Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

Hey guy I'm wanting to feed some minerals but the stuff you buy at sporting goods stores is way overpriced. I know i can save lots of money(buying in bulk and mixing)going to feed stores and local co-ops, but i was wondering what minerals i should buy and how much? Thanks

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

You could just throw a salt lick out there.

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

This is from another forum, almost exactly what I have used in the past..
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WHITETAIL DEER HOMEMADE MINERAL MIX RECIPE
Ingredients: Makes 200 lbs. for about $23.00

1 part Di-calcium phosphate, this is a dairy feed additive bought at feed stores.
Comes in 50lb Bags at around $11.00 you need one bag.

2 parts Trace mineral salt, the red and loos kind without the medications.
Comes in 50lb Bags at around $5.00 you need two bags.

1 part Stock salt, ice cream salt.
Comes in 50lb Bags at around $2.00 you need one bag.

Directions:

-Use a 3 pound or similar size coffee can to use as your measure for each part of the mix.

-Mix all together well but not until read to use, keep ingredients separate until ready to put to use.

-Dig or tear up a circle in the soil about 36 inches wide and about 6 inches deep.

-Mix your mineral mixture with the soil.

Maintenance:

-Replenish in 6 months with fresh supply of mineral, and then each year there after.

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I use a mix like that, plus some "buck jam" on a nearby stump...They are really loving it this year.

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

Decades ago, we found some info put out by Texas A&M. LSU, Auburn, Miss. St. and Penn State covering the subject of supplemental minerals for game.All more or less said the same thing.Salt (Sodium Chloride- NaCl) is an excellent attractant. However, the benefit is minimal. Adding asupplement that contains 15% or more of calcium and/or dicalcium phosphate provides the deer with useful minerals needed for building a healthy body and assistsdoes with calcium loss whilefeeding fawns.There was also some evidence that these minerals also enhanced antler mass.

Granulated salt (often called "Mixing Salt", Trace Mineral salt (also commonly referred to around here as "Red Salt"), dicalcium phopate and high calcium "dairy mix" should all be available at any decent seed/feed store.Down this way, the salt mixes cost about $6.50/50#. Di-cal will run aobut $22/50#. Dairy minerals about $16/50#. We have a hard toime getting the dairy mix and usually settle for a combo of mixing salt or red salt + dical. We mix about 1-1.

You can dig a hole and pour it in, or simple pour out on the bare ground our on top of a rottening stump, or put the mix is a small trough. The deer will find it and hit it all summer and fall.

I don't have access to my buddy's trail camera photos, but he has dozens and dozens this spring/summer showing deer bombing licks, along with a few coyotes and 2-3 foxes licking the stuff ... and one of a racoonsitting on his rump munching on a dried up clump of this mix that I guess had formed after a rain.No way to know for sure if it is the same guy, but about everyweek or so, there are shots ofa coon munching away on a clump of salt at this same lick area.

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

Justin Since I only use minerals to get the deer in front of my cam and the fact that I have tried almost every type of lick, recipe, rock, block. jam etc. over the years and the best thing I have found to date is just a plain 50lb. mineral block that you get at your local feed store for $6.00. No shopping around, mixing, measuring and easy to transport aswell. Just drop them on the ground, dig a little ditch or place them on a stump, its doesnt matter the deer will tear them up. Pike

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

i make antler king mineral, as well as antler king pellets and purinas antlermax pelletts.. :) i know what ingredients are in em :)

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

I have been in the Outdoor industry for about 9 years now.I still film TV shows as a free lance job. I have worked with companies like the Whitetail Institute of North America and I have learned a lot on minerals.I have been given so many different minerals to try on the land we film on here in Alabama and I have to say that after the past 3 years there has been no better mineral than the Trophy Rock. And yes it might be a little pricey but when you buy one compared to buying all the other bags of salt and things to make up the mineral site you have spent more money on all the others than you have the Trophy Rock.The average cost for it is around $15.00 and that's not much. I would suggest putting one rock out to every 75 acres.Bucks will hit the rock very hard rite when they need it the most in the spring and throughout the summer. Even though minerals are healthy for a deer by helping them digest the foods they eat and it also will help them get the dirt minerals from the natural ground where they dig. A mineral is put out a lot in the winter all over North America and deer really don't consume a whole lot of it like they do in the spring and summer months. A deer is like a human in many ways. Are you going to eat ice cream in -2 degree weather outside or would you rather eat it in 100 degree weather outside. Deer are going to consume the carbs they need in the winter months and the minerals in the hotter or warmer months.

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

Just kernal corn, molasses and soak it all in whiskey. By fall you will have the deer just laying around the feeders waiting for their addiction

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

dczys, just PM me the info.....;)

RE: Homemade Mineral Recipes
 

hellohunter, I use to use trophy rocks aswell until I tried plain old $6.00 generic mineral blocks and realized that they work just as good if not better than trophy rock. As far as mineral supplements helping the whitetail deer, the only thing that mineral supplements benefit them is providing them with a source of salt when they need it most from April thru the 2nd week of Sept. etc. (in my area) During the fall and winter months deer get their daily need of salt in their diet form dead leaves etc. , this is the reason as of why they only frequent mineral supplements during the spring and summer months. Pike