I've noticed the feeder activity is lower than normal this year. I was at the ranch for a week and saw more than or equal to normal numbers but just browsing not at the feeders. I know the vegetation was burnt from August through September but we caught a little rain in mid September and it was green when I there which could have them off the corn and protein.

New growth is preferred anytime of the year they can get it. Any mesquite beans or persimmons or tunas or other mast crops?

Lots mesquite beans and persimmons, don't know what a tuna is.

Pear Apple. Deer love them and will slow down hitting feeders when they are ripe. Same with Mesquite Beans deer feeder activity fall off dramatically seen as much as 70% drop in consumption the week or two when beans are on the ground.

We have lots of mesquite beans. Persimons are LONG gone for our area.

We have pear apples too, as Redchevy mentioned most persimmons are gone

Mine were gone by end of July this year. My deer left the feeders while they were eating them. I have a ton of persimmons here, not very many mesquites or much pear.

Since I can never get lucky with rain for food plots I should fertilize the browse where we hunt.

You would be surprised at the results you would get. I have a friend who did it north of Bracketville back in the late 90's early 2000's. He did some plant samples on the fertilized vs the unfertilized plants of the same kind all collected on the same day. The deer preferred the fertilized and it was higher in protein. Mast crop was better on all of the fertilized also. Don't remember exactly how much he put out per acre though.

Interesting thought to fertilize native browse species.

I trimmed up a bull mesquite in my front yard we hang a piñata in for my little boys birthday party this weekend. I raked up the thorns and wound up with a pile of mesquite beans you could fill wash tub or two with. Lots of them.

I used to fertilize an acre of mature oaks in my place and plan to start again this year. 12-6-8 is one of the recommended ones for oaks, In the past I have just used 13-13-13 and broadcast on that acre at 100lbs along with 50lbs Ammonium nitrate put out in Feb. That way it is in the soil when the trees start putting out in the Spring. The years I fertilized those oaks the critters al hitthem harder than years we did not fertilize.

I have also cleared a lot of honeysuckle along fences by fertilizing it and letting the deer clan it off the fences.

I think you're pretty close to us and we've had some pretty good showers over the last 5-6 weeks, producing lots of new browse. And it's so damn hot still.

Which is why food plots and feeders should only be viewed as supplemental food sources that have a greater impact on deer quality than deer quantity.

More deer feeders doesn't translate into more deer.