Thoughts on Feeding Deer

A lot of folks here in the Trans-Bluegrass think it is a good idea to set out corn for the deer. I have been saying for years that I did not think it was a good idea. In the past, my reasoning was that I had tried it early on here at the farm and found it was not attracting deer nearly as much as I had thought. What seemed to occupy their attentions most on my ridges were acorns. No amount of corn was going to keep them away from acorns in the fall.

I have a recent data point in all this, that y’all might find interesting.

My neighbor on the north side moved in about 2003. Wally owned 100 acres to my 200. Down in the creek bottom where all our properties came to a point, he put a feeder. I think he said he was putting 700 lbs of corn into that feeder a year. Yes, he got some good deer of that property over the years. However, he was the first to admit that mostly he was feeding my deer. They’d come over to his place in the middle of the night and load up.

His overall harvest off that property was okay– nothing great. In fact, he and his group mostly went to another property and only used the house he built there as a base camp.

Last year, he sold out to a young couple. The new owners stopped the feeding. I’m not sure they’re even hunting the property.

It’s amazing what the loss of that feeder has done to the deer. We’re seeing a lot more deer overall, and a lot more bucks. The loss of the corn has moved them away from the feeder and they’re now relying on natural forage and normal crepuscular feeding times.

During this same period (2003 – 2015) I experimented with supplemental feeding. What I found was that it ate up a whole lot of corn with not a whole lot to show for it. For October bow hunting, it seemed the deer were more interested in acorns than anything I could give them. In November, they hit it hard, but always at night. I gave up– probably around 2006 or thereabouts, and concentrated on food plots and other habitat improvements. The result was I had much better results for the money I spent.

I’d be the last guy to get on an ethical high-horse and condemn supplemental feeding– whatever works. However, the past year’s experience tells me there are unexpected consequences.

So Shaman, how DO you spend all that money you save on corn?

Habitat How-To’s

Our Wildlife Biologist, Wes Maddox, turned me on to this site. He wrote a lot of the articles. It’s amazing how many no-cost or low-cost solutions in that list work to improve the number and quality of deer I’ve seen. My budget has always been way below Wally’s $700 corn bill, but my results always seemed to be better. I would recommend that list first and foremost.

Another recent find is this forum:

Deer Hunter Forum

These guys are the refugees from the now-defunct QDMA forum. They are seriously into Habitat Improvement, with an emphasis on foodplots. I am quite impressed with their knowledge.

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