Deer Have the Need, the Need for FEED!

Every year deer in the wild encounter many challenges: weather shifting rapidly, land use changes, hunting pressure, habitat loss, and crop rotations just to name a few. We are approaching the point where nutrition reaches its lowest availability for the year. Although deer have evolved to handle low nutrition at this time of year, that doesn’t mean they won’t benefit from supplemental feed. As most top land managers would agree, we aren’t simply trying to get deer to survive, we want them to THRIVE! Here’s the best ways you can do that for your herd:

Easy Button

The simplest way to boost the nutrition for the herd in your area is to feed Ani-Supplement GOLD® as a free choice, ad-lib supplement. This is the gold standard in deer supplements because it has everything in it that deer need to be healthy, and it’s also extremely attractive. It includes the Ani-Shield TX4®, which is a health pack to help deer overcome any challenges they face in the wild. As we know from research, antler growth and nutritional status are correlated so if you want to have bigger bucks in your area, giving them the best nutrition is a huge piece of that puzzle. There is also a version of GOLD where the fine nutrients have been pelletized so that it flows nicely in a spin cast feeder and that is known as Ani-Supplement GOLD® SPIN.

A Great Middle of the Road Option

If you want to save a little money and you have access to corn, we suggest using our JAC® Just Add Corn Supplement Base Mix. It’s basically all the same ingredients as Ani-Supplement GOLD, minus corn. You can add your own corn at a ratio of two-parts corn to one-part JAC to make your own Ani-Supplement GOLD. This is a bit more economical than buying GOLD but requires a little leg work in the form of mixing in the corn into the feed on your own. I have noticed after years of research that cracked corn is slightly more preferred than whole corn, but if your only corn source is whole corn that won’t hurt one bit. This also comes in a SPIN version called JAC® SPIN.

The Do-It-Yourself King

I’ve talked to many people over the years than have created their own deer feed using mixtures they have tested on their own. They might be the best attractant for deer possible, but they are missing the key ingredients in our health additive such as probiotics, chelated micro minerals, essential oils, and vitamins. We call this Ani-shield TX4 and this is a the core of our super concentrate known as the Ani-Shield® Base Mix pellets. This is for the guys that want to mix their own feed but also want industry leading health additives to the protein source they are using.  These pellets go into any diet at 10% so if you are making a 100 lb batch, add 10 lbs of the Ani-Shield Base Mix. If you are mixing up a 1-ton batch (2,000 lb), add 200 lbs of the Ani-Shield Base Mix. You can use anything you want to as far as protein sources; cottonseed hulls, oats, corn, roasted soybeans, alfalfa pellets, peanuts, distillers grains, rice bran, etc. We do have suggested rations listed on our web page for this, and I can say from experience that roasted soybeans are the hardest ingredient to source. The additional of Ani-Shield Base Mix to any diet will ensure the herd is as healthy as they can be and is the most economical way to deliver the technology of Ani-Shield TX4 to your herd, but also requires the most brain power to execute.  

No matter which option you choose, just know that giving your herd a boost this time of year will keep them from having a setback in antler growth from one age class to the next. From our free-range evidence on Lee Lakosky’s farms, we have determined that you can expect a 15%-20% increase in gross score in your top end bucks if you offer supplemental feed to your herd.