supplemental feeding

it's been a hot wet fall with tons of natural food still available but at some point we will get snow and ice. What if anything are you planning to do for your deer?
we typically put out several alfalfa bails out per property per month plus hinge cut a couple trees to add some easy to get at woody brows

in addition to making coyotes feel extremely unwanted and uncomfortable throughout the winter

I'm just hunting coyotes.

Deer process food based on bacteria not acid like humans, this bacteria needs time to become established in their stomachs otherwise the food they eat can not be absorbed into their bodies. If they eat a food that is new where the bacteria is not established and do not eat the food that can be absorbed there is the possibilty of of making it worse for the deer.

If you choose to supplemental feed it must be started early to allow time for the bacteria to establish, and done in small quantities to avoid malnutrition where the bacteria has not established.

My strategy is to plant a variety of nut and fruit trees, a nut tree can live for a few hundred years and will provide more food for wildlife than I ever could.

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Originally Posted by Marker

Deer process food based on bacteria not acid like humans, this bacteria needs time to become established in their stomachs otherwise the food they eat can not be absorbed into their bodies. If they eat a food that is new where the bacteria is not established and do not eat the food that can be absorbed there is the possibilty of of making it worse for the deer.

If you choose to supplemental feed it must be started early to allow time for the bacteria to establish, and done in small quantities to avoid malnutrition where the bacteria has not established.

My strategy is to plant a variety of nut and fruit trees, a nut tree can live for a few hundred years and will provide more food for wildlife than I ever could.

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there is some truth in what you are saying. there is also fact in the Ontario deer herd was much stronger when the MNR did supplemental feeding in several different locations across the province

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Originally Posted by DanE

it's been a hot wet fall with tons of natural food still available but at some point we will get snow and ice. What if anything are you planning to do for your deer?
we typically put out several alfalfa bails out per property per month plus hinge cut a couple trees to add some easy to get at woody brows

in addition to making coyotes feel extremely unwanted and uncomfortable throughout the winter

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I dont do anything at all because they are not on the property at this time of year, they have already yarded up and gone.

I do remember at least 30 years ago driving down Northleys Bay Road near the Peterborough Crown Game Reserve and seeing scores of deer eating from what looked like hay bayles put out by the MNR, not to sure if it did any good considering they have now decided not to do it.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

I dont do anything at all because they are not on the property at this time of year, they have already yarded up and gone.

I do remember at least 30 years ago driving down Northleys Bay Road near the Peterborough Crown Game Reserve and seeing scores of deer eating from what looked like hay bayles put out by the MNR, not to sure if it did any good considering they have now decided not to do it.

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look at harvest rates from WMU's that did supplemental feeding from back then to now and it paints a pretty clear picture
the Looring yards used to be one of the premier places to hunt not even close to that now.

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Originally Posted by DanE

look at harvest rates from WMU's that did supplemental feeding from back then to now and it paints a pretty clear picture
the Looring yards used to be one of the premier places to hunt not even close to that now.

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I have not looked into the science very much but maybe CWD is one of the reasons they no longer do the supplemental feeding. A lot of these programmes have gone by the way side, I remember when they
still had the pheasant pens up in the Nonquon public land area and even on Scugog Island.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

I have not looked into the science very much but maybe CWD is one of the reasons they no longer do the supplemental feeding. A lot of these programmes have gone by the way side, I remember when they
still had the pheasant pens up in the Nonquon public land area and even on Scugog Island.

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The zombie deer is going to be a problem later on for us. More and more studies are being pushed with the possibility of a jump the cdc suggests all meat be tested and a few other things to keep us safe. Cwd just moved into yellow stone and is in 3 province's here.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/...read-to-humans

I believe your right about the feeding and cwd



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Originally Posted by fishfood

The zombie deer is going to be a problem later on for us. More and more studies are being pushed with the possibility of a jump the cdc suggests all meat be tested and a few other things to keep us safe. Cwd just moved into yellow stone and is in 3 province's here.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/...read-to-humans

I believe your right about the feeding and cwd



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from what I've read and researched CWD is mostly from overpopulation and stagnant water. not much has been written and reported on from winter supplemental feeding

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Originally Posted by DanE

from what I've read and researched CWD is mostly from overpopulation and stagnant water. not much has been written and reported on from winter supplemental feeding

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Once one is infected and feeding in the same lot chances are the others follow as it's transmitted through its saliva and other body fluids that's all around.

