Whitetail minerals- winter time or just spring

[Livetohuntandfish]

Does anyone supplement minerals in the wintertime to help get bucks ready for spring horn growth? I would assume the mineral makeup would be different in the winter compared to the spring supplements. Any recipes?

 

[dtrkyman]

They seem to target mineral during the warmer seasons, never really tried it during winter but they definitely are not hitting mineral sights that were already there.

 

[Caseknife]

From what I have read, they utilize the mineral supplements in the spring and summer when there is lots of moisture in their feed that tends to flush out the minerals in their system. When the feed dries up, less moisture so it doesn't flush the system. Seems to hold true from what I have seen, they are drawn to the blocks when the vegetation is green, not so much later season.

 

[K9kodi]

I run minerals every month I’m allowed to. I kinda took a recipe from a buddy of mine, so much cheaper than buying 20-40 pound bags of a deer specific mineral mix.

The second deer season is over I go to heavy travel corridors and dump a bunch and off season I’m at the farm probably 1x a month and I redo the sites. I’m in about 2000 acres of private land, well taken care of and beautiful with plenty of fresh creeks and around a big lake. I don’t mind putting down salt and minerals knowing they can access all the fresh water they want. I also believe it helps as ag is not plentiful in this area, mainly pasture and cows. I have a good buddy who hunts in another part of the state on land surrounded by salt water and ag, huge deer, he doesn’t do much w minerals or food plots bc he competes w ag, but he has tons of luck making watering holes w fresh water.

So look around your area and see what they are lacking immediately, and supplement that.

 

[Davyalabama]

The minerals in the winter would only be something like protein pellets ---- alfalfa if you can do it and don't have hogs --- if you have hogs, forget it, hogs love alfalfa more than deer.

If you are thinking minerals like salt and di cal ----- not so much during this time.

 

[K9kodi]

I’d have to disagree, but forewarning, doesn’t mean I’m correct.

Minerals come in many forms and purposes. There are, as I’m sure you know, minerals to assist with bone growth / antler development. Your calcium and such. Then there are minerals that are essential for immunity and health, especially for does during pregnancy and lactation, such as phosphorous and trace minerals. Essentially minerals are….essential, and have a huge effect on the atp in the animals systems. Now, if you’re putting them out and not getting much action, there is either enough naturally or placed in a horrible spot.

Deer get a maintenance level of nutrients and minerals from a natural environment. An environment will always or should always, less impacted by humans, to provide for the healthy numbers of deer on it.

Will supplemented feed and minerals create monsters and genetic freaks? No, a deer is only gonna grow to their genetic potential. But…maybe they aren’t reaching genetic potential.

As a human, very physically active, I’ve done tests to myself where I lack some minerals and supplemented, notice a difference too. Huge? Probably not. A diff though, if we spend time on our land helping the wildlife, why stop in the winter at their hardest point after a rut cycle where bucks are vulnerable and during a does pregnancy when she needs the most?

Salt, phosphorous, copper, maganese and zinc are huge overall for heard health, all the time of the year for immunity, health, gestation.

 

[brancher147]

When I used to put them out they would start hitting them around January and go until velvet is almost shed. It makes no difference for antler growth on a wild deer herd though

 

[K9kodi]

It may or may not. Too many factors. Running supplements will not alter genetics, just help a deer each their genetic potential. If a deer is not reaching potential due to lack of minerals, it will help antler growth, but a surplus of minerals like calcium and phosphorus will not increase a deers ability above their genetics.

 

[MO00]

Back when we could put out mineral (CWD zone now) I would regularly put mineral out about December. The deer wouldn’t normally use it immediately but it seemed to get really worked into the ground before early spring and then they would hit those areas really hard.

 

[wind gypsy]

Not sure, i doubt they'd dig through the snow for it around here but I could be wrong!

 

[K9kodi]

Don’t have much experience w snow and mineral sites, but id be willing to bet if it was a mineral site they frequented before the snow, the snow won’t stop em.

