Bsk or Matt Brock I'm paging you guys for answers after all the info I've read from you guys lately. What are benefits of supplemental feeding during the off season. Is it worth the investment in your honest opinion? I'm referring to feed stations with protein. Also what type of feed do you guys recommend thanks for all the info guys. Also anyone with info feel free to help me out just not the two I mentioned first haha. I'm looking for anyone who does this in the state to tell me what they think works.

Curious as to this too, we feed rice bran from February to September and im curious as to how much it'll help. We have 0 argiculture close by and I know some good clover food plots help as well but my curiosity is with the rice bran and how much it helps?

Great question Coach2 - I'd like to add to it.

I'm planning to plant Iron and Clay peas or Soy beans in late April/early May - which is something I've never done. Is this Ideal?? My thoughts are that the advantage will be that when we plant green fields in the Fall, the deer won't have to change their feeding routines much if at all... except for acorns dropping of course.

Also, demp17 - do ya'll just put out straight rice bran or mix it in your feeders/feeding stations, etc..? I've put it out before and the deer HAMMERED it...I just put it in basketball sized piles with corn and 'deer chow' all around it.

We put it in covered troughs with corn, last year we planted round up read soy beans but they didn't last long enough to make to 6 inches. I'm hoping to plant a few small fields of clover for a year round source of food this spring but that can be tricky in the south with the heat and humidity.

Provide for and fill their bodies to the max first with good nutrition and minerals, and the antlers should follow to their potential.

Agreed, we also have several dedicated mineral sites.

Permafever,
I'm no expert, but I planted soybeans this pass spring, and they seemed to have a really big impact on my deer. I planted to early, and they were done prior to season, but the beans were cleaned up throughout the season. I'm going to plant half my acreage in the early season, for greens, and the other half at the time to have some green in Oct. Again my body weights seemed to really increase, and the size of the fawns were larger also, which could lead to good future developments. Just my experiences.

We fed our deer herd, Record Rack deer pellets and maintained mineral licks for the past 7 years. Acreage 750. Feeding stations 3 troughs, and 20 mineral licks (Whitetail Institute 30-06 and Cutting Edge).

We saw benefits in rack size and in number of fawns per doe during this time.

In the past 2 years, our neighbor has planted 350 acres of soybeans, thus we decided to stop the suppliemental feeding but continued the mineral licks. We noticed a significant change in antler development since the soybeans were planted. It is hard to compare it to something when we dont have another piece of property to compare it too, that doesnt have the licks etc. But I think it helped our doe during pregnancy more than any other thing.

All the talk about a buck shifting range during the rut has me thinking, are we wasting our time and money. We feed, put out minerals and plant plots. We only have 1200 acres that I can walk across parts of it in 30 min. So we may be growing bucks for our neighbors to kill. That part is discouraging .

Ding. Ding. Ding.

IMO, the time of year deer need and benefit the most from supplemental feed is NOW. Very little good browse is left, food plots are neglected and acorns are gone. There is little in the way of quality food for deer until spring green up.

You can do some good by hitting your fall food plots with some Nitrogen right now. With daylength increasing and temps starting to warm soon, a dose of N will make the plots really jump right now. Tender growth on cereal grains is very high in protein. Early fetal development is happening now and bucks will soon be trying to replace the body weight lost during the rut. It's hard for them to do with what's left over right now.

I plant summer plots too, they do have a positive impact on overall nutrition. I can't prove it but the doe's here appear to have larger udders since I have been planting summer food. Antler development has definitely improved.

The benefits of any supplemental food that is grown on your place is no better than the soil it's growing in. LIME, LIME, LIME and FERTILIZE

this has been discussed a lot in past years. I think BSK's opinion is it "can" help but not his preferred method of feeding deer. I think he's a big fan of making the most of natural browse first, then spending money to maximize palatability and growth in foodplots.

Enhance native browse, high quality year around food plots, best bang for your $. If you have big,mature timber, cut some patches. Look into burning. If you're gonna feed, now till green up is good, and the coons will thank you for it.

Thanks for the replies! Cutting timber is not an option it's not mine to cut. Enhance native browse I get the concept but can you be a little more specific? Also if money weren't an issue feed stations are still a no?

Best for the $ is to burn.
If you have $ for quality feed and that's about all you can do, it'll help but is costly.

Coach, my order of priorities is 1) habitat management - all of it possible - burning, thinning, herbicides, anything to get native browse actively growing and abundant. 2) Ag plantings, both summer and winter. Summer legumes (forage soybeans are best IMO) in as much acreage as deer need to grow a field that is not destroyed. Winter fields with legumes and grains help also. 3) SUPPLEMENTAL feed. It is called supplemental for a reason. Deer will NOT get all the nutrients they need out of a trough. They do best if allowed to feed on native and agriculture plants first then use supplemental feed when they need some - late winter, late summer, droughty times in summer, etc.

Raw beans are good but deer don't care for them. Many of the bagged products are good and digestible, just don't reduce the quality by adding corn - it's a terrible food and added to an excellent bagged food, just makes the bagged food only good.

Oh and Dogs says it is especially good to plant pines!

exactly, cept them ugly ass pine trees....

Dogs thinks pines are great for dogs that can't find a fire hydrant.

David Morris proved many years ago the value of what gobbler said in his work at Burnt Pine Plantation in Ga. David use "supplemental feeding" to catch the slack in case of summer crop failure, acorn failure, drought, or anything else that lessened the natural feed and planted ag feed.

Only thing I would add is to be VERY cautious about burning if you have ANY cogon grass on your property. That is the #1 way to spread it and have a major catastrophe on your hands. It will choke out nearly all native browse. I've been spraying it for the past 5 years on my place and have just now gotten it under control.

Having said that, I have seen better quality deer for the past couple of years after myself and several surrounding neighbors thinned pines and hardwoods. The oaks I left are also producing a lot more abundant acorn crops, which has helped in deer sightings during bow season.