As hunters and managers, we all want our deer to be as big and healthy, and carry the largest antlers they can. The Whitetail Institute’s line of Cutting Edge nutritional supplements are quite literally just that — the cutting edge that can help boost the health and rack size of your deer to the very top.
Specifically, Cutting Edge is a three-part system consisting of Cutting Edge Sustain, Cutting Edge Initiate and Cutting Edge Optimize. Each part is specifically designed to meet the precise nutritional needs of deer during a part of their annual cycle. Cutting Edge Sustain is designed to help keep deer healthy and reduce their winter weight loss. Cutting Edge Initiate is designed to help deer recover from the rigors of rut and the cold winter months. Cutting Edge Optimize provides bucks with the exact nutrition they need during the spring and summer to take full advantage of the antler-growing season and help does produce bigger fawns and more milk.
By now, most of us are aware that giving our deer access to proper nutrition is one, if not the most critical factors for creating a healthier deer herd. The two most common ways we do that are by supplementing our deer’s diets with high-quality food plots and providing them with nutritional supplements. The pages of Whitetail News always feature articles on the Institute’s industry-leading food-plot blends. Now, let’s take a look at how and why the Institute’s Cutting Edge line of supplements can complete your nutritional management picture.
GENERAL NUTRITIONAL NEEDS OF DEER
While we can’t cover everything about the nutritional needs of deer in this article, we can digest the many components down in a generalized way to four groups: energy, protein, minerals and vitamins. To understand why Cutting Edge is such a huge leap forward in nutritional supplements for deer, consider what is happening in the nutritional lives of deer during different times of the year.
Energy. Energy is not a nutrient in and of itself, but a product of other nutrients, mainly protein, carbohydrates and lipids. I’ll cover protein separately below because it is such a big nutritional component in its own right. Carbohydrates, basically starches, sugars and fiber, are the most critical component of a deer’s energy supply. Lipids, or fats and oils, are also very high in energy — two times higher in energy than protein — and they are important in the storage of fat for energy reserves during winter.
Deer need energy throughout the year for many specific biological functions, for example antler growth in bucks, metabolism, and pregnancy and lactation. Energy, especially stored reserves, are particularly critical, though, during the fall and winter — a time when natural food sources are becoming less palatable (less digestible energy) and availability begins to be exhausted. The acorns of fall, for example, are very high in lipids. While such natural high-energy food sources are abundant in some years, they are often hit or miss, with some years seeing very low mast production. Also, weather and other factors can further limit mast availability. For example, abundant rain followed by a hard freeze after acorns have dropped can sour them in a hurry, further limiting availability.
Protein. Protein is important to deer for a wide range of biological processes. Comprised of small components called amino acids, protein is the building blocks of a deer’s body. That’s true for all deer year-round, regardless of sex or age. Protein is especially important, however, during the spring and summer when bucks are re-growing antlers, does are pregnant and later producing milk for their fawns, and then for the fawns as they are weaned and grow toward adulthood. Protein is not as critical to deer during the fall and winter as it is during the spring and summer. During the fall and winter, energy is the nutritional “king.”
Minerals. Macro minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium are needed in comparatively large quantities to maintain normal health in deer throughout the year. Trace minerals are needed in comparatively smaller amounts, but they are still necessary for antler growth, bone formation, fawn development, lactation, etc. Most minerals have complex interactions, and when supplementing minerals for deer, the most important consideration by far is to be sure the minerals are used precisely in the proper forms and ratios for deer. Otherwise, the supplement can be at best less than effective and at worst dangerous for deer. The need for the amount of supplementation of these minerals, though, changes throughout the year, with the highest need occurring in the spring and summer when bucks are growing antlers and does are pregnant and later in lactation. Vitamins. Vitamins can be grouped into two main classifications. Water-soluble vitamins, or “B vitamins,” are produced by microbes in a deer’s rumen, and supplementation is therefore unnecessary in most cases. Fat-soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, D and E), which serve functions in antler growth and development, milk production and fetal growth are not produced in the rumen and are therefore commonly supplemented.
WHY CUTTING EDGE IS SUCH A BRILLIANT IDEA
I hope a light bulb went off in your head as you read the first part of this article. Specifically, did you notice that deer are always simultaneously doing two things — using their bodies to do something and getting their bodies ready to do something else? For example, in the late winter bucks are using their bodies to find food to recover their winter health losses, and they are getting their bodies ready to grow new antlers. I hope you also noticed that while the combined process of simultaneous body use and preparation is continuous, exactly what it is that deer are doing and recovering from changes during the course of the year. For example, in the fall bucks are using and preparing their bodies for something just as they were in late winter — but in the fall they’re using bodies to store energy in the form of fat and getting their bodies ready for the rigors of rut and winter.
And that’s the key to understanding why Cutting Edge is such a brilliant and effective product line — each of its three stages is specifically designed for the unique biological and life functions of deer at different times of the year.
WHEN TO USE EACH STAGE OF CUTTING EDGE
Cutting Edge Sustain (For Fall and Winter). By early fall, bucks have hardened their antlers, and the fawns of the previous spring have usually been weaned from their mother’s milk. It is this time of the year that deer are primarily concerned, in a nutritional context, with building fat reserves — storing the energy they’ll need during the coming rut and cold fall and winter months. That’s the time to start your deer on Cutting Edge Sustain. Tailor-made for the fall and winter nutritional needs of deer, Sustain is loaded with energy to help deer pack on reserves and help them stay healthy and active during the rut, reduce weight loss and keep them healthy through the cold winter months. In addition, Sustain even has a buffering agent to allow it to be mixed with corn in a trough feeder for deer without the negative effects corn alone can have on a deer’s digestive system.
