Deer feeder grain mix options & Feed store questions

[dennishoddy]

Different part of Okla require different feeding programs.
In our part, we are 95% agriculture, with creeks, and waterways being the main hunting areas.
Eastern parts of the state that are heavily wooded, require the deer to rely on woody browse for most of their feeding. Suplementing them in these areas and putting in small food plots are huge magnets for them.
In our area, there is wheat planted in the fall, that they eat on all winter, milo, soybeans, and corn they feed on spring summer and fall.
Food plots don't normally work that well. We have really high minerals in our area, where some parts of the state don't.
Example: I can use the Deer Cocain or mineral blocks, etc, and nothing but field rats mess with them. I've put camera's on them to find out.
My buddy hunts in Osage county in the Big Bend area, and the deer will destroy a small place with deer cocain.
Different things work in different areas.
The fun part of all of this is to find out what is best for your area, and stick with it.
I've done all the high dollar seeds in sample plots, and If I say Wheat is the best in my area, that doesn't mean its the best in yours.
Trial and error.

 

[tjones96761]

Don't know if there's any truth to it but...
I heard if deer aren't used to finding soybeans growing, they won't eat them out of a feeder. Kinda expensive to experiment with, just to find out the deer won't eat it. There isn't any soybeans growing with 20 miles of me.
there's a feed mill in Texas that sells "roasted soybeans" and they claim you can feed them anywhere and the deer will tear it up even more than corn. there even more expensive than raw soybeans.

 

[AllOut]

i got one...
how about oaks/acorns??? can u get crushed acorns anywhere, though not extemely nutrional deer love them! Ive seen deer completely abondone crop fields and food plots once the oaks start dropping. We hunted a creek bottom in SE Kansas that ran the edge of a corn field and once the oaks hit the ground they would walk right past the corn field and crowd around the oak trees... so my thinking is if u can get some sort of acon or crushed acorn to mix in with the corn in a feeder that may really atract'em?

 

[MyMonkey]

Tuesday I bought 900 lbs of feed for my deer feeders from Coffey Grain, Inc. (grain co-op) in Calumet, OK (northwest of El Reno).

The mix I ran with is 600 lbs of whole corn, 200 lbs of whole oats, and 100 lbs of alfalfa pellets. $127 out the door for everything, including bags, bagging, mixing, and 12 lbs of molasses.

Is this a good mix for deer feeders, giving them both fat, protein, and other nutrients to help grow antlers and survive hard winters?

The oats were more than the corn of course, and the alfalfa pellets were way more pricey.

My other choices besides these 3 were Wheat, Milo, and Barley. Prices per 100 lbs are as follows:

Wheat $7.60
Milo $7.65
Corn $7.99
Barley $9.93
Oats $12.88
Alfalfa Pellets $18.49

Other questions:

1. What other mixes should I consider, to get the best bang for my buck, in light of the fact that Milo and Wheat are the same (low) price as corn? Do milo & wheat have higher protein content than corn? Other valuable nutrients? Will they feed through a deer type feeder? Will they be more, less, or the same attractiveness to deer? My theory is that if you have *just one* thing, corn is the most attractive among the cheaper items, but perhaps corn plus X% of one of these others would be even more attractive to deer than plain corn, to give the them fat/taste of corn, but be attractive as containing another needed nutrient, too.

2. Which of these, if any, will absorb moisture to the point that they won't feed through a deer type feeder? Or are any of them just too big or too oblong of a shape to feed through?

3. Any other considerations to look at? I know most people just use pure corn. Any other ingredients I should try to find elsewhere and mix in, for health of the herd, and antler growth? I've heard of using cracked corn, rice bran, soybeans, and sunflower seeds, too, but they didn't have any of these, that I saw.

4. Any other feed stores near metro OKC with very good prices like these, and/or more selection? What about further from OKC in outlying counties? I've heard good about the feed store just outside the James Collins WMA in Pitt County - what's the deal with that one - why so good?

5. How long will this grain last before going bad in my house or garage, assuming I can keep the mice and bugs out? 6 months? 9 months? 1 year? 1.5 years? 2 years? More?

6. The good folks at Coffey said spray the bags with "Tempo" to keep the bugs out/off, if I don't use within a couple of months - what's the Lowe's equivalent of this product?

Not a farm kid here (to my chagrin). Thanks.

My big questions are: (for now)

1. Whether a few hundred pounds of this stuff will fit in the back of as SUV?
2. What is the best feeder to put out. One on the tripod for my area is necessary. Do you really get what you pay for?
3. To be continued...

 

[dennishoddy]

i got one...
how about oaks/acorns??? can u get crushed acorns anywhere, though not extemely nutrional deer love them! Ive seen deer completely abondone crop fields and food plots once the oaks start dropping. We hunted a creek bottom in SE Kansas that ran the edge of a corn field and once the oaks hit the ground they would walk right past the corn field and crowd around the oak trees... so my thinking is if u can get some sort of acon or crushed acorn to mix in with the corn in a feeder that may really atract'em?

there are some commercial "crushed acorns" on the market and they are expensive, and contain mostly crushed shells.
You are correct in saying that when the acorns are dropping, the deer will leave almost any other food source.
I've never done it, but a buddy of mine has a daughter in school at OU.
He said when he went down there in the fall to visit her, the acorns were 2" deep under the trees.
If one can find acorn trees in a public park, or a campus, I'm thinking the grounds people wouldn't have a problem with somebody picking them up??

I'd lay them on my driveway, run over them with a vehicle to crush them and scatter them out.
I don't know if a feeder would work for this, but maybe?
If one could find a company like Shawnee feeds, they have mills that can grind anything into any consistancy you would want.....If they would do it.

I'm just talking off the top of my head here.
No acorn trees within 30 miles of my hunting area.

 

[Deer Slayer]

acorns are approx 35% protein and for this reason the deer head to the trees because they are opportunistic feeders. The will always go to the highest protein source at that point in time. My clover fields are lush but the deer will go to the nuts in the fall when the nuts are falling. Deer are browsers so they will have a variety of foods in their belly. I plant different annuals and perrenials to mature at different times in order to maintain choice forage for my deer. When one of my deer is dressed out it looks like a butchered angus because of all the fat.
I test different seed blends before they hit the commercial market for a major supplier of deer forage. It is personally quite rewarding to see what works and what doesn't. Several seed blends do well but never make the cut

 

[AllOut]

i found that moultrie makes a crushed acorn its $12 for a 6lb bag but its almost ground into a powder so it wouldnt work alone in a feeder but i wonder how well it will work if u mixed with corn... i may try this in a weeks or so when i get my stuff out on this new lease.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Would anybody be interested in doing a group buy of a custom mix?

 

[dennishoddy]

Would anybody be interested in doing a group buy of a custom mix?

Hard Red Winter Wheat?

Sorry, but I've done lots of the hi dollar custom mixes.
But then again what doesn't work in my area might work in yours.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Would anybody be interested in doing a group buy of a custom mix

Sure, but only if it makes sense to do so - I.e. only if we can get a quantity discount - know any grain coops with a quantity discount that can beat the prices I posted above in post #1? As I say, I think next time I'm running with about 60% corn, and 40% milo.