I week or so ago I posted and asked what the impact of the long stretch of rain was having. Well I got out to my place at the end of the week and they have gone through over 400lbs of protein in 3 weeks! The feeder was empty and there was not a pellet anywhere to be seen. I had a few hundred lbs on hand and put that in. I'll be back in the next 10 days for another whack on my wallet but one I consider worth spending when I see how much they consume when it is dry like it is now. when it was wet earlier this year they ate very sparingly, not now.

The exact reason I went to a timed feeder Amigo...

Mine are like a Bird Dog, you sling it they will eat it..I built that timed to cut the Obama Plan down

At this rate, I'm going to have to do something. Not sure I can do a timer on the 2K All Seasons without a lot of cutting and fabricating.

This is an interesting topic for me. I have always been under the impression that if your going to feed protein, in order to get results, the buffet needs to be open all the time. All you can eat!

Are decent results attainable through limited feeding. Or are there calculations that can be done to determine how much feed based on your deer numbers?

Any thoughts and help would be appreciated.

They just now started hitting the protein I had out since February and have eaten 350 pounds in 3 weeks. Hadn't touched it prior.

On appx 320 acres we have a 3000 lb free choice and 4 300 lb free choice feeders. If we fill them all the little ones need to be filled every 3 weeks in dry conditions every month in average conditions and if its raining buckets it just really depends sometimes a couple months. The big one we fill 2x a year.

Protein aint cheap

Only have comparative data on one of my ranches. 2000 acres with five free choice feeders.

Total protein consumption is down about 30% compared to this time last year but they are beginning to hit the feeders hard again.

. You are correct. For protein to have an impact it needs to be free choice. Limiting how much and when they can access it defeats the purpose in my opinion. It may be cheaper but way less effective

I'm hunting Val Verde County 15 miles or so East of Juno and the deer have hammered the protein since we got on the place the 1st of the year. I can't speak for all of our members, but I do my best at keeping my free choice filled. Mine only holds 500 lbs and I utilized clear PVC pipe for the drop tube so my camera tracks when it runs out.

500 lbs in less than two weeks has been my case all year so I plan to limit it next season with a timer of sorts to cut down on 12 hour round trip fills.

So a ranch that has a program that states 350 of free choice every 6-8 weeks, or you put it in a timed feeder and it feeds the same poundage ( just don't run out in a week) does not have the same effect...it's still 350 in the same time frame

From what I hear... dang rumors. To really see improvement from it you need to have it available to them all the time. Prob not much dif in 350 free choice every 6-8 weeks and 350-slung over 6-8 weeks, but I don't see that as enough to really have an effect. With 4 300 lb feeders on 320 acres they will drain them in 3 weeks. In the worst of times we have had them empty in 2 weeks. 350 over a 6-8 week time frame is a drop in the bucket to what they need.

I don't have records of what antlers have done, but I do know that body weight went up and in even the worst of years our deer aren't skinny and the does raise twins.

We feed 9-10K every 6-8 weeks on 6500 acres...A few of us do timed and free choice...I have a all seasons Free Choice but prefer the timed..

If you eat the same thing for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner every day..some days you leave it sitting out all day other's you feed Breakfast Lunch and Dinner at "controlled" times...whats the difference

Yes sir and Demographics will play a HUGE role, Juno has a little better Forage...But for instance on our Rock Springs place there is not the support to supplement so Protein will play a huge role from Jan-Sept..( I feed protein there year round)

Just spent some time with a A&M guy and consumption is consumption, I would rather have plenty of water available for absorption than free choice, I have seen my absorption rate go up and more time spent in a pen eating having water readily available...Nice to watch them eat...stop go drink and THEN go back for seconds..

On free choice we feed about 60 lbs per acre per year.

Given your numbers yal feed 11 lbs per acre per year.

I don't see how those are supposed to achieve the same end result. I guess all im saying is timed feeding saves your pocket book, but theoretically wont achieve the same end result. If your feeding a ton of hogs and coons then maybe so.

We've got six 2,000lb free-choice protein feeders on 1,800 acres. We had so much rain earlier this year that protein consumption was virtually nil. Right now they're eating it about as usual. Each feeder lasts about a month. At a deer to 10 acres, that's 66.66 lbs/animal/month or about 2 lbs/animal/day. That's about right considering we're in Webb County on good country with plenty of natural grub and good water evenly spaced around the ranch. The protein truly is "supplemental" feed.

I used to lease a 1,400 ac. place in SW San Saba Co. that was grossly overpopulated. We had 11 1-ton feeders and the deer drained them once-month. In this case, it wasn't supplemental feed, it was about the ONLY feed. That got expensive in a hurry and, after the second season of myself and our biologist fighting with the landowner over the # of animals that needed to be culled, I moved on to greener pastures.

I would prefer to have irrigated food plots as I don't think anything from a bag will compare to forbs/legumes from the ground, but I'm a dry land farmer so bagged when needed is our only option. Well that, cottonseed and alfalfa.

Thats a whole another argument getting those extra heads off a place
Cherokee and San Saba got bad around there when all the Dell Babies started liking Deer and Ranches

Indeed. We were 16 miles from Cherokee, right outside Pontotoc.

No Hogs, if it gets a little moist you will see an occasional Hog but a AGGRESSIVE Varmint program is in place...

Lot of Variables is all I am saying Red...

Prime example...Say Mr. Kennedy's place..Is someone there to feed and keep them topped off, is the feeding done by a Ranch Manager, Feed Co or by individual hunters..Our biggest challenge is keeping everyone on the same page..those 5K every 6-8 week feed bills even spread out get tough on some..
My point is (in my controlled environment of my Man Made Eco System of two feed pens ) I prefer the timed...
BUT I always turn my feeders up to double time and chum 200lbs of chum on a weekend anyway so If I wanna draw deer there..TRUST me I will draw them in ..

If free choice works for you, whoop that check book out and get to flowing

I am more excited about Laredo this year anyway...

Now the next question will be how many Acrons hit the ground and save me some Corn Money

You probably knew David the processor and Taxi there in Cherokee...Dave always treated me fair back in the day Sir
Sorry

If you have small property like I do then the protein serves multiple purposes. It certainly is an attractant but more importantly for me is that over 4 yrs of feeding I am seeing better quality deer with plenty of body fat even during the worst of the drought. No one around me feeds protein yr round so I am pulling deer off their land to mine. The deer that have been on the protein since they could get in the pen to include bucks do come to the corn feeders. I don't see the deer disappear like many do after the rut. They are still hitting the protein as well as the corn. The number of fawns we see has increase and we have seen twins, whereas we never saw twins until I started the protein. My food plots like many others in the past few years have been relative failures. Have I artificially increased my carrying capacity? Maybe but we take plenty of does and spikes. So I look at it as a win across the board.

Outstanding...Gonna be a good year Sir..

Mine are at 300lbs in 10days... unreal im gona go ahead and plant this week with the rain chances we have.

Same here I have around 30 different deer using one protein feeder on 40acres right now

I have 4 800lb protein feeders on 500 acres, I fill them every 2 weeks. I start in January and run them free choice through September. I also put out mineral in wood boxes to complement the protein. I love to watch them horns grow, and this year is going to be a good one! I forgot to mention I use Lyssey and Eckel 20% and am very happy with the results.

No real reason to feed protein if not free choice.

Well maybe one if its mainly to keep them on the property...but even then there are a lot of cheaper options.