I just purchased my first protein feeder. Seeking input and advice regarding placement:

In pen with a corn feeder?

Protein feeder off by itself? If by itself, pen or no pen?

If there are cattle on your lease, then yes, a pen would be needed! However, I read, years ago, that the protein feeder should be in a separate pen. But the lease I am on now, they are kept in the same pen with the corn feeder. So, that has changed my philosophy!

However, for the past 10 years, I have been using a corn/soybean mix, Stampede. Consequently, I have used very little protein. mostly during the spring.

Yes, to pen or not to pen is really all about what else is on the place trying to eat your feed. If you have cows, it is a must. If you don't, then you can decide if hogs will be too much a nuisance to warrant a pen.

With or without the corn....lots of opinions. If this is your first, I would say prob best to place it somewhere near the corn so the animals will use it.

For most land managers, leasers, and texas hunters, the protein feeder is nothing more than another attractant. Sure it fills bellies and makes us feel good about trying to do something, but unless you are in the top 10% (at best, probably closer to top 5% of land owners) the small amount of gain you get from protein feeding year round will be essentially unseen in the herd except for two areas: 1. deer numbers may go up some due to increasing food, 2. numbers of fawns after some years of feeding as the doe herd gets healthier.

The expected gains in antler size will not be from the feed but instead a result of the selective nature of how you hunt when you are trying to manage the herd. Allowing bucks to age is the single greatest asset to allowing bigger antlers.

I say that not trying to make you regret your purchase and plan....just understand what it is you are doing and realize the expectation of what you are doing. It makes it a lot less stressful when life gets in the way and you can't get out to fil the protein feeder and you think you are directly harming this years antler growth or something....nothing could be further from the truth.

Buckeye, you hit the nail on the head! Not expecting to make a change in antler production… just trying to give them another food option so perhaps they like my place just a little better than my neighbors place!

Do not fill them up completely at first.

Put them in pens now about 1/4 full mixed with corn. Will be a little laborious at first.

Once you start seeing heavy utilization then fill them up

I've read similar suggestions before. When I put my first protein feeder up, years ago, I put it out full. It was empty 7 days later. Eventually switched to timed protein, they would eat 200# a day otherwise.

If you have any neighbors feeding protein, they'll know what it is and start right in on it. If not, the corn mix is definitely the way to go. Something else I've noticed is that the deer prefer the feeder be in a relatively open area, not in the thick brush. I'm not sure about the reason for that, but 20 years of protein feeding has shown me it's true.

I don't have cattle so mine are without a pen. Also by themselves close to ponds. When I bought this place they hit the feeders the 1st night. I knew someone was feeding around me. My other places took a little longer as protein was new. Once they figured it out , they just about ate me out of house and home. Lol! As stated earlier, don't fill till you see them eating it.

I have been feeding protein since 1986. Most hunters today feed protein and corn in the same pen and hunt both feeders. I don't like to do that but I do it also. The best way to feed protein is free choice year round in a pen that is not hunted. Keep hogs away from the feeder at all costs. Feeding protein can work really well if you get the right buck with the right genetics on the feed right after the rut. I have seen mature bucks really blow up under this scenario. But most people are feeding protein before they do any herd management and they tend to feed to many excess deer. If deer around you are or have been fed then the deer will adapt quickly to any feeder style or feed pen. If they have not been fed then corn mixed in with protein will make them adjust faster. The biggest issue I have found is deer learning what a protein feeder is and then how to eat out protein out of it when they have never seen protein or a protein feeder. I mix corn and protein when I started deer on feed and feeders when I did not know if they had ever eaten protein. Learning to jump into a feed pen is the first hurdle. Learning what the feeder is will be the second hurdle. The third hurdle will be getting them to try protein...that is where corn helps overcome the third hurdle. Most people make the mistake of buying to small of a feeder to free choice feed based on their deer numbers. A deer will eat 1.5 lbs of feed per day more or less the first 4 yrs. After that you have raised deer on feed and those deer will now be larger in body size than their parents where. They will eat more feed per day due to larger body size. So consumption will go up. Numbers increase due to herd health. That is very common when starting to feed and all of sudden the feed doubles one year. To many deer...no sound management plan in place and herd management before starting to feed. Timer protein feeders have their place and they can do a lot of good for deer if they feeders are used correctly. Most don't do that and they see failure.
On the feeders in the pictures that would be PITA to fill on a regular basis. IMO the lid opening on top is to small, the ladder needs to be angled for safety, the ladder is in the way blocking feed ports and they are going to be hard to level and keep level on uneven soil. They look well made but not made to feed deer efficiently. Deer will eat out of them but not like they will out of other style feeders.

