timbercruiser

Our deer club has decided to put out 10- 55 gallon drum feeders with Moultrie slingers on the bottom. As we don' t have experience with any of the brands of pelleted deer feed I would like to get any information from ya' ll about palatability, resistence to molding, amount to feed per day (we have a bunch of deer) and any other suggestions you may have. Be brand specific if possible.

Pro-Line

I have a buddy that raises deer. He' s got some MONSTERS. He feeds Antler King pelleted food. It comes in an orange bag. It' s high protein and his deer love it.

I tried to use it in our gravity feeder on our farm in WV. Problem is that when it gets wet, it turns into mush. It plugged the feeder, and the deer never had a chance to try it.

I think it will work well in a slinger type feeder. It won' t get wet, and is the right size for the spinner. If you can find it in your area, I' d reccomend it. We buy it at a feed store...Of course, everybody and their brother are raising deer around here right now.

Here' s a picture of his prize deer..." Horny" . This picture was taken last August, when he was just under 2 1/2. This is only his second rack. My buddy thinks he' ll be his best ever in 2 or 3 years.

IrishJig

Timber, we gave the pellets a try in central Florida and were not pleased with the outcome. We built some 1000# gravity feeders (heard spin feeders were not great for pellets, and wanted more capacity), fenced them and placed them near our food plots. Hogs were a problem until we got the fence high enough and substantial enough. Coons would stand in the trough type feeders and shovel the pellets all over the ground--the feed would then get wet, rancid and nasty. Our research led us to believe Purina feed was best, but for cost reasons we were buying pellets about 5 tons at a time from a Lakeland feed company. It seems I remember Purina recommending about 1 1/4#/day/deer. We gave up on the pellets and put that money into more foodplots. Good luck.

timbercruiser

I think we are going to try the Purina Watershield(?) in our timed feeders. We can get it for about $390 a ton and it is suppose to be somewhat moisture tolerant. We already have about 55 food plots.

Who

Im sorry I ever tryed them. 5 bags full and watched deer come to the feeder and then turn away without touching it. Had to clean all that mess up. Even gummed up my feeder.
Rick

Sweetwater

We are using some FRM brand protein pellets in a large Moultrie feeder - not spinner, but just a tray where gravity will pull it out as needed. We are mixing corn with feed right now. I still want to get pics with the deer cam of deer using it - I do not know that it is enough to make a difference.

We do not use the protein in our homemade pipe feeders in fear that every coon & varmit will gobble up the expensive protein. This is our first attempt so we will see. It cannot hurt I suppose.

Dan O.

The attached link gives some background on deer feed mix. At least for the northern states.

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/pubs/deer2.pdf

Dan O.

Longhorn64

Tember....you' ve had some good suggestions. We are feeding with 4 spin feeders and are trying 2 with corn/protein mix, and 2 with corn/pea mix. I have heard that pure corn is not good for the deer. " Corn is like candy" was the way our Edwards County Texas Extension Agent put it. It will attract them, but not improve their overall nutrition. The protein pellets are a problem when it gets wet. Some of the neighbors are using just peas, after the deer start feeding regularly. Good luck.

BUbuckhunter

I had problems with feeding protein out of timed spinning feeders. When the protein hit the ground the deer would just leave it, and when the morning dew hit it it would go bad. In central Texas we can get a bag of feed called " Horn Corn" . It is made up of roasted soy beans and corn. It is 18-20% protein and is cheaper than Purina' s protein pellets. We have found that it attracts deer just like regular corn but they also get the extra protein