Winter feeding deer

[cousineauwill]

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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[Fox]

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

[Marker]

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

[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

[sawbill]

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

[Gregoire1960]

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

+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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[jaycee]

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.

[cousineauwill]

+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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[JoePa]

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

[lazyman]

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