Ani-Logics Outdoors

When I find a dead buck while shed hunting I have mixed feelings.  First, I’m excited that I found something with antlers.  Antlers are the coolest thing on the planet so I’m happy to be blessed with a set that I can enjoy for years to come.  Then, my feelings change as I realize this buck is no longer in the population and I will never see him from my tree stand again.  I think about what caused the death and I try to look for signs of being shot.  Sometimes a broken bone will tell the tale (see this video of a GIANT found dead from Drury Outdoors), other times you can’t see any obvious wounds.  If you find a dead buck and can’t determine cause of death, you have to ask yourself if nutritional stress is to blame.  This could be caused by over-exertion during the rut followed by a harsh winter.  If that’s the case there is an easy way to remedy the situation:  supplement the winter diet!

As deer managers, we must take a look at things we can improve on our property to prevent deer from facing stress.  If your property experiences harsh winters, having adequate winter habitat should be the primary goal.  Here in the Midwest, having coniferous cover helps deer escape from brutal winter conditions, but that doesn’t always mean adequate food is readily available.  The winter diet of white-tailed deer usually consists of woody twigs, white-cedar foliage, tree buds, and waste grain.  With farming operations becoming more and more efficient, the waste grain that was once plentiful in farm fields is now severely reduced.  We have two choices to keep the deer herd healthy:  add more nutrition to the environment or remove more deer.  I would rather see more deer while I’m hunting so I lean more toward keeping more deer and providing adequate food for them.

Remember that feed should be provided in advance of the worst winter conditions.   I like to tell managers to use supplemental feed as a knee brace and not as a crutch.  If you wait until the deer really need it, they may eat too much and not be able to digest it.  The great part about our Ani-Supplement Gold is that it contains a probiotic which increases digestive performance.  The other great aspect of providing supplement to your herd is that does will be in great shape when fawning season arrives.  If they not only survive the winter, but thrive, they will have plenty of energy to devote to milk production rather than having to devote resources to rebuilding their body.  A saying I will always remember from my wildlife nutrition class is “you fall behind, you’re left behind.”  If a buck fawn is born to a mother in a time of nutritional stress, they will be behind the growth curve of other similar aged fawns that have adequate nutrition.  That buck fawn could have remarkable antler genetics but would never be able to fully express them unless they had proper nutrition from the start.

No matter what you do there will always be deer that do not survive the winter.  Some will have wounds caused by hunters and others will get hit by cars.  We can’t prevent all deaths but our objective when supplemental feeding is to reduce the damages caused by ol’ man winter.  When temps plummet like that have over that last week, deer consume energy to stay warm.  In order to keep their energy balance positive, they need to acquire more than they lose.  This is when a high energy diet such as Ani-Supplement Gold really comes in handy.  If deer do not have to burn as much of their body fat to stay warm, they will have more energy available for next year’s antler and body growth.

-Tim Neuman, Wildlife Biologist