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How many acres per protein feeder?

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    How many acres per protein feeder?

    Just doing a little managing from the house this weekend. I am doing some forward looking cost projections for our place, trying to plan for large ticket items. Right now on our high fenced, very low deer density place we have one free choice protein per 160 acres as well as two timed proteins that feed in the morning and evening.

    What are you guys going along these lines?

    #2
    I'm not feeding as much as they can eat. I'm feeding as much as I can afford. LOL They have been eating so much 19% Big Rack that I decided to fill one of my 1000 lb Boss Bucks with San Angelo Pellets 20% Extreme hoping it will slow them down some.

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      #3
      Originally posted by tuthdoc View Post
      I'm not feeding as much as they can eat. I'm feeding as much as I can afford. LOL They have been eating so much 19% Big Rack that I decided to fill one of my 1000 lb Boss Bucks with San Angelo Pellets 20% Extreme hoping it will slow them down some.
      Our place is relativley small so our cost dont get TOO high. We feed antlermax, they seem to eat it just fine and we have to drive right by the feed store to ge tto the ranch so getting it is easy...I cant see changing right now. I might do a blind study with my two timed trough feeders. Put them side by side...

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        #4
        We feed antlermax on the Junco. They love it. If we could get Big Rack there, we'd feed it because it's about a buck a bag cheaper and with over 200 sacks per month in 14 feeders, that's quite a saving. We're adding 6 more for next year and the amount of feed will be over 300 sacks per month.

        Only reason I could see for you to switch would be if you found a protein as good that the deer ate as well for less cost. Antlermax is good stuff. we fed it early in our protein program at San Angelo, but we had to stop and haul it from Melvin. Palmer feed is pretty close to our ranch and it's not only good stuff, it's cheap. err, cheapER. LOL

        I'd say a protein feeder every quarter section is good. We have 2300 acres at San Angelo with probably 1500 of that huntable and the rest in crops. Off the top of my head, that would be roughly 10 feeders. I can count 9, so we're pretty close. However, with the amount that they eat, we could easily double that, either in size of feeders or numbers of stations. One of my Boss Bucks has had useage of over 50 lbs. per night out of a 4 tube feeder.

        On the Junco, we feed about 11,000 acres. Counting our small feed stations and our Boss bucks, when all is in place we'll be feeding about 20 stations. That's one every 550 acres. To get to the 160 acres per feeder there, it would cost A LOT of money for feed, about 45 more feeders, and they'd have to fine someone else to fill them. LOL

        What we do on the Junco is find areas of high buck numbers during the time of antler development and feed those areas. Some areas seem to not hold many, if any, bucks during the spring and summer. Helicopter survey before the season and before they break up tells us where the best places should be. Then we'll have feeders posted there in greater concentrations than the other areas. Also, if a pen doesn't live up to expectations, we're quick to relocate it or shut it down.

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          #5
          The seminars I have been to say that you need on at least every 330 acres. Otherwise the dominant deer will be the only ones that get to eat.

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