Feeding deer?

[DRH1175]

How many feed deer in the winter up north on their public and or private hunting areas, to get the deer through the winters? Does it work or is it a waste of time? What is the best food? Pelletized deer feed, hay, or a combo of both? And last does it harm them in any way? Whats everyones thoughts on this topic?

[Arctic]

Waste of time and money. There is plenty of browse out there. Deer are not pets or livestock. I see lots of deer killed by cars every winter as they cross Hwy 61, moving from feeder to feeder.

Deer feeding keeps deer in close proximity and increases the likelihood of disease transmission. We DON"T want chronic wasting disease in our herd.

[Tinkhamtown]

Feed deer, corn and cracked corn for the last 15 years. Most of the does have healthy twins or triplets and feeding helps this years fawns make it through the winter. Both last year and this hurt deer after the hunting season come to feeder. There are lots of deer in my 601 area so the one-buck (this year one with a healed broken hind leg) I take yearly for meat does not hurt the population. The deeryard up but the snowfall in 601 does not stop them from moving around and coming to my feeder almost daily.

I was up north of Deer River this week grouse hunting. Fresh snow made seeing deer and their tracks easy. Lots of deer and fox plus the wolves have moved out of the area I hunt by Dora Lake so the deer are coming back. Two trapper friends warned me about con-a-bear (spelling) traps they had out, worrying about traps and my dogs made me come home early.

[tracker x-2]

I put a feeder out every winter I went around and picked up some left over corn from the combine and put my camera over it just to see what all comes to it. Here are a few pics i have. I had one where the feeder was coverd with turkeys i think like 12 or so.

[Red Miller]

Tracker....wheres that turkey picture??

We are in East Bethel and we put out one coffee can of shell corn every day 365. Some days two, in the fall when they are really running around. The feeder is 100 ft from our back deck and its great when the security light comes on and there they are. We had four right before supper. They visit pretty much every day and we love watching them.

[bmc]

What a debate this might turn into!!!

I've been reading Charles Alsheimer's book about Quality Deer Management and it is a very interesting read, to say the least.

He feels that supplemental feeding of deer during the winter will have a more negative effect than a positive one.

If you feed on land you hunt during the fall, you will draw in deer that don't normally frequent your property. This will cause over browsing on your property as there are more deer on your property than usual. They aren't only going to eat out of the feeder.

The deer will definitely eat corn, but I think corn is mostly carbs and doesn't contain the protein deer need. I'm at work now, but will look at my book and update after I do some re-reading.

Also if you feed for a number of years and then stop for some reason, the deer might not return to "deeryards" like they would normally and that could cause them to have a very hard winter.

That being said, my dad does feed and has for several years. He starts Jan 1 through early April. Once green up arrives the deer quit coming to the feeder. I think they prefer their natural food over the stuff in the feeder. The feed he uses is a mix of corn, alfalfa pellets, oats, and molasses.

He has 120 acres of property and will usually have 20-30 deer at the feeder at a time. I would guess during hunting season we have 10 or so deer that frequent our property, so he's feeding other deer too that I think don't normally frequent our property.

It is cool to see what bucks are left after the hunting seasons. Even if they don't live on our property, they more than likely will cruise through during the rut.

Like one of the above posters said, if you live close to a road, you risk having some of the deer hit by cars more than likely.

Let the opinions fly!

Brian

[Jim Jensen]

The DNR has an infomational pamphlet on managing your woodland for Whitetail Deer. In it they say feeding deer is not recommended. It also reads that when food gets scarce Deer will eat corn in the fields.

If I had the land I would feed them the same as I feed the birds, squirrels, and rabbits that come to my bird feeders. If they are going to eat corn in the fields any way I might as well put the corn in a spot where I can view them. I don't know if it is true but I have heard that reguardless of the type of food deer will always choose to eat their natural food before going to any type of man made food source.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/assistance/backyard/privatelandsprogram/managing_woodland_deer.pdf

[croixflats]

The University of Croixflats of south western Mn, not to be mixed with the university of Croixflats of east central Mn of witch has no ties to the SW except of being gemini.

What floats your boat will not sink you.

[GottaGo]

I enjoy feeding deer and do it frequently but not until there is snow on the ground. I don't do it because I think it will help the deer since I'm sure they would be just fine without my corn, but it can be really entertaining to watch them out of my window.

[bmc]

No question about the enjoyment of watching them at the feeder!

I get a kick out of them when there's a few at the feeder and all of a sudden for no reason, one of them usually a young one will start jumping around and bucking and shaking it's head. The other deer will look at that one like "what's his/her problem". LOL

Brian

[zackthehunter]

we put out abot 25 pumkens in oct i think the deer was eating at night cause i never see anything but squirels the day i was there i think it is a waste of time never again

[Musky Buck]

I can't feed deer. The last time the DNR fed on my land during a wicked winter in the 80's there was close to 150 animals, actually we fed but they helped cover the cost of those pellet things. I can't provide for that big of flock. The amount of standing corn that is staying till spring should suffice, over 700 acres of it with browse and a creek that never freezes. The deer should have a good start so far anyway.

[sticknstring]

We've fed them up north in past years with corn & pellets but with the influx of wolves in the area this year I think we'll take the year off. No reason to congregate the deer and help the wolves out anymore than we have to. It'll be a nice relief on the wallet as well.

[DRH1175]

The feeding I was thinking of was only to help them out in the winter. It is way up north in the big woods that I am talking about. Not to film or anything, but just wondering if it helps with winter starvation or not. Part of me says the deer have survived for hundreds of year on their own so no point. Just wondering what everyone thought.

[Musky Buck]

The strong will survive and if you do feed them, actually don't start feeding if you're not going to be able to keep it up as they'll be really out of whack possibly if the food source dries up. We basically in farm country look at how bad the winter is, how the deer are looking, is there any food not plowed under left or etc. to decide if we should help them out or not and if we do we see it through to the spring thaw or until they can get around again fairly easily.