Sometime last year, I read an interesting article relating to how on again off again availability of protein supplements negatively affects the digestive system of a deer. Was planning on going back and studying it in detail but I failed to bookmark it. Off the top of my head, the time frame was about a month of free choice, withdrawal for a month and then repeat the cycle over and over. Something about the chemistry changes in the stomach (2nd stomach?) Implication was that random feeding of protein was money spent with very little positive results.
Anyone familiar with the article and can point me to it or help with more information. A little deeper than my Biology 101. 😀

My guess is Aeb will be that the article you are looking for will based off of research from CKWRI.
https://www.ckwri.tamuk.edu/ under this tab https://www.ckwri.tamuk.edu/research-programs/deer-research-program
I know that Stuart Stedman wrote an article 20+ years ago based off of what he had experienced on his Faith Ranch. It was about rainfall and the key months for antler development. Which is also going to be what months you want to have the best nutrition available for WT bucks. IME the month or so after the rut before they shed their antlers was the key month to get bucks back into top shape so that they were off to a great start heading into spring. This is when bucks are starting to grow their antlers in late April or into May to already have their body in great shape. That way their forage/protein intake is benefiting more of their antler growth and not still trying to recoop body condition lost during the rut.