Thread: does protein feeding work ?

I have a backyard with 5 mature fruit bearing Persimmon trees and the deer lay under them waiting for a fruit to drop. They get up, eat what drops and lay back down. No fruit this year though, too many late frosts.

A guy I know had a low fenced 4000 acre cattle farm in SW Texas, Edwards Plateau.. He had at least 12 fenced in feeder areas for deer. He told me he ran protein all summer then corn in the late fall. He had a 30 acre field planted with some deer blend, Tecomonte? He said no hunting there..it looked like a desert because the deer kept it eaten down to the soil, there were deer in it every time I drove past it.. I went to his place one time to hunt and saw lots of deer everywhere. He had some good bucks but I never saw a great big one.. I was able to take a 9 point that weighed around 150 lbs? and would score around 133.

In my area of Florida I have tried several mineral mixes made for deer, none have worked or even drew interest. I tried salt blocks, loose salt, mineral blocks, Cocaine..they just sit there.. I put soy beans or corn on the blocks and the deer ate the beans or corn but never lick the blocks. One mineral block did get destroyed by some hogs, gone in about 4 days. I have seen places in other states where deer ate the dirt where salt was placed for years, like 2 ft deep and 5-6 feet around.. I planted food strips 4 years ago of Ashnomne?, several types of peas, dwarf corn, clover, etc..The deer would walk thru it and never stop to eat. I have had better luck just mowing the native browse and the deer like the tender shoots that grow back. I used to spread a little Ag lime and 10-10-10 after mowing but have not in years

K, we don't have any fruit trees on the property we hunt, so I'm not sure.. but they love the Acorns.. I'm predicting here in about 4-6 weeks, our action will slow down. Acorns start falling, they'll be munching those up.. I wish we did have fruit trees tho, a lot less expensive...

Originally Posted by RobertFL

A guy I know had a low fenced 4000 acre cattle farm in SW Texas, Edwards Plateau.. He had at least 12 fenced in feeder areas for deer. He told me he ran protein all summer then corn in the late fall. He had a 30 acre field planted with some deer blend, Tecomonte? He said no hunting there..it looked like a desert because the deer kept it eaten down to the soil, there were deer in it every time I drove past it.. I went to his place one time to hunt and saw lots of deer everywhere. He had some good bucks but I never saw a great big one.. I was able to take a 9 point that weighed around 150 lbs? and would score around 133.

In my area of Florida I have tried several mineral mixes made for deer, none have worked or even drew interest. I tried salt blocks, loose salt, mineral blocks, Cocaine..they just sit there.. I put soy beans or corn on the blocks and the deer ate the beans or corn but never lick the blocks. One mineral block did get destroyed by some hogs, gone in about 4 days. I have seen places in other states where deer ate the dirt where salt was placed for years, like 2 ft deep and 5-6 feet around.. I planted food strips 4 years ago of Ashnomne?, several types of peas, dwarf corn, clover, etc..The deer would walk thru it and never stop to eat. I have had better luck just mowing the native browse and the deer like the tender shoots that grow back. I used to spread a little Ag lime and 10-10-10 after mowing but have not in years

finicky critters for sure , much like you I put out all kinds of stuff over the years , did see a doe eat an apple whole one time though ....was pretty cool to watch .
but as you said , often times blocks and even some forms of other attractants go totally unblemished.
one of my best bucks ever was "stripping" seeds off some sort of tall native grasses when he got KABOOMED ....just saying

Originally Posted by icehouse

K, we don't have any fruit trees on the property we hunt, so I'm not sure.. but they love the Acorns.. I'm predicting here in about 4-6 weeks, our action will slow down. Acorns start falling, they'll be munching those up.. I wish we did have fruit trees tho, a lot less expensive...

acorns will flat out ruin a food plot and or feeder area , number one on the deer menu for sure .....

Originally Posted by Ketchn

acorns will flat out ruin a food plot and or feeder area , number one on the deer menu for sure .....

For sure, the acorns put fat on them for the winter. And you have to hunt the acorns that they are eating.. there can be 100 trees dropping acorns and the deer seems to know which ones are the "sweetest" .. They will walk past your feeders and inferior acorns to get to the best acorns. Your corn will gather under the feeders and get moldy when they are on the acorns.. unless you have a bunch of turkeys.

Originally Posted by RobertFL

For sure, the acorns put fat on them for the winter. And you have to hunt the acorns that they are eating.. there can be 100 trees dropping acorns and the deer seems to know which ones are the "sweetest" .. They will walk past your feeders and inferior acorns to get to the best acorns. Your corn will gather under the feeders and get moldy when they are on the acorns.. unless you have a bunch of turkeys.

Seen the bestest tree program first hand my first year in Arkansas, my bud who grew up there suggested I put my ladder stand in a group of white oak trees …..man did the deer come from everywhere around me….it was amazing to see ‘‘em beeline thru the forest of trees just to get to those I set up in ….

Just wanted to share something I did using a quad stand. Last year we froze to death with the winds and snow. Hopefully this year, it won’t happen again.




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