Pellets

[DarinRay]

Thanks Robert for the great info and I will take this to my local feed place to see if I can get about 500lbs myself. Yeah it might last a long time but if that's what I have to buy just to get the stuff I will and hope it doesn't go bad. I will ask if I can just get enough to get by though for sure. Talk to you later.

Darin

 

[Robert_in_NY]

It will last a while if you can store it and keep it dry. We dump ours into 50 gallon plastic barrels and throw the lid on them. It will keep for at least a month like that but most likely a lot longer. Our feed turns over too fast to know how long it will keep. During the warm months it will get buggy as there are naturally going to be bugs in the feed that hatch out but in the winter that is not a problem. You should be able to store the feed all winter if you had to. Have fun and take care.

 

[Thomas]

Thanks Robert for the infomation..by the looks you have a better ingredients than I'm useing from Blue Seal Feeds,INC.

 

[Thomas]

Not to keep bugging you Robert. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

My wife from the city and never had deer that close to her before..there her babies as she puts it.

The question is..how much deer pellets should one feed a doe w/two yearling per day?

My wife useing about 10# pellet feed per day,and she thinks thats not enough..why..because one of the yearling has taken a shine to my wife,and my wife has made a special area for the yearling for extra feed..yep my wife goes out and talks & sets at a distance while favorite one eats.

I don't want to over feed the deer w/only pellets which might hurt there system.

Thanks.

 

[Thomas]

<font color=blue>that stuff sure is hot<font color=blue><font color=black>...Woodbeef,not sure what you meant by that..I'm interested in your finding tho.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Unless the deer have been starving for a while it will be next to impossible for them to eat too much. The feed has nutrients they need and if the deer do not need them they will find something else to eat. THey only eat what they need to so do not worry about feeding the deer too much. As for what Woodbeef was saying, he was reffering to the protien level in the feed. If I recall correctly, Woodbeef raises Bison which don't require as much protein. The main difference between Deer and Bison or Beef for that matter is that deer go thru a lot each year. A doe will drop at least 20lbs from her normal weight by the end of fawning season as the fawns feeding wear the mother down drasticly. So the doe need a lot of nutrients to keep their bodys up. Also, the bucks shed their antlers every year and grow new ones the next spring. This takes a lot of nutrients, especially calcium. So, whitetail feed is considerably higher in nutrients then most if not all cattle feed. I hope that answered some of your questions and don't worry about bothering me as I don't mind answering questions about whitetails. Take care.

 

[Woodbeef]

Hey Thomas,

What I was wondering about is the level of protein. Now I admit to knowing not very much about cervids,and the raising of them. I was just very surprised at the calcium level and how high the protein was in Robert's mix. It just seems to me that deer would have a hard time finding that much protein and calcium on a year round basis in the wild. Now in a captive program their needs do change a bit mainly due to confinement and what comes with it.

Robert is there any chance of a wild pregnant doe becoming overconditioned due to human intervention?

 

[WVBill]

Robert:

I ask this question very cautiously because I fear where it has the potential of taking this thread but I am really curious and willing to be educated so here goes:

Why do you raise deer? Or more to the point, what do people who buy your deer do with them? Is it a "food crop" like cattle or ?

I am not "trolling" or "baiting" or trying to stir up a debate - I'm just curious. I live in a rural area near a large metropolitan area and all I hear is that there are more than enough deer to go around - they keep trying to increase the yield in the annual hunting season to control the population. So based on my limited frame of reference, I can't see why anyone would need to raise them.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have nothing to hide so ask as many questions as you want. We raise deer because we enjoy them. We are avid hunters and also measure for the NYSBBC, B&C and P&Y. Deer have always been a part of our lives and we started raising them in March of 97. We raise them mostly as a hobby and the deer we sell are sold as pets and breeding stock for other farms. There is a huge market for shooter bucks as people will pay a lot of money to shoot a buck on someones preserve. I know one farmer who sells 10-20 bucks a year at $20k each. That is all he sells as it gives him enough money to live each year (but just barely) We have never sold an animal to be shot. It is hard to do when you raise them and in most cases the farms that want to buy our bucks for shooters are too small and it is not fair to the animals so we will not sell to them. The most money I have heard for a buck was over $200k. There was a buck known as 30-30 that was sold for $150k, however, he was the largest captive whitetail ever recorded scoring over 300. Captive whitetails can not be released into the wild, nor can we take wild whitetails and put them in fences.

Another aspect of our farm is the deer lure. We sell a little bit of scents each year to help offset the cost of raising them. If we can raise the deer each year and make enough to cover all the expenses then we are happy. If we make a few dollars great. If not, oh well they are still a lot of fun.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

What do you mean by overconditioned? Do you mean relying on humans for her food? If so the answer is no. Even our pen raised deer that have never been in the wild will eat more browse then anything else. They eat the pellets to get the nutrients that they otherwise might not find while browsing. The deer cut down on eating pellets drasticly during the summer because of how much grass and leaves there are to eat.

As for your reply to Thomas's question, not all deer get all the nutrients they need in the wild. That is why you sometimes see small deer and small racked bucks because they did not get enough of certain minerals. However, not all deer require the same amounts so some deer do get enough in the wild while others do not. They are like humans as some people don't get enough vitamin C while others get plenty. Deer are good at finding the nutrients they need in the wild, clover is an excellent source of protein and that is what a lot of people plant for cover crops and food plots. Plus it is quite abundant in the wild. Take care.