Deerscaping and Putting Out Minerals for the Deer Herd

I've always thought of the wildlife on the farm as being almost as important as the cattle or any of the other crops I raise.  In fact, I was a deer hunter before I was ever a farmer or had cattle of my own, and I learned how to garden by trying to grow garden-sized deer food plots as a teenager.

I don't plant any food plots on the farm because there's always a field of winter wheat growing for the deer to eat, but I have done some "deerscaping" for the deer by brush hogging areas to create edges where the grass meets the brush, etc.  Sometimes, brush hogging in early fall can also make the grass start growing a little sooner in the spring, which in the long run I'm hoping will start to attract more wild turkeys so that my flock can start growing to huntable levels.

Last fall, I mowed this area up above a creek bed and you might be able to see the different edges it created, with the taller trees on both sides of the mowed area, the shorter brush along one side, and some nice green grass. To my eye, it looks like a good combination of deer and turkey habitat, and a productive area of the pasture for my cattle to graze.

Next fall, (unless I forget), I'm planning on spreading some fertilizer and/or some food plot seed in these spots to make it just a little bit more lush than the surrounding areas.

A good mineral program is essential to a healthy cattle herd, so the deer should also benefit from having access to mineral.  So last winter, I started putting out minerals for the deer, eventually I'd like to have mineral feeding spots spread out on about a 40 acre spacing, but I haven't reached that point yet.

In OK, it's legal to put out feed and minerals for deer, but every state has it's own regulations so check first before you try this at home.

There are all kinds of specialized deer minerals sold, but after looking at and comparing the actual minerals in most of these deer minerals, it looked to me like the only thing that was "special" about them was that a 25 lb. bag of deer minerals cost about twice as much as a 50 lb. bag of ordinary cattle minerals. 

So, my deer get an inexpensive bag of multi-purpose minerals that I picked up at the feed store for about $10/50lb. bag.

Ordinary Minerals, Not the Over-Priced, Specialized Deer Minerals

I located one mineral feeding spot down along a creek in a funnel spot where multiple deer trails come together where there also happens to be a stump in just the right spot for my mineral feeding area.  Years ago, I rattled in a buck and shot him with a bow while I was sitting up in that tree, but now even though there is just a rotten stump left, I hoping that some of my past success here might mean future success with my mineral feeding. 

The Mineral Spot is Down in the Woods Where That Big Tree Used To Be

So far, I've put out about 30 lb. of mineral in this spot (10-15 lb. at a time) and the deer and other animals have eaten most of it so that now it just looks like a bare spot of dirt in the woods.

What's Left of the Stump

Today, I just spread out about 15 lb. of mineral in the spot, but when I first started putting out minerals, I would also spread out some corn to help attract the deer to the spot so they could find the minerals a little faster. 

About 15 lb. of Mineral

Will any of this give me bigger bucks, healthier deer, or more deer?  I can't give you a solid answer on that, but I do know that when I started feeding higher-quality minerals to my cattle I saw improvements, so I'm assuming that I might also see some improvements in my deer herd.  In the future, I might even splurge on my deer and buy them some of the higher-quality minerals I feed to my cattle.