Ranchman, I agree with you completely on the ladder - had him leave it off on the one he made for me.

The opening at the top is approximately 24x24, so to me it seems adequate. I am hoping the system below that came with the feeder will make filling much easier!

I will tell you from experience....that filling the feed buggy from that feed bin will be difficult in the wind. The opening is small in the feed trailer and the wind will blow the sock out of the opening...resulting in the feed coming out of the bin and not going into your feed trailer. I use a feed trailer with a 36"x36" opening and when the wind blows feed is blown over the sides around the opening. I do not have the sock on the feed bin I use because it has a slide gate and larger opening to fill the feed trailer. Also you are paying a lot for a small capacity feed trailer. Depending on the amount of feeders you have and their capacity will tell you how many trips you have to make to fill the feeders. If your feeders are the same capacity as your feed trailer then it will be one for one.

Looking like Klinker done got committed. Good for him.

Well, it looks like no matter what you will have something unnecessarily negative to say about my equipment and my set up!

I find that very disappointing as your input is usually productive and highly insightful. Yesterday I found out from you that my new feeder is all wrong. This morning I found out that my feed bin is inadequate and that my feed buggy (which I had built at a special size to be pulled with a special vehicle to get into special places) is a waste of my money...all I asked for was input and advice on where to place a protein feeder.

My dog is in the foreground - is there anything wrong with him?

Klinker, it’s very understandable that you would be bothered by someone’s opinion about what you put so much effort and money into may not be ideal. However, STx has taken a lot of time to express to everyone what his opinion is on the subject. It may not be what you wanted to hear but these threads are what makes this forum so good for all. For what it’s worth, I don’t think STx ever purposely posts to hurt someone’s feelings, but sometimes the truth hurts. I hope you are able to make it work.

Well, thanks for your input Freerange and I will take it in the friendly spirit of which it was given.

However, Ranchman has absolutely no idea why I PURPOSELY had that feed buggy built the size I did...was it because I have a small UTV to pull it with due to the nature of the locations and rugged terrain and access where most of my feeder pens are located, was it because the full size version weighs 1900lbs empty and this version weighs less than 600lbs and is infinitely more manuverable, was it because my place is only 340 acres and a trip to the overhead bin is not at all inconvenient, was it because I am at my place weekly so my feeders never need more than a few hundred pounds to be topped off so 1500lbs will top off 5 to 8 feeders on an average run?

So to recap -

My feeder opening is too small, the ladder is wrong, the ladder is in the way, it is going to be hard to level and it will not feed deer efficiently.

My overhead bin has a bad windsock, because the opening in my trailer is too small at 24x24 and should be like his at 36x36, and should have a slide gate - like his.

My feeder trailer is too small and apparently I paid too much and it's value and efficacy are questionable.

While I appreciate your effort to make nice, I completely disagree that responses like this is what makes this forum good for all - conversly, I think responses like this are completely unnecessary, discouraging and unproductive and all too common on this forum. My grandmothers mantra was, If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.

As far as your suggestion that sometimes the truth hurts, I agree and I am certainly no shrinking violet and have absolutely no need for a safe place. The trait I most dislike in a man is monday morning quarterbacking, the second is a know it all . . . just way too much of both of these on a Saturday morning, for my taste.

