deer and corn?
 

ive herd that a deer needs to have certain bacteria in there stomach to be able to process the corn and it takes time for them to fully eat it. thats supposed to be the reason why your not supposed to feed deer corn in the winter? can they get all clogged up in the intestines and die? in maine i talked to a former game warden who thought this. if you feed them year round will it matter?

RE: deer and corn?
 

i've heard the same thing but i say for fact its true.

RE: deer and corn?
 

I heard this stuff a long, long time ago. We've fed in the winter for years, and we've never seen any evidence to support it. In fact, it is the opposite that seems true. I've read some biology studies online about winter feeding and just as they have said, I've seen deer - particularly fawns - get diarrhea from too much corn in the winter. A blend with corn, oats, and other grains is supposed to be better for them.

RE: deer and corn?
 

I hunt over a baited area of corn. I don't believe this is true because there are a lot of natural habitats that involve corn still on the stalks and corn that's been plowed or broken down....

RE: deer and corn?
 

dear like corn at my place

RE: deer and corn?
 

It's not bacteria, it's the enzymes that change with the season to allow deer to digest foods with different fiber content. That is not the greatest threat to deer, however, when feeding corn. Many of the corn and corn products available through various distributors, are not certified as animal feeds and will flat out kill deer, turkeys or anything else that eats them.
If you have any questions or concerns about feeding deer or other wildlife, contact the wildlife biologist in your regional DNR office or your county agricultural extension agent. These folks are great sources of information and usually very happy to help out.

RE: deer and corn?
 

i'm pretty sure it has something to do with a deers stomach getting set up to digest hard mast twigs and acorns and such corn is soft mast.

RE: deer and corn?
 

the area i hunt doesnt have many farms or corn field but i have been baiting heavily since august and up till a week ago i stopped. i was wondering if i keep feeding them am i only hurting them.

RE: deer and corn?
 

I feed deer through the late part of the winter into spring to help them come through the winter healthy. So my question is to the rest of you that feed corn through the winter if there is truth to this theory are you finding alot of dead deer on your property as a result of this. Sure this probably affects there bowel movements and digestion if they are on alot of corn just as alot of grain,acorns,or heavy grass grazing does any livestock but I don't think it is fatal.

RE: deer and corn?
 

Not sure if its regional. But there are so many feeders in TX that go all year or at least to spring, and no die offs that anyone can tell.

The poison spoken of is aflatoxin and is only present in drought stressed corn. We get corn locally and know how the season was and what to watch for.

Jeff

RE: deer and corn?
 

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

RE: deer and corn?
 

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

RE: deer and corn?
 

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.

RE: deer and corn?
 

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.

RE: deer and corn?
 

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.