"Deer" Minerals Illegal And CWD
With all the recent talk in the outdoor world about CWD and minerals being banned in many states and counties i wanted to write about it. Freedom of speech correct? First off i want to start out by saying i am not a expert, biologist, researcher etc. As always this is based off common sense, my theories, my own research and "inside" info :)
The past few months in the hunting world have been interesting. I have seen more talk about CWD, minerals and the health of whitetails then i ever have. I don't know much about cwd so we wont discuss that in much detail right now. I will follow up with that later on.
My whole idea behind starting this whole process with land management, videos and social media was to help people. To produce videos that help. People want information and that is hard to find these days. Most hunting shows is just killing animals. While that is great and fantastic its not real life to the average person. This is where my content comes into play. I want to help the average person in every day situations in the hunting world.
Deer minerals have been in the hunting community for ever! There is so many mineral companies out there i cant keep track of them all. Why is there so many? Why do people buy them? I'm not going to name any specific companies or anything i'm not that kinda guy. If you want to continue to use them by all means go for it. This blog is about helping you save money and to open your eyes up. WIDE! hahaha
Ill be the first to admit, i have used every single product there is on the market. From The granular minerals, the jelly's, the powders, the pellets etc. I have used it all! Why did i use it? well honestly i cant tell you other then the fact i thought i was helping the herd because it what i thought i had to use to do so. Ill be honest i actually use to promote a granular mineral a few years ago. As you get older you should get smarter. In this situation i have!
this is where deer get minerals from. green and growing plants.
For some reason granular minerals is the go to thing. When i ask people why they use them i always get the same response "because i want pictures" I agree pictures are great. Some people will say well it helps grow bigger deer. It helps grow healthier deer. Really? Id like to see the scientific data that shows it does because i cant find any??!! Even the qdma guys cant tell you with proof it works. From what i have seen most minerals will say, continue to feed year round for 2-3 years and you will see results. Really? Well if you don't do anything for 2-3 years guess what, you are going to see results because you just gave the deer birthdays!
There is only 2 major factors on how big a deer will get, Genetics and Nutrition. period! Deer can not reach there full genetic potential if they don't get the proper nutrition. that is common sense. Just like humans we all have a genetic potential. If we don't train for it or eat right we will never reach it. The fact is dumping some minerals on the ground isn't natural. Deer are not meant to be that close together while feeding. Ever drive down the road and see deer and cows in the fields? What are they doing? They are feeding and spaced out. They aren't feeding a food apart licking the ground. Deer wont even consume a straight mineral anyway its to bitter. That is why they add all kinds of sweet stuff to it. Think about this. If we all stopped dumping minerals on the ground across the country are all the deer just going to die?
Here is how nature works. These same minerals that you buy and dump on the ground are already in the soil minus the junk and fillers that are in them. Plants absorb nutrients and minerals from the soil correct? Ok. So now The plants have the minerals in them. What are deer? Naturally browsing animals. They eat 4-6 pounds of green and growing plants on a daily basis. That is a lot of food! So now they just consumed "tonnage" pounds of food that's loaded with minerals. This is how deer are meant to get these minerals, from there daily diet. Dumping minerals on the ground does not work because its not how nature intended its not in the correct form. Supplemental feeding wild free ranging deer just doesn't work. Test after test, Study after study shows that supplemental feeding simply doesn't work.
Any biologist that says otherwise is being paid to do so. So then the question is why are some deer bigger in some areas and smaller in others. well, For alo't of reasons. Quality of forage, genetics, mineral content in the soil. For instance, here in Maryland we have some pretty big deer. Mostly on the eastern shore side is where you find them. But for western Maryland they have the poorest deer herd in Maryland. Why is that? When i was a kid i remember reading about this and it was due to lack of minerals in the soil which equals lack of quality of forage. plants can only pull for so long before the mineral content is gone or very low. That is why crop rotation is so important. There is only one way to add these minerals back to the plant and ill leave a link at the end of this blog.
So does dumping minerals on the ground help spread CWD? No one can say for certain, or can they? In my opinion it does. Ever see how much a deer salivates? I have and its insane. When deer are crowded together like that it cant be good. Ive seen so many videos lately with people crying about having to pull there mineral sites because its now banned in the state or county. I think its a good thing and i'm sure someone will disagree with me and that is fine that's how the world works. This is just my opinion.
With all that said just think about it. Think about how nature is designed and how god made things work. If we all stopped dumping minerals on the ground would all the deer just die?
For real science and data please visit www.antlergrow.com
Until next time ill see ya!
If you want to be nice please subscribe to our you tube channel for more info :)