I've been feeding L&E protein for 3 years in Knox Co. I called my dealer today to confirm they had feed in stock to pick up and was informed that he sold his dealership. The new dealer will not be convenient for me to go to. Doing a quick internet search it looks like Purina's AntlerMax is available at several feed stores on my way to Knox Co. I'm not 100% set on Purina is there another brand I should consider that can be picked up between Ft. Worth and Knox City?

Call L&E in Poth to see if they have another dealer close to you on your travel route. If you can buy 5-6 tons of protein, corn, cattle feed, etc at time see if they have a ranch close to you that they can add your load into and deliver direct to you.

Where are all those Double Down guys? We've fed Antler Max with good success in counties just N and S of Knox

Busy...since they are working 3 jobs to pay their feed bills

Great idea I will give them a call.


Thanks!

we switched over to antler max this year and love the results and the feed itself...no dust in the bags and good/consistent size pellets...

the local place near our ranch is up to 15.50 a bag.... ...as well he tried to bring it in bulk silo and it was going to be more expensive....

They aren't hitting the protein (Dilley Feed RHR) real tough right now, but the cottonseed - oh my! 100 - 150 pounds per each of the seven stations in two weeks. We just don't normally see that much consumption, but have never offered it at the end of the season before. I guess they are needing the fat content.

May be coincidental but seems there are more positive comments about cottonseed lately.

I filled all of my cotton seed feeders 2 weeks ago hopefully they are hitting it as needed...I'm still feeding L&E but need to decided what I'm going to do going forward since I'm out after topping of all the feeders this last trip.

Wilhunt this will be my second year feeding cotton seed. Its easy to feed and like offering the all they can eat buffet! lol

I like the cottonseed. Varmints & birds don't go for it. It has a higher protein content, but does lack mineral. Noting past consumption levels and taking a hint from supposedly how they do it at a well known, intensely managed large ranch with a great history of taking exceptional whitetails, we are changing up our gears this year.

This is the 1st year, we put out cottonseed this early. We utilize wire baskets and typically put 3-4 fifty pound sacks in each. We will keep it in the mix until about Labor Day. Somewhere near the end of June, the deer get off the pellets and hit the cottonseed harder. Don't know why, that's just what we have noticed. We have heavily reviewed the issues with cottonseed/deer/supposed sterility and are quite comfortable with this course of action.

We also filled all the protein feeders (five of them and 4,000 pounds in total, but won't pay attention to them again until early March. At that time, we have to go down every three weeks until about the middle of June or most, if not all the feeders will be empty.

Corn filled now and will spit out twice a day at about two seconds each. When that runs out, we won't fill them again until Labor Day. In a month or two and due to heat issues, these feeders will only be run at night. Just a note - our feeders are penned off due to cattle and hogs (see attached).

Not sure where you are located, but before I got my bulk grain bins in place, I would get bagged Red Chain protein at Haskell Feeds. They push the Antlermax, but they will get you the Red Chain. You will have to check to see if they have it in stock well ahead of time. The Red Chain, Chain Reaction is just as good, if not better IMO than the Antler Max breeder line of protein and is cheaper.

My deer love FMC 20% in Graham texas. They tear it up. Tried 3 other big names brands before their mixture and it’s not even close. Would be on your way up to Knox. Eight years on it PM me for pics.

4W

Thanks Big_Ag I'll give Haskell Feeds a call.

Will cattle tear up a feeder pen to get to the cottonseed? Feeder pen made of hog panels.

No as long as the place is not over grazed. Even if too many cattle on the place, they don't tear up the pens, they just jump into them if possible.

Yep, luckily we're 20 minutes from the Red Chain location that recently opened in Stephenville. We use the Buck Creek and Chain Reaction pellets. They eat both with equal enthusiasm. Just got our first round out this past weekend. We bought bulk cottonseed from their Gorman location last year and the deer just never took to it. We opened the pens late season once all protein was gone and the cows took care of it. I was hopeful the deer would get on it once the protein ran out but they never did. We tried lacing it with Big and J to see if the smell would get their curiosity up. No luck.

Red Chain if you can find it. Peanut based and deer love it.

If our place is any indication, the deer in South Texas are slamming the protein right now. I had not been there for 19 days, just shy of three weeks. Cottonseed consumption has fallen off. Guessing here them there deer are needing the minerals. I am falling behind and will need to take down more than just 40 bags next time. My calculations leave me believing I could have used another 32 bags yesterday. Got to keep on top of it until the middle of June, at least.

Patient husband guy wanted to rent one of them there fancy buggies. Several of the feed stores in the area are now renting them out for fifty bucks per 24 hours and you then get to buy your protein in bulk. The down side is, well, you have to get it back in 24 hours, you get to drag that trailer with 8,000 pounds in it all over kingdom come and there is no meter on it. The good news is your back doesn't feel much when you finish and there are no bags to burn.

No meter provided no issue in the West End pastures as we were all empty. Filled up the three 600 pounders and the two 1,200 pounders. Cottonseed was pretty much decimated. Got rain last weekend and the place is a virtual garden spot. Everything both growing and blooming. Even so, past history indicates this will do lil' with the consumption rate. These creatures will continue to hit hard through the month of June. At that time, pellet consumption will or should fall off drastically while cottonseed consumption will continue on. I figure to get down there in a month and then in another month with that ending the "heavy" lifting.

