Posted By: stxranchman
Rainfall, mast crops and protein consumption - 07/12/18 11:40 PM
I have noticed now for the past 3 yrs that when I get rainfall in late May and all of June the protein consumption go to next to nothing. I have fed protein year round since 2012 and never let the feeders run empty. I started planting food plots 4 yrs ago now. Their success is dependent on rainfall timing. The last 2 yrs the plots came up then get eaten to nothing within two weeks in April. I would then get a rain in May and the cowpeas would put on new leaf growth. That would get totally eaten off again. Then some really rains in June and everything would put on new growth-browse and food plots. I was only at 7" of rain this year up till June 18th. That was about 40% of normal for that same time frame. Now I am about 1" above my normal average for this time of year.
This year I planted food plots late and they came up with late April rainfall and eaten off in 2 weeks. Protein consumption was at 60#/day prior to food plots in April. It dropped down some but was back up to 55#/day till the really good rains on June 19th hit. Now they hardly touch the protein or the corn for that matter. Last year it was the same when it rained in June. Last year I filled feeders on June 8th, 4 days after a good rain. It continued to rain all of June. Then got a little dry till Aug 3rd when I had a 4.5 to 5" rain in one day. Then 3 weeks later the hurricane hit and I had 6.5 to 8" that made it into the gauges but with high winds I think it was more than that. It continued to rain another 2.5-3" in Sept. I did not have to refill protein feeders till Sept 13th. So that was a little over 3 months on full feeders(250# capacity). This year I filled all the feeders on June 23rd and consumption was still around 55#-60# day till it rained 12"+ since then. Feeders still have 50% or more of the feed in them as of this morning. I have always seen a large increase in protein consumption again in October when the bucks are hitting feeders really hard before the mid Nov rut. Makes for some great bow hunting at that time if we get some cooler temps and consistent winds.
The one thing that is different this year is the persimmon crop made this year. Years past there were a few but did not last to long. I was shredding roads/fencelines yesterday and saw a lot of green ones and some black ones. I have a lot of persimmons so they can be a lot of them off the roads that I did not see. I could see in the hog, coyote and coon scat on the roads that it was black and had seeds in it. So I know the deer are eating persimmons now if those critters are. I saw quite a few huisache beans on the ground and saw them in the hog scat. Seen quite a few blackbrush beans on the ground also and a few green mesquite beans. All the rest of the browse greened back up and put on new growth plus a seed/mast crop. I also was able to see quite a few very small live oak acorns on some of the trees. I have not had an acorn crop in 5 yrs so that will be a huge help in the fall. I went from getting a lot of pics on TC cams at feeders to not many at all with all the changes to what they are eating now. It was mainly all bucks, 90% of the pics at night were bucks. Now I might get 5-8 pics in 48 hrs.
It will be interesting to see what protein consumption does with all the rainfall and mast crops this year in comparison to the last 2 yrs. It is very pleasing to see protein consumption doing what it should do when it rains, drop off. Shows that it is still just a supplement. The protein consumption hit a high in 2014 when it was very dry. Since then it has been from 40% to 60% less than that total each of the last 3 yrs. I know I have almost twice as many bucks this year as I did back in 2014 also. Bucks that were hitting the feeder one or more times per night are now showing up maybe once every 4-8 days now.
What are others seeing right now in comparison top what I am seeing? Is feed consumption off or increased compared to years past? How is rainfall compared this year to other years?
This year I planted food plots late and they came up with late April rainfall and eaten off in 2 weeks. Protein consumption was at 60#/day prior to food plots in April. It dropped down some but was back up to 55#/day till the really good rains on June 19th hit. Now they hardly touch the protein or the corn for that matter. Last year it was the same when it rained in June. Last year I filled feeders on June 8th, 4 days after a good rain. It continued to rain all of June. Then got a little dry till Aug 3rd when I had a 4.5 to 5" rain in one day. Then 3 weeks later the hurricane hit and I had 6.5 to 8" that made it into the gauges but with high winds I think it was more than that. It continued to rain another 2.5-3" in Sept. I did not have to refill protein feeders till Sept 13th. So that was a little over 3 months on full feeders(250# capacity). This year I filled all the feeders on June 23rd and consumption was still around 55#-60# day till it rained 12"+ since then. Feeders still have 50% or more of the feed in them as of this morning. I have always seen a large increase in protein consumption again in October when the bucks are hitting feeders really hard before the mid Nov rut. Makes for some great bow hunting at that time if we get some cooler temps and consistent winds.
The one thing that is different this year is the persimmon crop made this year. Years past there were a few but did not last to long. I was shredding roads/fencelines yesterday and saw a lot of green ones and some black ones. I have a lot of persimmons so they can be a lot of them off the roads that I did not see. I could see in the hog, coyote and coon scat on the roads that it was black and had seeds in it. So I know the deer are eating persimmons now if those critters are. I saw quite a few huisache beans on the ground and saw them in the hog scat. Seen quite a few blackbrush beans on the ground also and a few green mesquite beans. All the rest of the browse greened back up and put on new growth plus a seed/mast crop. I also was able to see quite a few very small live oak acorns on some of the trees. I have not had an acorn crop in 5 yrs so that will be a huge help in the fall. I went from getting a lot of pics on TC cams at feeders to not many at all with all the changes to what they are eating now. It was mainly all bucks, 90% of the pics at night were bucks. Now I might get 5-8 pics in 48 hrs.
It will be interesting to see what protein consumption does with all the rainfall and mast crops this year in comparison to the last 2 yrs. It is very pleasing to see protein consumption doing what it should do when it rains, drop off. Shows that it is still just a supplement. The protein consumption hit a high in 2014 when it was very dry. Since then it has been from 40% to 60% less than that total each of the last 3 yrs. I know I have almost twice as many bucks this year as I did back in 2014 also. Bucks that were hitting the feeder one or more times per night are now showing up maybe once every 4-8 days now.
What are others seeing right now in comparison top what I am seeing? Is feed consumption off or increased compared to years past? How is rainfall compared this year to other years?