Even without overpopulation this can wipe out a heard in no time once it begins. You can have a sick buck breading with a few does and won't even see a problem for 2 years. Luckily it's not very established yet but it is moving north.

The disease could of originated from overpopulation but it spreads the same as any other virus close contact

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Originally Posted by fishfood

Once one is infected and feeding in the same lot chances are the others follow as it's transmitted through its saliva and other body fluids that's all around.

Even without overpopulation this can wipe out a heard in no time once it begins. You can have a sick buck breading with a few does and won't even see a problem for 2 years. Luckily it's not very established yet but it is moving north.

The disease could of originated from overpopulation but it spreads the same as any other virus close contact

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CWD isn't a virus. It's a prion. Compared to other diseases, it's not very infectious. It needs to be ingested to pass the infection to another host.

I'm not too afraid of it up here. The problems with CWD and deer feeding are:
a) it increases the deer density - bad for any disease
b) use of feeds like carrots, apples and sugar beets which the deer bite pieces off with the remainder dropping to the round covered in deer slobber *could* spread a prion based disease through saliva when another deer easts that part.

If you're supplemental feeding hay or grain, part b is not such a worry.

I'd think that mineral licks would be a far greater problem for saliva exchange than supplemental feeding though.

Re: the standing water issue - the only reference I found to this is related to deer farming - where deer are drinking the water other deer have peed in. Likely not an issue with wild deer.

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Originally Posted by werner.reiche

CWD isn't a virus. It's a prion. Compared to other diseases, it's not very infectious. It needs to be ingested to pass the infection to another host.

I'm not too afraid of it up here. The problems with CWD and deer feeding are:
a) it increases the deer density - bad for any disease
b) use of feeds like carrots, apples and sugar beets which the deer bite pieces off with the remainder dropping to the round covered in deer slobber *could* spread a prion based disease through saliva when another deer easts that part.

If you're supplemental feeding hay or grain, part b is not such a worry.

I'd think that mineral licks would be a far greater problem for saliva exchange than supplemental feeding though.

Re: the standing water issue - the only reference I found to this is related to deer farming - where deer are drinking the water other deer have peed in. Likely not an issue with wild deer.

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Thanks for the clarification... .




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Originally Posted by DanE

look at harvest rates from WMU's that did supplemental feeding from back then to now and it paints a pretty clear picture
the Looring yards used to be one of the premier places to hunt not even close to that now.

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The decline of the Loring yard is not just due to the demise of feeding. In the 60s, 70s and 80s there was extensive management of the woodlot to promote ideal yarding conditions above and beyond any supplemental feeding. Prior to its creation the area was almost a "deer desert."

Some good history on the yard here:

When Loring was the heart of deer country (northbaynipissing.com)

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Originally Posted by Species8472

The decline of the Loring yard is not just due to the demise of feeding. In the 60s, 70s and 80s there was extensive management of the woodlot to promote ideal yarding conditions above and beyond any supplemental feeding. Prior to its creation the area was almost a "deer desert."

Some good history on the yard here:

When Loring was the heart of deer country (northbaynipissing.com)

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Unfortunately, the MNRF is no longer a hands-on agency. Nowadays, deer are managed by way of licensing, season length, and antlerless quotas. There used to logging guidelines to manage moose and deer but those have been watered down to nothing.

Generally speaking, deer can thrive on most summer range but game managers have forgotten about the importance of quality winter habitat.

There's not a wildlife bio out there that suggests winter feeding unless dire circumstances.

As far as supplemental feeding in the past and more deer, I would guess there wasn't near the coyote population back then.

Where we are, the deer head to the yards around mid December, at or near the end of bow season. Due to the early onset of spring, they are already showing up on our property. Over the past week, I have seen mature deer tracks and one set of fawn tracks near my shrub cherries.
Fawns are less particular about what they eat. They go after my blackberries, raspberries, shrub cherries, elderberries and my wife’s hostas - they love hostas and will chew them off right to the ground.
I also find evidence of deer browsing on the small twigs of my apple trees..I have taken to planting a small foodplot at the back of my property and now have a nice patch of clover that they seem to enjoy, but their favourite are the small wild white turnips. This year I going to try a different mix with turnips and beets. The clover is already well established.