In the last year, I have made two purchases of land. I have tried to do the right thing for my deer. The problem is that I am learning that it is awfully hard to determine what the right thing is. Let me give you a few examples:

1- most people in these parts say to plant iron clay peas. They swear they are the best without a doubt. If I plant them or have them planted by professionals, hogs and turkeys will wipe them out in a week.

2- I am member of a club that has about 27,000 acres. They plant a lot of sorghum. The deer hammer it. My place is 42 miles away by road. The deer won’t touch sorghum there. Let me add that the same guy who plants at the club planted mine.

3- The club planted sun hemp. Deer will not touch it there. I planted sun hemp. On part of mine, they terrorize it. On part, they won’t touch it.

4-I read all the info about minerals. I do exactly what the QDMA says to do. Nothing touches them. I try to trick them into eating the minerals by doing things like mixing the minerals with corn. Nothing works.

It is expensive. It is frustrating.

Why these differences ? It makes no sense to me.

Its really interesting (and frustrating)

I think the answer has to lie in the fact that they gravitate to favored food sources at certain times (and that changes constantly based on seasonally)
My guess would be that while you planted what is a "#1 food source" in one area it is say #2 or 3 or whatever in your area based on what is available.
I would guess that once their favored food source in these areas is exhausted they will shift to these....
I have a buddy there in Central Florida that plants Peanut Hay...they tear it up...and turnips and other things late season etc.
White Oaks are dropping in the woods? Then forget about the Bucks coming to he fields in daylight etc...

just be glad you ain't dealing with Mule deer.

Yes, it is both frustrating and fascinating. I have sat on sizable food plots for the first time to find that 90% of the deer are not going to the feeder. I have seen them walk right by a feeder and 100-200 yards of sorghum to go hammer the hell out of sun hemp.

I have learned a hell of a lot doing this. I wish I could figure a lot more of it out.

The minerals have been particularly frustrating. Nothing seems to work. No amount of trickery seems to work. Protein has been easy. Minerals? Nothing has worked.

I think it depends on what native vegetation the deer have to eat. There could be something available on one place that isn't on the other.

Larry, as far as minerals go, as well as salt they utilize that only at certain times of the year. Mostly when vegetation is very lush and it runs through their system quickly.

Here in the midwest they quit going to mineral and salt in late summer when forage is in hard leaf. I've kept enough cameras on licks over the years to study what the local deer like to eat at various times of the year. I have never had deer at a lick ever in hunting season. Never have seen them use a lick during the winter either.

Deer are probably a lot more like sheep where they like loose salts rather than blocks. Also, salt and mineral seem preferred wetted and into the dirt. They prefer to eat salty dirt. Especially clay.

If your land is on deep sandy soils your minerals might get pushed down into the sand too far to be utilized by the wildlife. Adding a clay 'pan' might help.

I'm not sure when your oaks drop nuts but when the nut crop is falling around my area, that's where the deer are, etc. Food preferences do change with seasons, you are making good observations with your efforts. It may also take a little time for the deer to develop a taste for some of the crops you are putting in if they are new to the land.

BTW- corn always works. If you have the ability to plant fields of corn, do it.

Everyone has problems with minerals here. We are so close to the ocean the ocean that we have a natural abundance of salt. I believe this is what creates the problem. My bigger concern is calcium and phosphorus.

A few months back, I fenced 6 of my feeders to keep the hogs out. While each of these have spin feeders, they also have protein feeders which I will start again in February or March.

I put minerals on the ground inside of each of the fenced areas. Nothing . I tried again mixing the mineral with Arm & Hammer Super Soda Soap which is the main ingredient in deer cocaine. Nothing.

I bought a wooden cattle feeder. In one side put in 2 of the 25 pound bags of Purina deer mineral. One was mixed with corn. In the other side,I put two 25 pound bags of some other brand of deer mineral. I added two boxes of the Super Soda Soap to one.

These were all laid out separately side by side. I put a camera on them. After almost two weeks not one thing has touched then.

The crops bewilder me as well. In theory, I can comprehend that the club may be different from my ranch. My ranch is only 700 acres. Can there be that much difference on 700 acres ?

If I planted corn here, the hogs would absolutely destroy it.

So far:

1- I can grow peas but they are gone almost instantly.
2- rye grass at the right time of year is fantastic. It only lasts so long and has limited nutritional value.
3- Sun hemp seems to do well.
4- sorghum seems to do well . Thus far only turkeys are eating it.

Plant peas and kill the hell out of hogs. Hunt deer at the club?

I could tell you what works for me here in Wi.,but I don`t think that will be of any use to you.OB

I forgot about the hog issue there in Florida. Yep, they probably will root out any crop you plant.

To me it's worth trapping and killing as many of them as possible as they are non native and compete with your natives, deer, for food, shelter, etc.

I'd still try mixing the mineral in your troughs with clay and see if that makes a difference. I doubt they will get into it again until spring.

quote:

I think it depends on what native vegetation the deer have to eat. There could be something available on one place that isn't on the other.

,

Add to the above, the amount of salt and minerals available in the local soil and you pretty well have the picture.

About all you can do is keep experimenting.

Larry, try in your pens only some roasted soy beans, I would lightly mix the minerals with the beans at first, and if they get going good, add more minerals, use these in the cow feeders only

If legal where you are pour about 5 sacks of salt on the ground, rain and snow will allow it to leach into the ground and become forever a natural salt lick..your deer come to salt..Also try Alfalfa if you have the rainfall or irrigation..otherwise pour corn on your roads and meadows.

