Supplemental Feeding Deer | The Right and Wrong Way to Feed Deer This Winter
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Old man winter has shown mercy this year, and both the deer and hunters are grateful! With that being said, we still have the rest of February and March to get through before “green life” returns to our neck of the woods. Once spring does arrive, turkey fans won’t be the only thing we see shoot up. Fresh protein rich food sources will also spring up, and once again flourish in the hardwoods and in our food plots. While the country is still in old man winter’s frozen grip, this spring green up is in sight and with it, the end of a 4 month long struggle for life. Deer are hurting right now, maybe not as bad as previous years, but don’t let the lack of snowfall fool you. It is this struggle that we hunters start to become concerned about this time of year and as a result, we naturally feel obligated to intervene. This intervention is often in the form of a bag of “deer corn”, and it could spell disaster for you. Feeding deer during the winter is not a subject to lightly dismiss as a “common sense subject”, there is a right way and a wrong and in some situations fatal way to do it. To understand every piece that is required before feeding deer during the winter, we first need to take a walk in the shoes of a whitetail.
Walk a Season in the Whitetail’s Shoes
Imagine if you will, you’re a hog of a buck, one of those southern Iowa whoppers we all know exist. Its late October your busy eating acorns and stacking up the energy and carbs before the rut, putting on the pounds of fat. You feel your testosterone rising and those little bucks are really pestering you. Once November rolls around your weight is at an astonishing 255 pounds! You’re having fun running does throughout the southern Iowa corn fields and hardwoods, occasionally locking one down in your favorite thicket. It’s all fun and games until that first snowflake falls, then it’s back to survival. Now let’s fast forward to late February, you now weigh 180 pounds, you have shed your antlers, your fat reserves are almost spent, there is no corn left in the fields, and the snow is a foot deep. You need energy and protein to repair your body condition after the long rut. The worst news is that your instincts understand new food isn’t coming anytime soon, and more winter is still likely to be had!
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