods available, the continued feeding is not neeeded. You may want to consider mineral supplements as an alternative, additional minerals, especially from now through spring will help to insure healthy does and therefore healthy fawns with the potential for better bucks in a couple of years.

alwyshntn; The toxins formed are not in every batch of corn nor are they likely to immediately cause a deer to drop dead on the spot. They will and do kill deer however and turkeys as well. Again, if you have any concerns, call the wildlife biologist assigned to your local DNR regional office or your county extension agent. If you can't locate somebody truly qualified to address your questions there, try the animal disease unit at a state university or even a local veterinarian familiar with wildlife diseases.

the area i hunt is in southern new jersey called the pine barrens. this is land that was under the ocean millions of years ago and it is land probably unlike anything you could find except for long island new york. it is a white sand soil and what they call scrub oaks and pygmy pines grow in it. not alot of nutrition at all. i do put out red trace mineral blocks and solar salt every year spiced with rack-up or similar. the average deer is usually way less than 100 pounds. from what i can tell from stomach content that i checked from years ago before baiting was allowed they eat mostly pine needles in the winter and what ever red oak acorns they can find. the month of january can be down right brutal. the last couple years it has averaged 20 degrees or less for almost the whole month with night being much colder. this year we had only 2 weeks of it. i have been puting out about 100 pounds spread on the ground once or twice a week since august in a couple different stand locations. im sure this isint there only feed most of the year but i worry that they may gorge themselves with the corn in the harsh winter weeks. i hunted the winter bow season this year for the first time in a couple years or i would have stopped the corn back in december.

our hunting club for years, buys corn and fills the feeders with corn every winter fo r d eer and turkey never found dead deer by feeders yet. i'm afaraid the game commishion will tell you any thing to keep from feeding or help the deer heard out. they are out to get all the money they can, not h elp th e he a r d ou t.