WHAT DO DEER LIKE TO EAT
First thing first i want to start out by saying in no way shape or form am downing or bashing anyone. Secondly i am no expert, i am simply giving you my opinions, thoughts, experiences and research i have done over many years. Oh and i will also be using common sense as well :)
Deer are very interesting animals and also very picky animals when it comes to food. Deer will seek out the most nutrcous food in the area. Food? what do i mean when i say food? there is over 700 different species of natural browse that deer will eat at different times of the year! What is natural browse? Natural browse is the green and growing stuff you see in the woods. briers, trees, grasses, weeds etc. You can also say food plots are natural browse as well except we put them there.
Recently i spent sometime at the great american outdoors show in harrisburg PA. Spending time in the antler grow booth was very fun. I got to speak to many different people and got to meet many people that follow me on social media and youtube and i would like to thank everyone that came out.
Great american outdoor show 2018
The amount of people that were so disconnected from nature blew me away. It was amazing that majority of people didn't understand what natural browse was. For some reason people think we have to dump something on the ground for deer to eat. This simply isn't true! If we never dumped anything on the ground again would all the deer just die? ask yourself that question.
Crops are only in the ground for roughly 5-6 months out of the year. What do deer eat the other remaining months? Deer are browsing animals by nature. They eat anywhere from 5-7 pounds of green and growing plants a day which equals tonnage! This is what nature intended. Deer travel great distances to seek out the best quality forage in the area. But what happens when its winter time and there is no green and growing plants left? Do all the deer just die again? Well when times get tough deer know what to do. That means traveling less so they dont burn as much energy. Alot of people dont know this but deer will actually eat bark!
Some deer could possibly die, but thats when management comes in to play making sure you have a correct balance of food to the amount of deer you have. That means Planting some sort of food plot that will last into the winter months. Again green and growing plants. There is a lot of contraversy when it comes to feeding deer corn. (Me personally i dont think they should eat it at all) Majoriety of corn is all GMO anyway.
Deer need roughly 15 percent protein a day to maintain a healthy body and to grow antlers. most natural browse falls below that level mainly due to the lack of minerals/micro nutrients in the soil. There is enough there so they can survive but not enough for them to thrive.
On a closing note and something to think about, Do deer really need us to dump something on the ground for supplemental feed/minerals. Well put it this way, there is no scientific evidence with numbers that any of that works. No biologist can say otherwise unless they are being paid to say so. What they can say is natural browse is the backbone to all healthy deer herds. That's where the common sense part comes into play!
There's only one way to increase the nutritional value of the plants (WITH NUMBERS TO PROVE IT SEE PICTURE ATTACHED BELOW) deer are already eating on a daily basis and to give the plants the nutrients they are missing because the soil is lacking them.
TISSUE SAMPLE ANALYSIS FROM BEING SPRAYED WITH ANTLER GROW
For more info visit link: https://www.antlergrow.com/
Also click link to watch a video we did to discuss this further. link:
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