Long post, sorry in advance. Short version in last paragraph if you don't want to read it all.
A buddy and I are hunting his family land that is a 600 acre piece in the panhandle surrounded by 30,000+ acres of land that hasn't been hunted in 10+ years. The surrounding 30,000 acres is roughly 30% wheat and 70% native growth that they run cattle on. A small river and a creek make the north and south boundaries of the property. It is covered in salt cedars with mesquite, persimmons and cottonwoods scattered here and there. We are trying to decide what our best options will be moving forward with supplemental feeding to promote health and antler growth. There is so much contradictory information out there we don't know where to start.
The place is absolutely covered with deer. We put a feeder out November 15 of this year and we have seen 30+ deer at the feeder at one time. We had 41 noticeably different bucks show up on camera from November 15 to January 1 with 19 of them being 4.5+ year old bucks. There are does everywhere. Remember this is a feeder that has only been there for 6 weeks. It's a regular occurrence for the wheat field across the river (800 yards from property line) to have 60+ deer on it at once during daylight, no telling how many after dark. With a spotting scope we have seen a couple bucks on that wheat field that we have never got on camera at our feeder. We are confident that we haven't seen nearly all of the deer that we will see with a year-round feeding program. Because of the high number of deer, we fear that feeding protein free-choice would cost us an absolute fortune. There are two 5-acre squares already fenced that we have considered planting in alfalfa or sorghum but also fear that any small food plot will be quickly destroyed by the number of deer. The local TPWD biologist said he wouldn't do anything because "the deer are already thriving naturally in this area" but we are sure there has to be more we can do. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
TLDR: 600 acres in the panhandle surrounded by 30,000+ un-hunted acres. Very high deer population. Trying to decide what year-round feed program to implement in hopes of improving the herd without spending tens of thousands of dollars (due to the high population).
A buddy and I are hunting his family land that is a 600 acre piece in the panhandle surrounded by 30,000+ acres of land that hasn't been hunted in 10+ years. The surrounding 30,000 acres is roughly 30% wheat and 70% native growth that they run cattle on. A small river and a creek make the north and south boundaries of the property. It is covered in salt cedars with mesquite, persimmons and cottonwoods scattered here and there. We are trying to decide what our best options will be moving forward with supplemental feeding to promote health and antler growth. There is so much contradictory information out there we don't know where to start.
The place is absolutely covered with deer. We put a feeder out November 15 of this year and we have seen 30+ deer at the feeder at one time. We had 41 noticeably different bucks show up on camera from November 15 to January 1 with 19 of them being 4.5+ year old bucks. There are does everywhere. Remember this is a feeder that has only been there for 6 weeks. It's a regular occurrence for the wheat field across the river (800 yards from property line) to have 60+ deer on it at once during daylight, no telling how many after dark. With a spotting scope we have seen a couple bucks on that wheat field that we have never got on camera at our feeder. We are confident that we haven't seen nearly all of the deer that we will see with a year-round feeding program. Because of the high number of deer, we fear that feeding protein free-choice would cost us an absolute fortune. There are two 5-acre squares already fenced that we have considered planting in alfalfa or sorghum but also fear that any small food plot will be quickly destroyed by the number of deer. The local TPWD biologist said he wouldn't do anything because "the deer are already thriving naturally in this area" but we are sure there has to be more we can do. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
TLDR: 600 acres in the panhandle surrounded by 30,000+ un-hunted acres. Very high deer population. Trying to decide what year-round feed program to implement in hopes of improving the herd without spending tens of thousands of dollars (due to the high population).
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