Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management School me on deer feed.

Casey Feeds above is who I use also. 50 lb bags of 20 % Protein deer feed which has all the other minerals and things deer need as well as some corn .
I paid $13.50 per bag. A good price for 20 % Protein feed.

Why is that "pissing money away"??

Can you or do you intend to recoup your money? Not from the initial investment but for what youre putting into it? Just wondering.

Antler Boost will also be another option. Don Willis is the owner of the company. I have dealt with him on seed for years but I have never tried his feed.

Antler Boost
706-506-0204
don@antlerboostfeed.com

Squeaky - Where is Sterrett, Ala. and what is the cost there?

Agreed, I would like to hear your thoughts? Why do you say so?

I appreciate all the help! I will look into these leads. Thank you everyone!

On a financial standpoint? I don’t see how you could ever recoup the money invested in supplementary feeding etc. Maybe if you could do pay hunts or something but that would still be a big IF. However, having a place that I call the shots on and get to enjoy it with my family & friends, I believe that is worth far more than money.

Just wanting a good place to hunt with the opportunity to kill mature nice deer. Granted having more land would be nice but that will always be the big argument. I just assume to do the best I can with what I’ve got. It is a constant learning experience and continue to look forward to it.

Youre right. What youre doing is worth the money, if you can afford it. Proud to see someone who can and is. Good luck with it. Like someone else said, i would focus on planting food and use the feeders as a supplement. Especially if you enjoy growing stuff.

Need anymore friends?

Like other said I’d recommend getting someone to help you manage the habitat instead of just throwing $ into feed. Get your property on a burn rotation to allow natural forage to grow and you can feed less. If you are going to feed, we use Casey’s Feed in Hope Hull Ave like their product.

I know a wealthy land owner in GA who owns/leases roughly 8k contiguous acres. He also has a full time biologist. They evaluated if they should feed protein year round and decided it was useless and that putting the time/money into managing the land for peak nutrition for the deer(aka like Matt Brock as mentioned above) was the way to go.

Habitat 1st boys. 👍

Matt, in all seriousness, I believe with the budget you’re spending on feed I could do an awful lot that would have more benefit long term. Feeding is a supplement to good habitat.

I think you gotta look at the variables and constraints of each individual situation…….figure out the realistic impact that it will create…..and then decide if the land owner is happy with that. Some folks get a lot of enjoyment out of feeding them. Every situation where someone “manages the land” isnt equal either…..Just look at the situation Gobbler made mention of the other day of a quail plantation that produced way more cover than they did food…..where they needed to shoot near 200 deer to keep them from starving. I would think that feeding in that situation would help balance the food with the cover. I couldn’t imagine the type of feed bill you would have with those types of deer numbers but some guys have deep pockets so there you go…….Also, I don’t think he has mentioned anything about what is or isnt occurring with the habitat so at this point we don’t know if there’s a bunch of other things he could be doing or needs to be doing differently.

I would cut the amount of feeders down to 15 or 1 per 40 acres. We feed a corn and roasted soybean mix, I believe it's called rack attack or attrax
I think we pay around $17-$18 a bag. I would believe with the acreage you plant and the feed.you should have the nutrition the deer require.
We hunt a timber lease and they don't burn and we are limited on foodplots. You sir are not burn and manage your habitat. Also to me from spring to fall minerals are important.

With almost 600 acres and owning it, I'd be putting my money into serious habitat management and layout/design. Not knowing what you have property and timber wise, in general terms, I'd look to break it up into 50 acre sections or whatever makes sense topo wise and get that on a patchwork burn rotation so that every section was being burned every 2-4 yrs, depending on what you have habitat and timber wise. If it was mine, with 90 acres of plots and 600 lb feeders, I'd cut the feeding way back to just 1 feeder per 75 or 100 acres and I'd spend all that freed up feed money on dozer and habitat work and really get the place set up to hunt from an access and design standpoint. I'd be looking at establishing and enhancing funnels, travel corridors, bedding areas and safe zones and if there wasnt already one there, I'd put a big acreage plot in the dead middle of it, that would be summer planted every year. Once the above was established, only then would I start looking at, if and how much, I needed to be doing in additional supplemental feeding. Proper design, location, and access are all way more important than total acreage with regard to foodplots. Matt Brock is your guy on here and can really assist you with the above and will get you better long term results for your money, than just throwing tons of feed and big acreage foodplots at them. I run with a couple of guys that do wildlife consulting for a living (not Matt Brock because he sometimes wears dresses, LOL inside joke) but there really is a lot of science that goes into really having a spectacular place.

On the feed, we fed a roasted soybean and corn mix two summers ago that we were getting in bulk for $13.50/50 if I remember correctly. Deer loved it, but the hogs did too which creates other problems that have to be dealt with.

Congrats, you've got an incredible situation and a blank canvas to start painting on. I'm envious.

I would go to one feeder per 100 acres and spend more money on habitat management.

Matt_S If you’re in the West Alabama area and want help with your habitat improvements, shoot me a PM.

Guys I appreciate all the information and taking the time to respond. Sorry for the delay, have been planting etc the last few days. I got in contact with 2 people thanks to Squeaky and they got me lined up.

I’ve got just a hair over 100 acres of hardwoods and the rest is mainly 10 year old planted pines. I’ve got 15, 5 acre food plots, and 7 roughly 2 acre food plots, some are just a hair over 2 acres.

Main thing with the feeding was just trying to get the deer in the area and get comfortable. It took a minute to get all the fields cut out or bigger etc, then lime and all that. We were lucky enough to get it all done by the end of April and planted summer fields first of May.
I know with supplemental feeding it takes a minimum of 3 years before you start seeing a change and it takes a lot of it. I’m definitely not against cutting back. I’m just wanting to do all I can for success.

I will be reaching out to the 2 individuals that have posted to get more information.

As always, thank you everyone!