Ray I don't think he has much of a snow problem there in Florida.

Larry,

I wish I could tell you you have it figured out. Next year could be different.

I have had the same experience with minerals. I chalked it up to being in IL and there being plenty of minerals in their diet. I was just hoping to get the deer channeled by my treestand.

Local wisdom can be like the weather, it is always changing. You have a better idea of where to go next year. I would still plant a variety of food plots to hedge your bets.

Tom

Back int he day we used to experiment with different feeds, lures and baits just to learn the deer's preferences.. and yeah, they can be picky..

One guy was reading something about Jif peanut butter being preferred by deer. So off to Walmart he goes and comes back with these giant jars of Jif, Skippy, and Peter Pan... and somewhere he came up with a jar of the US Govt surplus peanut butter.. A downed tree behind the house at the edge of the septic field was the test platform. snowball sized wads of each peanut butter were smeared on the log about 2 feet apart.. Sure enough, the Jif was completely gone the 1st night, then skippy, then Peter Pan... the plain welfare peanut butter lasted almost a week.

We used to buy corn from a local farmer and of course the deer gobbled it up.. somebody got a deal on bags of Pennington Seed corn, and while they did eat it, it was more like they just picked at it a bit... it lasted 2-3x as long as the local stuff..

we would also put out mineral blocks (the red one, the blue ones and the white ones) to try to promote antler growth, but it seemed they never touched it. of if they did, it was rarely. Then the peanut butter guy reads something about MSG,a nd that deer like it, so he buys a gallon of molasses and mixes in a couple bottles of MSG and pours it into the salt blocks.. (50# block have handle holes on the side and if you turn theem sideways you have a bowl) and fills the "bowls" with MSG laden molasses... it soaks into the block in about a day.. The DID like that! but still not as good as you would expect.

The one attractant that we found worked best, no matter the brand, or where we got it was sweet horse chow. the deer in our area just loved it and it would disappear as fast as we put it out.

We would also collect the used Jack-o-lanterns after Halloween and put them out.. It took them a while to figure out they were something to east, and they seemed to prefer them one they got a little rotten.
Another guy came up with almost a pick-upload of #2 sweet potatoes (cuts) they were near rotten and real juicy.. Mountain deer had never seen them.. it took about a week for them to figure it was edible, but once they did, it disappeared fast.

and the peanut butter guy got a trash bag full of stale hoagie rolls from somewhere.. and yep, he made peanut butter and molasses sandwiches for the deer and left them out back so we could watch.. smaller deer would get the rolls stuck in their mouth and they looked like Ubangi deer trying to eat them.. It was funny to watch.. The old does figured out to step on them so they could tear off pieces..

Those were the good old days (late 80's early 90's), playing with the deer... hunting them isn't the only fun thing you can do with them..

Please keep in mind that my goal is not to hunt over these minerals. It is to make the deer healthier and hopefully have bigger racks.

I was hunting elsewhere over the weekend. Whacked a REALLY nice one for the area. I made a detour on the way home. I stopped by my place. Nothing bad touched either mineral. I dumped a 50 pound bag of corn on each side then mixed it up well. Perhaps this will make a difference.

My next experiment will be to mix the minerals with powdered molasses.

Something has got to work.

From my experience, most critters like molasses once they figure what it is.

Minerals are a tough sell to deer in just about any coastal area I’ve ever hunted.

Before you waste a lot of time, money and effort on force feeding them minerals, kill a deer and get lab work done on it to see if there are any mineral deficiencies. If deficiencies show up, Taylor your mineral mix for that and you will likely get some interest from the deer. They simply won’t eat what they don’t need.

Whitetails are funny fickle animals and 40 miles is a long distance making room for variations in genetics. Those variations can lead to dietary preferences among other things.

quote:

Originally posted by TREE 'EM:
Minerals are a tough sell to deer in just about any coastal area I’ve ever hunted.

Before you waste a lot of time, money and effort on force feeding them minerals, kill a deer and get lab work done on it to see if there are any mineral deficiencies. If deficiencies show up, Taylor your mineral mix for that and you will likely get some interest from the deer. They simply won’t eat what they don’t need.

Whitetails are funny fickle animals and 40 miles is a long distance making room for variations in genetics. Those variations can lead to dietary preferences among other things.

To be clear, in a straight line, it is a little over 20 miles.

That is a very interesting comment about lab work. I have not thought of that nor have I ever heard of having it done. I will look into that.

Yes, I think the coastal area is the main issue. Regardless, I am looking for something to help.

Well, the minerals have been out about 3 weeks. The last 11 days they have been a mix of 50/50 corn and minerals. Not a single deer has touched them in spite of them feeding just a few feet away.

The timing may be bad.

Do not have a clue I drop minerals here or corn it is hit with days.

florida democrat deer. soon as you find out what counts with them they'll want a recount.

No snow! right I over looked that, but lots of rain is just as good..those are very small deer, they might choke on corn!!

I shoveled out a bunch of the corn/mineral mixture and spread it on the ground close to where the spin feeder is throwing corn. A week and a half later, NOTHING is touching the corn/mineral mixture. All of the corn from the spin feeder has been eaten.

Maybe it is just the wrong time of the year.