Also, all three stages of Cutting Edge are scientifically formulated with the correct minerals in the proper forms and ratios for deer as well as both scent and taste enhancers that make Cutting Edge highly attractive to deer. I decided to mention that here, when describing Cutting Edge Sustain, because Sustain is the stage of Cutting Edge designed for use during the same time deer hunting season takes place across the U.S. The scent and taste enhancers in all three Cutting Edge products are extremely effective and include the Whitetail Institute’s proprietary Devour ingredient, which can be addictive to deer. Accordingly, be sure you consult and follow all applicable game laws before hunting over or near Cutting Edge Sustain.
Cutting Edge Initiate (Late Winter to Early Spring). Cutting Edge Initiate is designed for use during the months leading up to spring green-up. For many of us, that has historically been a time when hunting season is a fading memory, and yet it’s a time when we should be concentrating hard on making sure that our deer have access to Cutting Edge Initiate — at least if we want the bucks we hunt the following fall to be carrying the biggest racks they can.
There are two keys to understanding why that’s the case. First, the antler-growing season for bucks are of finite duration — it has definite beginning and ending points, and while those points may vary slightly from region to region, the fact remains that they exist. In short, a buck has a fixed period in which to grow antlers; all antler growth must be accomplished within this period. Second, antler growth is referred to as a “secondary sex characteristic,” meaning that a buck will always use available nutritional resources in the early spring to put his body back in shape and recover his winter health losses before devoting substantial nutritional resources to antler growth. Taken together, you can see that the sooner bucks recover their winter health losses the sooner they can turn in earnest to building antlers. If your bucks have had access to Cutting Edge Sustain during the fall and winter, they’ve likely reduced their winter health losses. Most deer will lose body weight during the winter at least to some degree, and by providing them with Initiate, they can recover even more quickly and get to the business of building antlers in a big way.
Realize also that the months leading up to spring green-up aren’t just nutritionally critical for bucks; it’s also during this time that does are pregnant and trying to feed not only themselves but also the fawns growing inside them. During late winter and early spring, does are entering the final stages of gestation in which 60 percent of fetal growth occurs. In many cases, mature does will be carrying two fawns, placing huge demands on her. Without adequate nutrition, the fawns can be born with low birth weights, and studies have shown that low birth weights in buck fawns correlates with smaller antlers when those bucks mature. Likewise, the doe will also be in less than optimum condition to lactate, which can inhibit the growth of her fawns. In fact, studies have also shown that a doe in poor condition will sometimes abandon her fawns when necessary to allow her to travel to find enough food to survive.
Also consider that at this same time of year, before spring green-up, natural food sources are often either unpalatable or simply unavailable. Natural vegetation has not yet emerged, hard mast and remnants from harvests of agricultural fields are long gone, and what little browse remained during the fall and winter has been picked over, leaving only the least preferred, lowest nutrient browse — if any. As I mentioned earlier, carbohydrates are the most important nutritional element for deer during the fall and winter. While they remain important during the months leading to spring green-up, it is at this time of year that protein, minerals and vitamins take over the lead roles in deer nutrition as antler growth approaches and does are entering their final trimester of pregnancy. Initiate helps deer recover their winter health losses quickly so that bucks can take better advantage of the antler-growing season, fawns can develop well within their mothers and have higher birth weights, and does can remain healthy and produce abundant milk for newborn fawns. Cutting Edge Initiate is specifically designed to provide the entire herd with essential nutrients during late winter until spring green-up. Initiate includes high levels of energy, 20 percent protein, the correct minerals and vitamins in the correct forms and ratios, and even digestive aids.
And like Cutting Edge Sustain, Initiate can be mixed with corn at a rate of one 17- pound bag of Initiate with up to 100 pounds of corn; and it also includes ingredients that actually help maintain and grow the digestive microorganisms in a deer’s rumen. Cutting Edge Optimize (Spring and Summer). Cutting Edge Optimize is scientifically formulated to provide deer with essential nutrients deer need to thrive, and for bucks to grow the biggest antlers they can, during the spring and summer.
When it comes to antler growth in bucks, remember I said that the antler-growing window of spring and summer has a specific beginning and ending each year? At the beginning of the antler-growing window, a buck starts growing his velvet antlers—living tissue comprised of about 80 percent protein. Then, later in the spring and summer, the buck deposits minerals on the velvet antler matrix, making the antler harder until nothing remains but bone. Have you ever thought where a buck gets all the protein, minerals and vitamins he uses to grow and harden his antlers? Obviously, he gets some from natural sources, which are usually sufficient for bucks to survive and even grow antlers. Rarely, though, are they sufficient to allow bucks to truly maximize rack size. Given that deer antlers are the fastest growing animal tissue there is, you can see how important it is to supplement protein, minerals and vitamins during the spring and summer. And the huge need during the spring and summer for protein, minerals and vitamins and energy is not just for bucks. It’s at this same time of the year that does are in the last stage of pregnancy and later providing milk for their newborn fawns. Doe milk is extremely nutrient-dense, much more so than cow’s milk, and Cutting Edge Optimize can help does increase milk production. Cutting Edge Optimize supplements a deer’s natural diet with 16 percent protein, and the correct minerals and vitamins to assist in antler growth and doe lactation.
When it comes to extensive research on deer biology and nutrition, no one is more diligent than the Whitetail Institute, and Cutting Edge is a prime example. Where else would expect to find a supplement for deer that’s this innovative and precise? If you want to give your fawns a head start toward being as big and healthy at maturity as they can, help push rack size as high as possible and help ensure that your deer stay healthy throughout the year, then push them to the “Cutting Edge” of deer nutrition. For more information, call the Institute’s in-house consultants at (800) 688-3030.
