By Gerald Almy
When my wife, daughter and I pulled up to my mother’s
condominium at Canyon Lake in the Texas Hill Country, we were greeted with an impressive
sight. A pair of does, three fawns and a heavy 10-pointer I would have loved to
see in the woods during hunting season shuffled lazily out of our way before we
could pull in and park. The retired colonel who lived in a nearby unit put corn
out every afternoon, and the local whitetails were on their way in for an early
evening snack.
Probably no place in the country has a longer or
more deeply ingrained tradition of feeding deer than Texas. Condo owners and
suburbanites do it for entertainment. Landowners and ranchers do it to provide
nutrition to supplement natural foods and farm crops, and improve antler
growth. In some states and Canadian provinces, ranging from Florida to Saskatchewan,
it is also used as a hunting method to attract deer into gun or bow range. However,
whether it is done as a hunting aid, to provide nutrition or for the fun of it,
feeding deer is a common activity throughout North America. Some do it with a
passion, but others feed casually. However strong their attitudes about it,
more and more of these people are waking up to a stark reality: Their
cherished activity has just been deemed illegal. Deer feeding bans are
becoming more common throughout the country. Sometimes, it’s in a small
township where deer-vehicle collisions are becoming a problem. Other times,
counties or large sections or all of states are prohibiting this activity for
other reasons. Often, the motivation is to reduce the spread of diseases such
as chronic wasting disease or bovine tuberculosis. Many hunters and landowners believe
the bans are unneeded or excessive in their scope and severity. Nonetheless, we
live in a land ruled by laws. Unless the laws are changed, there is no choice
but to abide by them. The fear among biologists is that a sick deer might leave
saliva on food while feeding, and another deer might ingest it and contract the
illness. Wildlife managers in Virginia, for example, recently banned feeding
deer in a large multiple-county area as a “containment zone” after one deer
near the border of West Virginia tested positive for CWD. The deer was killed just
a few miles from where the disease had been present for several years in West
Virginia. It’s a scenario that’s playing out more across the country. In
addition, if you think law-enforcement officials don’t mean business, consider
this: One landowner in a Michigan region that was under a ban was ticketed for
feeding deer after the food he supposedly put out for birds was eaten by deer. However,
a ban on feeding deer doesn’t have to be a major blow or hardship for hunters
and wildlife managers. “Food plots almost always offer a better way to feed
deer and improve the quality of the animals and in most cases, it is much more
cost effective than feeding," said Steve Scott, vice president of the
Whitetail Institute of North America. "It’s also legal in every state.” Before
delving into how you can replace supplemental feed with food plots and other
habitat-management practices, let's look at the motivations for feeding deer. I
admit that where and when it’s been legal, I’ve fed deer often. At first, my
main goal was one of the four primary reasons why this activity is so
popular—entertainment. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather watch a few does
and even a spike or fork-horn feeding than sitting through 99 percent of what’s
on TV. There’s nothing like seeing a real deer in the wild, and feeding makes
that a lot easier than just hoping to glimpse an animal randomly walking by. The
second major reason is to help deer during a rough climate period, such as
extreme drought, bitter cold or deep snowfall. Sometimes this can help. In
other cases, if done improperly, it can make things worse. A third reason
people feed deer is to increase the carrying capacity for the land or the
number of deer an acreage can hold. Cover can limit the number of deer a
property can hold, but the amount of food available is also a crucial item. Be
careful not to overdo this because too many deer on a property can harm the
natural browse the property provides. You can support more deer by
supplementing their food supply. However, be forewarned: This can get quite
expensive, not to mention the time and effort of cleaning, maintaining and
filling feeders. Moreover, when you start it, you shouldn’t skip some times and
feed others. You’ve increased the population. Now you must support the extra
“welfare deer” living on handouts. The fourth major motivation for feeding deer
is to try to improve their antler growth. This is not something you can attain,
however, simply by dumping out a few buckets of corn. Instead, you need
scientifically designed products, such as Imperial Whitetail Results deer feed or
Cutting Edge nutritional supplements. These products contain a high protein and
energy level, essential minerals and vitamins and can help antler growth by
supplementing the natural food supply which in most parts of the country is low
in protein and nutrients. Deer need 16-18 percent protein in their diet for
optimum health and antler growth, and most natural foods are much lower than
that. Raising those with a high-protein feed supplement can help on managed
properties. In summary, you can justify or explain the rationale for feeding
deer on four levels: entertainment, assistance during stressful weather, increased
carrying capacity and improved antler growth. All are valid reasons. However,
these needs can usually be better satisfied by planting food plots. Let’s look
at them one at a time.
