Corn Prices and Alternatives

[TedKennedy]

Last season I quit feeding/baiting deer. Last year I actually enjoyed deer hunting again. And I’m looking forward to this season like I used to when I was a kid.

I get this. I have two places I hunt, one is near Henryetta. I plant wheat and run two feeders on it. Many kids/young men have killed their first deer there. It's not difficult lol.

The other place is mostly woods, lots of oak and hickory. No feeders, although there's a patch of wheat the lease guy plants on the far side.

I try to spend the last half of the season at the "no feeder" place. It's more of a hunt, not a shooting gallery.

 

[retrieverman]

$10/50 lbs at local feedstore. 13% all stock will work in spinner feeders. $10.50/50 lbs. Bulk I can get 350 lbs for $60 and deer eat it.

Any 1/8” pelleted feed “will work” in a spinner feeder, but I wouldn’t put it in one.

 

[2busy]

I tried pellet feed. Yes it will work up till a point. Once the feed sitting in the spinner and on your box gets wet it doesn't work too good. The feed in the spinner dries and does not come out and restricts the feed coming out. Moultrie and boss buck feeders.

 

[cowadle]

pea or bean cracks should work. i know the deer like them. or even better just get the whole cowpea. red rippers or purple hulls etc.

 

[HoLeChit]

Cabbages

I have a terrible time keeping cabbages from clogging up my feeder. I’m gonna need your secret.

 

[dlbleak]

I had one of those pre packaged tomatoes on the vine go bad in the fridge. I thought, what the heck, put them under the feeder and got one of big deer with a chunk hanging out of his mouth.

 

[428cobra]

Deer basically don't need a water hole for the most part. Woody browse is 45% water. Their systems have developed where they can extract that. During the big drought in the 2010 years I think it was, we used molasses tubs everywhere to create watering stations. The deer never used them, but made great hot tubs for the coons that did! LOL.
I'm talking off the cuff now and don't know if this is true, but during that three year drought we saw tons of fawn skulls in the following spring. Speculation is that does with fawns need more water to make milk for the fawns.
There are people out there that know more about that issue than I do, so I hope they contribute.

There was definitely a reduction in the deer herd during that time frame. Whether it was from the drought or something else we'll probably never know. It took about 4 years for my properties to recover from that event. What I mean by recover is the numbers and quality of the herd. My 2 cents

 

[hunter966]

I tried putting in some 5/32” 14% protein pellets in my Field Pro feeder with the spinner. As long as it doesn’t cake up inside the barrel, not from moisture caking though, it’ll flow out like it’s supposed to.

More times than not I’ve got to either stick a wire up through the funnel or shake the crap out of the whole feeder to get it un-caked or un-stuck.

Going back to corn after I get the pellets out of it.

 

[Parks 788]

For you guys buying corn in bulk. What method are you using to get the corn into the feeder drum? Portable 12v/PTO auger, 5 gallon buckets or.........? trying to figure out if I should look at buying bulk or paying a extra and backing my truck up to the feeder drum and standing on the bed rails to dump bags.

 

[cowadle]

For you guys buying corn in bulk. What method are you using to get the corn into the feeder drum? Portable 12v/PTO auger, 5 gallon buckets or.........? trying to figure out if I should look at buying bulk or paying a extra and backing my truck up to the feeder drum and standing on the bed rails to dump bags.

I buy semi loads and they put it in an overhead bin.