Wow here is a hot subject on corn feeding to deer. Thoughts!
http://www.wgme.com/news/features/t...r-12-deer-found-dead-26535.shtml#.VRwm8fnF-Ab
http://www.wgme.com/news/features/t...r-12-deer-found-dead-26535.shtml#.VRwm8fnF-Ab
Winter corn feeding deer
- Thread starter MK111
- Start date
I don't think that relates to the areas that most of us hunt, which is farmland. I think those were city deer that died and some yuppy probably mixed in some caviar with the corn.
Todays combines don't leave much these days… 12 kernels per square foot is the top end of adjustments. Thats not a whole lot. Between the wildlife, it's even less. Once this food is gone the deers body undergoes a transformation to be able to eat woody type food. A sudden change in diet COULD be very bad for the deer. Kinda like if I was to take and drop you in a foreign country. Your gonna have some issues until your body adjust.
Yes deer are browsers by nature, odds of this is very slim in most of Ohio, but lets not be ignorant to the idea. Wisconsin has done some pretty good research in this area, so have other states with high ag areas. I don't dump the amounts of corn that I used to, I also feed year around. Hinge cutting has a much better effect for the good of the herd, is what they say…
I'd venture to say that hunters put out more corn than the farmer leaves afield…
I let a fellow farm my land for free with the stipulations that he not plow in the fall and he leaves som of his crops standing in each field. In years that he plants corn we put soy beans in the feeders and in the years he plants beans we fill the feeders with corn . This gives the deer a balance of carbs. and protein. They also have an abundance of browse on the farm. I am inclined to agree that the deer that died were park deer living on browse and over ate on corn. Cattle will do the same if you give them to much corn they will eat until they die .