alright so im thinking about putting out a deer feeder, this fall for aleast the winter if not the summer. my main concern is keeping the deer in the area as well as growth. what kinda feed should i run in it.

A 50/50 mix of soybean/corn first, then soybeans after. Not much good can come from corn besides attracting them....soybean is much higher in digestible protien, and better for them nutritionally.

do they sell soybean by the 50 pound bag at feed stores in your area? about how much do they cost?

Acco I believe makes a product called record rack. It is available in lots of different protein levels.We use it on our lease and it works good on spinner feeders with an 1-1/2" to 2" funnel. Also works good in a free choice feeder.The type we use is a mixture of corn and protein pellets with a net yeild of 16%. Be careful of mixing peas or soybeans with corn. We had some problems with moisture soaking into the beans and peas resulting in clogs in or spinner type feeders. If you go with pellets make sure they have a slick finish, not rough or extruded as they will soak up moisture as well.Do mix with corn to help with the clogging problem and help the deer adjust to eating pellets.

Some guys I know feed whole corn while others claim cracked corn is easier for them to digest. If anyone knows of any scientific studies on this subject I would be interested in knowing the results.

Stick with soybeans. It has a 32 to 38 percent crude protein level. I never go with commercial mixes because, well, soybeans do better and are usually cheaper. Numerous published research papers have proven this fact. They also hold up well to moisture. Many commercial pellets act like sponges and end up growing more mold. It will take a little while to get deer acclimated to soybeans, but when they do they will keep feeding on them. Deer do not gorge soybeans as they do corn and non-target species like coons and birds eat very little. As for corn, it is highly digestible as it is a carbohydrate, mainly a simple sugar (glucose or sucrose). It has a 8 to 12 percent protein content. It is not very good for deer. It's better to fertilize natural browse than feed corn.

THe soybeans work well, we also feed paymaster and other blocks. Most runn around 15% and they can really attract deer if no one else is feeding them. If alfalfa is available it is also a good supplement. Some of the large ranches in TX are feeding cotton seed 35% protien weather proof and all you need is a circular tube of chicken wire and to rebar posts. stuff it with thecotton seed and leave it.

Assuming you have no laws against suplemental feeding AND you have access to them, sugar beets are a very good food for deer.

I don't know about deer, but I've read a couple of studies from the Texas Experiment Station where there was no difference in beef cattle performance between the two.

Here is one:

http://www.fass.org/phoenix03/abstracts/227.pdf

Look at M210.

Deer chew their cud like a cow, so it makes sense that there should be no difference in the shelled verses cracked corn. If you are in the southeast and have access to cull peanuts and a grain wagon you can take the peanuts and use for an excellent food source. They run 30% plus in digestible protein.