pup

Ok here is my question. my neighbor who i hunt wiht feeds the deer and turkey corn year round, and i meen lots of corn my question is, is this good for the deer heard? or are they only eating the corn and not getting the nutrition they need? i know that i no longer have the amount of deer i used to on my land we have 300 acres and i bet she has more deer on her 40 then we do on are 300. So yeah what do you all think? is this good for the heard? Im in the prosess of planting some food plots so hopefully i should be able to get some deer back on my land. the other thing i have noticed is since she started feeding i have seen serveral deer on her property with fatty like tumors.

S.Texas

During green-up and espeacially during your spring months when proper nutrition is a must, your deer should be avoiding the corn - on thier own. During our late season greenings after our killing summer heat here in s. texas - deer will not frequent feeders usually until we get a good frost. Dont get me wrong, they will come to them, but from my experience only for a good snack.

Unless your 300 acres of habitat is really poor, your deer should (by way of mother nature) get what the nutrition they need from the native plants.

Ofcourse food plots or protein would be much better, but the animals would make it fine with or without the corn.

Malnourished does will lose fetuses and fawns at a rate of 70-93%. a healthy fawn will weigh 6-8 pounds.

Leafrivermac

Here in South Ms. where I live the deer don't seem to care much for corn in the summer months. I have resorted to filling my feeders with 1 part corn and 3 parts dairy feed. Still the deer do not visit the feeders as much as they do during the winter season. I have encouraged and planted a lot of natural browse for them and they seem to prefer the green in the summer.

mammasboy

I agree with the last two posters. I feed year round here in WI, and when the acorns start falling, and our food plots are plumping up, the deer are not nearly hitting the feeders like they do in the winter.

pup

Thanks for the replies guys. Are 300 acres is really good and im seeing some deer now but not like we used to. She feeds them about 20 yards from her house right next to the county road, and she has 40 turkeys there every morning and 20 to 25 deer every night.

keystoneanglers

Pup,
The best thing is that the bigger bucks are probably bedding and staying in your property. You want the best solution to your problem?

Pick out the most prime piece of your property, somewhere central and make them a refuge that you never enter from August 1 until the end of your hunting season.

I have two on our 347 acre farm one is 45 acres and the other is 67 acres.

45 acres one is on a southern exposed side hill with oaks the deer love this refuge during the rifle season.

67 acres refuge is surrounding by three sides with 3 types of food plots and the rest consists of many tight growing hemlocks and a small stream.

We shoot our does during the early season so when rifle season hits the deer flock into these areas and by allowing a number of does to enter the bucks tend to follow and hold up in these areas. Eventually the bucks make that fatal move and work out of these areas. It is not uncommon for me to go into these refuges after season and push out 30-40 deer bucks and does.

Give this a shot. Let the old lady feed them and get them nice and fat for your freezer