Soy beans offer the most winter nutrition, but in most cases the deer must be enticed to eat them in WV. Most WV deer will eat corn like candy and it is a good source of winter carbohydrates. Did you have a lot of acorns in your area this year? If acorns are abundant the deer won't have as much desire for corn and may pass it up. I've had my observation feeder up since gun season closed and have not seen the first deer, but it is obvious they are hitting it at night an I will expect to see them later in the winter. If you have property available to plant food plots that would be your best choice for antler improvement and could be a project for the coming spring.

Mineral licks are not used much until spring and you can make up your own from recipes posted on the QDMA site for less cost and more effective for the deer.

Visit the Quality Deer Management Association site for more information QDMA

Thanks very much to all who replied.

I called today and asked SS and also the other feed store in town, but they don't carry soybeans. They have soybean meal, but they said it's similar to flour and would have to be mixed with something else. The fact that most other animals won't eat soybeans would be good, plus a lot of protein. I'll just have to keep asking around where to get them.

Forgot to ask about the milo, but i'll ask and maybe get some and mix with corn and the pellets and put the syrup on there to get them to try it. I remember last winter they came down in my yard and ate the sunflower seeds out of the birdfeeder. So that might be good to mix in, they're cheaper than peanuts. Peanuts are sort of expensive here, probably because they're not grown locally. I limit the birds to about a cup of shelled peanuts a day.

We haven't had a good crop of acorns in several years. Some of the oaks produced but it wasn't the more abundant white oaks.

Thanks for the link on the QDMA, i'm heading there now

Penny

Plinker603, Acorn production about the same here if not worse. See you have a local SS co-op. Tell them you want a bag of sweet feed. Mix it with the whole corn. The sweet feed has molasses and will draw the deer right away. Once thye start hitting the corn stop the sweet feed and you will be busy feeding them daily or filling the feeder. I usually buy the dirty corn at a lower price. Stick with the corn you will find they eat it. Much cheaper in our area and good nutrition. Other than the sweet feed to whet their appetite I would stay away from the prepared foods. Very costly with little improvement over the corn. Hope you enjoy wildlife observation this winter.
Are you north, south, east, or west of Charleston? I'm south.

Plinker, even though White Oaks didn't hit good this year there was still plenty of mast during the month of October. No need in trying something different to attract deer. If you would just put out the same type of whole corn now as you did in Oct. I bet you would get completely different results. Likely, within a week you would have a harder time keeping corn to the deer than drawing deer to the corn!

im not saying this is the case, but with hunting season so close they may be staying away from human scent.. if you tame them they will be easy prey to humans.. we have so many deer in town here in helena montana they have become a problem.. they mull thru gardens eating the roots that they like best and throw the others aside ruining most gardens.. dead car killed deer every day on edge of town where there are faster speed zones.. .. apples is a favorite im told.. the bucks have killed two dogs while they were in the rut. and they will have to be eventually destroyed or moved.. one lady let her good sized dog out in her fenced back yard not noticing a big buck in it.. the buck gored the dog and stood over it until it bled to death not letting the lady get it help.. then left when the dog was dead.. the warm weather from years of global warming or whatever have given way to extended seasons, big losses by farmers etc..its not totaly unusual to hear of a mountin lion comming into towns with deer in them.. you can see hundreds of deer in a 10 mile streach with alphapha fields just before sunset in parts of montana.. dave...

The sweet feed is a good idea. Sometimes its called "all stock" also. Just mix it in good to the corn. The molassas can plug up a feeder if the there isn't enough dust to counter the stickyness. You can also just sling a coffee can or so of it around on the ground near the feeder every few days until the deeer get the idea.

I have also used apples to get the deers interest. A bag of the cheepest apples you can find or beg some off the produce manager of a grocery store when they rotate out the stock, scattered around, will get the deer eating the corn.

The deer love the corn, even if it isn't the best thing nutritiant wise, you may just need to prime them some.

