So I recently got 250 acres to hunt. Its a long narrow piece of property that is mostly timber land. I was thinking about putting up 2 protein feeders but I was told that it wont do any good for a place that small. My thinking is that it might help them stay on this place. Is it a waste of money?
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Our place is 250 acres but shaped differently than yours. Been on a solid protein plan for 10+ years and I also plant 20+ acres of food plots. It makes a huge difference in herd quality, size of the deer, and eventually antlers. It does help with draw as well. You didn't ask, but if your neighbors are on board, then it works even better.
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Originally posted by EastTexun View PostOur place is 250 acres but shaped differently than yours. Been on a solid protein plan for 10+ years and I also plant 20+ acres of food plots. It makes a huge difference in herd quality, size of the deer, and eventually antlers. It does help with draw as well. You didn't ask, but if your neighbors are on board, then it works even better.
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I'm running 3 feeder stations on about 375 acres in basically a pie shaped outline. Probably 80% of that is heavy oak/brush cover. I've been running 3 feeder stations with 2 of them with protein/corn/water year round the last 10 years and cottonseed the last 2 added. I go through about 1200lbs of protein a month on average with an estimated population of 65 deer give or take. In those 10 years I've seen my average 'trophy buck' grow by about 15-20" since starting. Your bucks with roam - more then a mile especially during the rut so there's always the chance of my neighbor shooting them. The doe groups do seem to stay closer hitting feeders in the morn and evening and in my mind that will keep more of the bucks in the area from heading heading out. Granted you can only have a few dominant bucks on a parcel my size so again, there's a chance your neighbor might get one of those older bucks you saw at your feeder all year round during the growing season. I think it's worth the cost if you can afford it. With the buck size I've seen on my place compared to the buck size taken off neighbors that are a few miles away I definitely know the supplemental feed is making a difference. On top of that our soil is definitely not the best in a majority of the area making food plots very hard to do and to maintain a good deer herd off the land itself.
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Originally posted by Aggies96 View PostI'm running 3 feeder stations on about 375 acres in basically a pie shaped outline. Probably 80% of that is heavy oak/brush cover. I've been running 3 feeder stations with 2 of them with protein/corn/water year round the last 10 years and cottonseed the last 2 added. I go through about 1200lbs of protein a month on average with an estimated population of 65 deer give or take. In those 10 years I've seen my average 'trophy buck' grow by about 15-20" since starting. Your bucks with roam - more then a mile especially during the rut so there's always the chance of my neighbor shooting them. The doe groups do seem to stay closer hitting feeders in the morn and evening and in my mind that will keep more of the bucks in the area from heading heading out. Granted you can only have a few dominant bucks on a parcel my size so again, there's a chance your neighbor might get one of those older bucks you saw at your feeder all year round during the growing season. I think it's worth the cost if you can afford it. With the buck size I've seen on my place compared to the buck size taken off neighbors that are a few miles away I definitely know the supplemental feed is making a difference. On top of that our soil is definitely not the best in a majority of the area making food plots very hard to do and to maintain a good deer herd off the land itself.
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We have just shy of 600 acres, we run 3 protein feeders from january thru July, this is starting year 5. It has made a difference, the question is.....is it made a big enough difference to offset the costs. Body sizes have gone up, we weigh our deer. my son killed the biggest weight to date at 182 ish I believe this year. Horn quality has gone up, still not killing giants The biggest factor is the fawn survival rate. We seem to have way more deer than we've had in the past. My argument is that we need to shoot more does, not everyone agrees. I guess if not hurting my family by feeding the deer then Ill keep doing it.
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I feed free choice protein year round, on our little 60 acre place. It definitely helps keep the deer, frequently our place and can I can see some benefit to their body weights and racks. I have my protein feeder about 40 yards from my corn feeder and a lot of the time, the deer will come and eat protein and not even go to the corn feeder. So yes, I would do it.
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