Peak Mineral Usage Quickly Approaching
The antler growth cycle is nearly complete for last year’s hunting season, but with every ending there is a new beginning. Hopefully you have been able to get out and find some of last year’s bucks in the form of shed antlers.
Bucks that lost body mass during the winter need to rebuild their bodies and also grow a new set of antlers. In order to grow a new set of antlers, bucks use mineral reserves in their skeletal system and those reserves need to be replenished. The best way to help your herd replenish is to create a mineral site. Whether you use Mineral Dirt 180™ or Ani-Block™, supplementing minerals can be a great way to assure your deer have enough of what they need to be healthy.
A healthy deer can grow a bigger set of antlers because resources will not be diverted to other functions such as fighting infection or rebuilding body mass. Over the next month or so depending on where you are in the U.S., the limiting resources switches from food to minerals. As spring green up occurs, deer have an abundance of options for food, but their natural diet is deficient in key micro-minerals such as Zinc, Copper, Manganese, and Selenium.
This graph depicts mineral site usage per month, starting in March. The graph shows that as crude protein (CP) and total moisture (TM) peak, mineral site usage also peaks. This study did not use our Mineral Dirt 180™, but the idea is to show that over the next few months, deer will be actively seeking and using mineral sites. Click here if you are interested in reading the full scientific journal article which was published by professors from LSU in the Journal of Range Management in 1992.
If you have never created a mineral site, check out this video from one of our nutritionists Dr. Reed Leiting. The great part about creating a mineral site is that you will have a great place to monitor antler growth using trail cameras as well as take inventory of the bucks you will be chasing this fall.
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