Oddly, I recently jumped Hudbone for what I thought at the time was an unnecessary and unproductive comment toward Ranchman, only to find out that all was good it was an inside joke - so this is not some sort of grudge issue with Ranchman . . . I am just to the point in my life where I am tired of BS and am going to call it out when I see it or hear it.

I realize Ranchman is the Texas Hunting Forum King of The Hill at 59,693 posts, but my opinion, his unsolicited, unproductive and unnecessary criticisim was unwarranted - not that I have not often read and actually implemented much of his PRODUCTIVE advice, in the past.

Rant complete!

Once again, I understand your frustration. I think you are missing something about how this forum often works. Many replies aren’t just intended for the OP but are intended to help many others with similar but not exactly same issues. For example, someone may post about a great deal they think they got on a truck. Someone in the truck business may point out that it is NOT a great deal. It may not be intended to ridicule the buyer, but instead it’s meant to educate others that may seek out similar “great deal”.
For what it’s worth, I am first in line to hate it when someone on here is giving someone a hard time, but I just don’t think it’s the case here.
I hope your day gets better. This forum isn’t perfect but it’s very good.

Klinker I've been there recently with the Ranchman on age estimating of a grizzled 10pt I had taken this past season. For some reason he was dead set on estimating 4-4.5 yo on a deer that processor and neighboring hunters swore was 6+ and he refused to budge his position. It was a blunt assessment on his part and we agreed to disagree. I regard this situation similarly, agree to disagree and move on. BTW, looks nice to me, see how it works and give us a "known" update on it please.

😎

end of the day we are discussing a feeder - whether it works perfectly or not is not a life changing issue ------ keep things in perspective with everything else going on in this world we live in - my guess is that Klinker will make his set up work just fine

Ranchman was trying to share his years of experience - I get that

Klinker was asking for advice on the set up he already bought and paid for -

If I just bought a brand new truck and someone was telling me how bad I screwed up then I might be a little testy about being told how bad I screwed up

I think Klinker is happy with his set up and good for him - let's move on

Pen for me…solely to keep the hogs out. Big boars would clean me out in no time. I went 16 panels for a larger circle & cut a few lower down for fawns. Do have a corn feeder in with the protein for additional draw. Only issue I have now is the darn coons. Been on a trapping frenzy the last few months.

I am extremely impressed and jealous as I could have used something like this for many years.
congrats

I forgot to say that I love pens for any feeding as I have cows and hogs.

I will add that we pen all of our feeders - we do not have cows but hogs will hit it hard - we have put our protein, and cottonseed in the same pens and will also have corn feeders in with them in some cases

As far as to pen or not to add hog panels, here is my experience

1) I set up a 1250# All-Season protein feeder last year and added about 500# to it. My neighbors cows came across the property line and bulldozed it (broken the leg and the whole feeder TACO'd). We fixed it, but we then added to a hog paneled feed pen with corn slinger. **all of my protein feeders are penned due to cows and hogs

2) The deer were very slow to take to the protein. I even started a post as to what protein everyone was feeding and asking what they were doing to have success
2b) In 2021, I added protein/corn mix and it was slow, so a few weeks ago 2022, I added protein and a roasted soybean/corn mix and they are hammering it now. That roasted soybean bag smells like candy.

3) As a final answer I would suggest that you pen all protein feeders (8-10 panels each) with a corn slinger AND add corn/roasted soybean mix with the protein.
**GOOD LUCK and if the raccoons get to damaging your equipment, Dukes traps + dry cat food will help fix that too.....

I also used roasted soybeans and it worked great...however it was expensive. The feed store ordered 17 bags for a customer and the customer never came back to get his order so the feed store sold me the soybeans for $17 a bag instead of the going price at $23. The soybean mix is probably not as expensive as half of it is corn...but I'm sure the mix works as well. This will attract deer.. What was the price of the soybean mix?