ENTERTAINMENT
If you have an area where you used to put a bucket
of corn out, find a nearby spot you can view, and put in a small, high-quality
food plot. Manage it intensively by fertilizing often, mowing and even
hand-weeding it. Give it all you’ve got. Chances are you’ll soon see more deer
in that small plot than you were seeing on a corn or apple pile. In addition,
they’ll be feeding naturally, making it a much more aesthetically appealing
scene to watch. The potential spread of disease through saliva contact will be
almost zero. And odds are you’ll see more mature bucks on this plot than at a
crude food pile.
ASSISTANCE DURING STRESSFUL WEATHER
This past year my area in the Shenandoah Valley of
Virginia had its worst winter on record with 3 to 4 feet of snow on the ground,
followed by the worst drought in 70 years. These are times that make your heart
go out to wildlife. Your main goal is to help the animals survive rather than
worrying about how many bucks you’ll see or how big their racks will be next
fall. But by planting the right food plots, you can help deer just as well or
better than a pile of corn would. “Having diversity in the various food plots
can help the animals through these stressful times,” Scott said. “When
possible, have perennials and annuals. Also planting warm-season and cool season
annuals can help as well.” Look into a product such as Tall Tine Tubers, Double-Cross,
No-Plow, Pure Attraction or Winter-Greens. These plants have the potential to
grow so tall that the leaves will be accessible even in deep snow. And when
deer devour the greenish-blue leaves, they’ll have access from trampling the
snow to the turnips in the case of the Tall Tine Tubers. These products can
help provide the carbohydrates necessary for energy production in bitter-cold
winter weather. For searing hot drought conditions, make sure you have some
plots of Chicory Plus or Chic Magnet. This especially palatable type of chicory
can survive and thrive even when clover is stressed or growing poorly during
the hottest, driest summer periods. And it has the high protein levels
lactating does and antler-growing bucks need. Extreme is another product you can
put in to cope with drought conditions; one that does well in poor-quality or
acidic soils where few other plants will grow.
INCREASE CARRYING CAPACITY
This is possible with pellets, corn or soybean feed
stations, but it’s far less expensive and more fun to increase the acreage
devoted to food plots. “When the tonnage of food plot forage you offer the
animals is raised, more deer can be carried,” Scott said. “But be careful not to
raise the number of deer above the carrying capacity of that property because
natural browse can be — and in extreme conditions — will be negatively
affected.” And you don’t have to be out filling, cleaning, repairing and
monitoring feeders or distributing food by truck. You also don’t have to worry about
the concentration of deer that might spread diseases. A food plot can provide
as much forage for deer as 100 acres of mature woods. The math is clear: You
can have more deer on a given amount of land by dumping food out regularly, or
you can do it even better by putting in just a few more food plots.
ENHANCE ANTLER GROWTH
Thousands of hunters and land managers across the
country have also seen their food plots enhance antler growth because of the plots’
ability to provide high protein. Scientifically designed pellets and
high-quality nutrition supplements can also enhance antler growth. “When the
available nutrition is improved with higher protein levels during the antler growing
and lactation times, the health of the herd will be improved, including antler
size,” Scott said. Here’s how the typical situation goes. A hunter normally
sees some 110- to 120-inch bucks in the herd and is happy to harvest those. Then
he starts putting in a few quality food plots. The next thing you know he is
taking 130- inch bucks and maybe sighting a few 140s on his trail cameras or in
the field. It doesn’t come instantly, but within a few years, hunters who add
quality food plots on their properties can very reasonably expect to see
results such as this: a 10- to 20-inch increase in the antler quality of the
average buck taken. Make sure you plant various plant types that grow best at
different times of the year and in varying weather conditions, so one or more
of them are always thriving. Consider having a crop of PowerPlant coming on in
the late spring and summer months. Have Winter-Greens, Tall Tine Tubers, Pure
Attraction or No-Plow peaking when PowerPlant is succumbing to hard frosts. Besides
food plots, consider thinning your woods or even clear-cutting small select
patches. This can offer an abundance of new natural foods as more sunlight
reaches the ground and forbs, bushes and saplings begin to appear. Planting
fruit trees and edible shrubs can also help. Therefore, whether you want to see
more deer and bigger-racked animals or want to help the local herd through
stressful times, do not think supplemental feeding is your only or even the best
choice. In addition, if you are facing a newly imposed feeding ban, do not
despair. For most deer managers, an assortment of food plots, coupled with
timber-stand improvement and planting shrubs and fruit trees, is a better bet anyway
for promoting the health of the herd and antler growth.