I don't intentionally feed them anything. However, they seem real partial to my wife's rose bushes, our apple trees, and anything I feed to the horses. They absolutely love mountain ash and we have yet to have one make it through a year. They snork down alfalfa cubes and also seem to like Ol' Roy dog food. Regards, Bill

cheeseburgers and beer

If you are around a penned deer that will eat out of peoples hand,you can tear up a cigarette butt and get the tobacco and they will scarf it down. A goat will do the same. Doubt that info will be of any help unless you go on a game show and they happen to ask if deer and goats eat tobacco.

well i'm a farmer and they love my apples and i have some trees that produce acrons that i left in the orchard as well but my neighbors do corn and wheat so they have a great diet of food

Plinker603,
Try ear corn instead of shelled. It'll last a lot longer. Squirrels will carry some off but not the birds and to deer it wont make any difference. It goes for around $60 a ton here. Buy from a local farmer. Sugar beets are popular here but possibly not available to you. Carrots are another deer magnet, in bulk.
Stepchild

I tried carrots in Missouri. Didn't work for whatever reason.

I just called a couple of places here in Ohio. Dehydrated beet pulp is from 8.50/50lbs to 11.00 and dried molasses is 9.00/50lbs.

I saw some 'all stock' at a tractor supply place for about 6.00/50lbs. And 10% sweet feed for 5.89/50lbs.

Alfalfa cubes were 8.79/50.

Doc,
They eat carrots here like they were candy. If there is a lot of natural feed or your hunting farm land, sometimes it doesn't matter what you put out. Some people feed potatoes too.
Stepchild

I have a Blue Seal Fed store down the road from me. They like something called "Wildlife Feed" It's a few kinds of oats all mixed in with molasses and it stinx! Squirrels/bluejays won't touch it.
I like the idea of the alfalfa cubes, though. I think they'd be cheaper. Now, just try to find it...

Yesterday, I poured on the ground:

one bag of corn, one bag of alfalfa cubes, and one bag of sweet feed (10%).

I did not mix them up. These deer are very used to corn but the other is new to them. All of the corn was gone when I checked during my lunch hour today.

About 1/4 of the cubes were gone(pretty good for a food they've never had), and maybe 1/4 of the sweet feed gone.

I started feeding the deer in this area back in Sept with just corn. I will experiment next year with something else to start with and see how they do.

I'll be buying some dehydrated beet pulp as soon as I leave work and a bag of dried molasses to mix with some corn.

We'll see what happens.

I'll pour an entire bottle of cheap pancake syrup on the alfalfa cubes and another on the sweet feed to see if that will kick start them.

There are about 3-5 coons that frequent this feed pile area and they are HUGE. Little thieves.

I plan on hunting in KY tomorrow afternoon and will get one small bale of alfalfa (fresh) and see if the deer hit that any quicker. Heck, you'd think it was a buffet down there.

I've seen a video of someone in Canada that feeds fresh alfalfa in his backyard to the deer (from bales), and they were at his feed trough 24/7.

It's only been a week now since southern Ohio has really lost most of it's greenery. Real wet this past year, lots of natural foods.

I'll try some carrots here too. Might as well fatten them up before I hunt them next year.

Partitions!!! But usually no more than 100grs at any one time, some were between 3000 to 3500 fps they always seemed to have enough by then

I don't use feeders or "pile up" anything. I do realize however that some do and I'm not knocking it, but I don't do it for two reasons: 1.) It promotes the spread of disease and 2.) I used to bait and have never seen a real wallhanger in a baitpile. I'm sure it happens, but not in my case.

Here is what I do: I plant 3-4 acres of corn each year in areas that offer easy access from deer bedding areas. I also have 3 acres of mixed clovers and 2 acres of alfalfa. I then plant winter wheat, oats, or annual rye grass. I did an experiment one year: I had four "strips" of burley tobacco. After cutting the burley, I planted one strip in wheat, one in oats, one in rye, and one mixed. All four strips were in the same field. The deer preferred the wheat hands down. Turkeys preferred the oats. Nothing seemed to "prefer" the mixed plot...not scientific just one farmer's observation.

I realize that many of us do not have access to the equipment necessary for this type of operation, but if you do, it is much more natural for the deer to plant crops than to "pile up" bait. Deer seem to become nocturnal very quickly when bait is hunted heavily...IMHO

Quarter Round and WV guys,

I live just north of Charleston. In hunting Kanawha and Putnam counties I've seen little mast. We're going to have a terrible winter kill without some help.

Did see some substantial Beech nuts on the ground in Boone county.

The deer here do like whole corn. Had 10 head come in on Tuesday evening.

Does corn provide sufficient nutrition to get the herd through the winter?

I'm with Plinker and Joecool...
Lead served hot.

I'll keep this in mind. Thanks.