Winter feeding deer

Hey folks
I'm thinking about feeding the deer on my property corn and hay for the winter. I typically have between 5-10 deer on my hobby farm all winter long. Could this potentially help or harm them?

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You are probably best not to feed them, if you can drive around on a snowmobile or tractor and knock down the deep snow that will help them but feeding them means they are dependent on you.

http://www.ofah.org/wp-content/uploa...terFeeding.pdf

One thing you can do to help deer over winter is to control yotes on your property.

Plant soya beans and leave standing all winter. It’s a natural food source that is good for deer. I planted 2.5 acres for 23 years on my farm and watched deer year around.You’ll learn a lot about deer feeding patterns

Far more harm than good. There are web sites that explain proper feeding process to get them through the winter.

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Originally Posted by Greenhorn

Plant soya beans and leave standing all winter. It’s a natural food source that is good for deer. I planted 2.5 acres for 23 years on my farm and watched deer year around.You’ll learn a lot about deer feeding patterns

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+1 on this. This is exactly what I do and it helps deer, turkey, squirrel, grouse etc survive the winter without concentrating them or making them change their normal behaviours.

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A number of years ago in the Western States, they found dead deer with full stomachs of hay , they had starved to death during that fierce winter, even though they were fed hay.
Hay is not a feed for them, they are browsers, you would be better of by partially cutting brush, young trees , bend them down so they can browse/feed on them.

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Originally Posted by Gregoire1960

+1 on this. This is exactly what I do and it helps deer, turkey, squirrel, grouse etc survive the winter without concentrating them or making them change their normal behaviours.

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Thanks for the feedback. I guess ill plant soy bean in the spring. Thanks again!

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What I do every year is trim my fruit trees and throw the clippings on large piles - I have a lot of fruit trees that grow water suckers each year that have to be trimmed - this provides a lot of browse for them during the winter when fruit trees should be trimmed - I can see from the prints in the snow the eaten ends of the clipping that the deer really like the browse

If you have sumac growing around your farm trim them so young shoots come up deer love these.