If you can't / don't feed protein all year...

Best months? Jan. & Feb. Then again in July, August, September?

Opinions please.

Feb with a high fat content.

May/Jun/July with a good 20% pellet, if that's all I could afford. This assumes habitat's in good shape come April. If not, I'd feed April/May/June. But, at a minimum, ideally I'd feed April-September.

^^^^ Agree.

Do any of you feed small acreage? Just wondering if it is worth it, or if it is a waste of money to feed <500 acres.

It’s cheaper to let all bucks with any sort of potential make it to 7 years old. It takes a few years of holding off. It’s amazing how big deer can get if you leave em alone a few years.

If you find no deer are getting mature then you saved yourself lots of time and money. When you can let em walk and see them grow bigger every year it’s time to drop protein.

Wacm makes a good point. I have a horror story about a place where deer couldn't grow up.

The South Tx place is fed cotton seed from January to August along with corn year round. On the Central Tx place is tricky and it depends on the weather. If it's a dry start to the year, (which I personally prefer) I put out protein. If it's a wet start to the year its food plots starting first week of February with radish or turnips. Then throw some peas and clover in around March.

Right after the rut (Jan, Feb and early March) feed a high fat pellet. From March - Dec, feed a 20% protein pellet. Remember, does will benefit with the high protein through pregnancy. The fawns they drop are in excellent health and have excellent brain development which is crucial to evading even the best hunters!

I feed starting in January and continue to the end of September. Very important I feel to get the Bucks especially their body weight and condition back as it was prior to rut to allow them to be as healthy as possible prior to the start of Antler development for the coming year, I do not agree with the start, stop, start method of the distribution of protein. Start and continue until the antler development is complete. I also feel it's good for the doe in producing healthy fawns. This is just my opinion. This practice has worked well for me. I start with 20% and finish with 20% protein.

Thanks for the replies.

My buddies family has a high fence place and I have not yet seen a deer peak later than 6.5yrs old. Many peak at 5.5. Waiting until they’re seven may be a slight stretch.

It can happen. Here are pics of the same deer at 5.5, 6.5, 7.5. He was killed this year...he added 20-25" per year between 5.5 and 7.5. Top pic is 7.5, middle pic is 6.5, bottom pic is 5.5. He went from 10 pt to 12 pt to 14 pt. It's not necessarily the norm to gain that much, but most deer will be bigger at 6.5 than 5.5.