Interesting Hudbone our place is as green as I have ever seen it as well. With the spring green up cotton seed consumption and pellet consumption is down to almost nothing in the last 3 weeks at our place. I have cell cams monitoring 2 feed stations and the pics are down to 40 or less per night. It seems that the deer that are going into the pen are cruising by and not staying for any length of time to feed. But I know this will change as we get into the heat of the summer and the desired forbs are not as readily available the pellet consumption will increase ten fold. Good luck with the "heavy" lifting".

Just looked at the purchases. Klappenbach and myself have put out 282 bags of protein and 86 bags of whole cottonseed since January. Left the place all full Sunday morning. Sure hope we get a month out of it.

Geez . . . . .

Three weeks ago, everything was empty and we filled up the 4,200 pounds of capacity in mine and Klappenbach's pastures. Had been there just three weeks prior. Knowing consumption starts to slow down at this time, took a chance on only bought 3,000 pounds. Used 1,900 pounds and left with everything brim full. That there is a hallelujah. What's even better is two other hunters purchased the remaining 22 bags leaving nothing to be stored. The three of us ended up handling 176 bags. Made for a full day.

Life is good!

It just gets more interesting. Lease members went down with an 8,000 pound trailer. One of them is my closest neighbor with his main spot 1,200 yards from mine. His secondary is about a similar distance away and he has protein at both. When finished filing their spots, they had about 750 pounds left because the guy closest to me didn't need what all they had bought for his spots. My feeders were empty. 2,400 pounds put in three weeks prior and now, all gone gone. The 750 remaining was put in my primary and TG for those fella's. Caught a break and so happy to hunt with good people.

The place is green as all heck and besides the rabid consumption of the protein, those lil' deer suckers also decimated the cottonseed. We have created a monster. Can't wait for hot weather and high pressure to bring about drier conditions which will help lead to reduced protein consumption.

Went down again this weekend. Green, green, green and very unusual for the start of the summer. In addition, cattle load has been successfully achieved. Them there deer are knocking us out. Personally saw two 1,200 pound feeders loaded to the gills the week before, which will be out in a matter of days. Many more with above average consumption rates. Cottonseed baskets taking a hit also.

We are MLD and do a pretty good job with controlling numbers, our conditions are great (beyond what you could ask for) and the deer are trying to bankrupt us and break oi backs at the same time.

Sounds like a great problem to have Hudbone! I did the same at my place this weekend!

The consumption here is about the same for this time of the year as it has been over the last 3-4 yrs now. Lack of rains or spotty rains till May had consumption up and now with good May rains it is dropping off like in the past. Really green now and if the pattern follows the past few years, the deer will back completely off of feed in June till late Sept to Nov. I am seeing some mesquite blooms and have quite a few green persimmons so when those hit the deer will leave the protein. The brush all put on a lot of new growth with the rains and tons of forb growth now after the rains is helping a lot.

I have seen that very same pattern for years now. We'll fill up our 4,200 pound capacity between the five feeders and be done with if for this year. Cottonseed only until labor Day at which time, l we let that run out and turn the corn back on. Total feed bill for the two of us back in our 1,200 acres or so and four blind set ups is now sitting at $5,132.80 (who's counting?) since we started January 16th. The bulk of the work and expense is over. Next year, not starting the pellets until March 1st.

I have seen that pattern since the early 90's in South Texas and in the Hill Country. In the mid 90's on ranches in La Salle County we saw feed consumption trail off dramatically during the late May to Sept time every year when we had huge mast crops...mesquite beans and tunas(pear apples). You would see a drop off of on protein consumption as much as 80% when the mast crops were abundant. The second thru the 4/5th week but would be the most. Some years you could get another bean crop and it was usually a lower amount, so less drop off. June and July were the times when feed pens were almost void of deer. During that time in the mid 90's it seemed like those ranches also got much better June rains than they did in the spring. Traditionally those ranches had their best rainfall month of the year in May then Sept would be 2nd...during those years June was the best month during antler growing season. Many of those ranches fed year round and saw a spike in feed consumption the Oct...pre-rut bucks pounded the feeders hard and fawns were now eating protein also. In the Hill Country we saw 3 periods of heavy protein use...for about a month post rut in Jan-Feb...then every year around May 10th give or take a few days we saw feed consumption double in one week due to mature forb growth and then finally in August. January and August were traditionally the 2 driest months with the worst range conditions. Post rut bucks in January, then later antler growth bucks and finally fawns mature enough to start eating protein made the spikes more pronounced in August. Mast crops and wet cold fronts in the fall made for huge drops in feed consumption.
I will be turning my corn feeders down now to 2 seconds/2 times per day after the rains I had in May. Even with low 60's morning temps the corn is still on the ground at mid-morning. Birds and rats are getting most of that morning feeding now. Mast crops are going to be ready in late June to early July. Lot of new growth tender browse also. Forb growth is stressing some or getting mature at this time here. Have not checked in any Live Oaks for little acorns yet but will in the next week or so.

Protein consumption down and cottonseed has taken off. It's that time.

and now, that time is on steroids. Protein consumption way off, but the deer are destroying the cottonseed.

Since January 16th and all from 50 lb sacks, Klappenbach and I have placed in the feeders - 139 cottonseed, 444 protein & 175 corn for a total 37,900 pounds of "nourishment".

Geez, those durn deer are killing me. I just may make some of the most expensive sausage in the whole wide world.

And maybe the best in the whole wide world, IMHO!!!

We have a place in Center. They like the Antler Max pretty good there. a sack is $15.35

Thinking that is high by about 25%.