 

[Chris in TN]

We have salt licks that we are legally allowed to maintain and hunt over here. I have hunted in different parts of the country and been able to watch salt licks, again in different areas, for years at a time. When we lived and owned land and hunted in west TN deer would almost cease using salt licks in maybe late September to early October.

Here? They'll use them almost year round.

I *assume* there are soil nutrient differences that leaves them craving something they find in our salt licks. I don't know that for certain.

We use a mixture of trace mineral salt and dicalcium phosphate. I refresh them every late winter, simply because that's the lowest-impact time to do so. Some years I'll buy a bag of generic beef minerals to add to them in an effort to cover all of the bases.

Do these have any serious impact on deer health and nutrition? That's arguable at very best.

ETA: I would strongly suspect that the degree that deer *need* these licks, would depend a lot on the overall soil quality in your area. And I highly doubt that most of us could ever see a measurable increase in body weight or antler size after starting to use such licks, and by nature it's going to be difficult to make an actual 'lick' that has a varying composition throughout the year. You might do supplemental feeding of minerals at an elevated feeder station of some sort, but the stuff that just soaks into the soil, ehhh, that's a slow process and you won't be able to vary what's in the soil from season to season to any meaningful degree.

 

[Livetohuntandfish]

I mostly see smaller horn growth with drought conditions in the summers. But this correlates to nutrient availability early season through foliage. It’s always just been a curiosity as I use to ranch and know the importance of mineral nutrition different times of the year on cattle, but that’s targeting different outcomes. Thanks for the reply’s.

 

[Jon C]

I’ve had them hitting a trophy rock in December in Northern WI. Was area they normally feed heavy in anyways. Never had cameras out on it later so not sure if they’d hit it the rest of the winter. Seemed like bucks hit it the most.

 

[K9kodi]

I mostly see smaller horn growth with drought conditions in the summers. But this correlates to nutrient availability early season through foliage. It’s always just been a curiosity as I use to ranch and know the importance of mineral nutrition different times of the year on cattle, but that’s targeting different outcomes. Thanks for the reply’s.

100%. Drought is the largest impact variable for smaller horn development, as we see that. But drought is also the largest variable with more impacts when it comes to fawn survival. It’s not the drought itself but as you said, droughts lead to less nutrients

 

[K9kodi]

Yall should look at mineral supplementation as just that ….supplements. It’s like a person taking protein for muscle growth.

If your getting everything you need from a well rounded diet , to include the proper amount of protein , then taking protein shakes as a supplement does very little. If you don’t get the protein you need from a daily diet, then protein shakes make a huge difference in growth.

No, minerals will not make a deers horns bigger then that which they are genetically capable of. But if that deer or those deer are lacking essential minerals from their regular diet, mineral sites will supplement their loss and help them get what they need to maximize their genetics. What specific minerals a deer would need would vary on their access to nutrients.

If you’ve got all the nutrients and minerals a deer could want you may not get many visitors. If they lack, then you may get a constant group of visitors.

You could even take it as far as in the same area, putting diff minerals down individually and seeing which ones get hit, would be a cool study

 

[Habitat#1]

salt and dical can't be beneficial for antler growth it's just an attractant.

 

[3855WIN]

I like to put it out in the winter, but they won’t hit it much until later.

 

[Alex.D102]

My personal experience is they start hitting them again this time of year. Not like they do in the summer, but I will have traces of a trophy rock still out from august and the deer will hit that again. I always touch up in December and then don't do it again until March.

 

[KnightExtreme]

When we could use Minerals here in Michigan (banned being minerals are considered bait) I had a Game Camera set up on one because we could Only Use Minerals during Michigan Deer Hunting Seasons and had deer visiting the sight throughout winter long not as they did in Spring /Summer as the site has a large deep hole where It was used. But deer still will visit a mineral site just not as often / regular as other times.
But not all store bought Deer Mineral Suppements are equal. Had a year or 2 tried WI 30.06 and deer never touched it yet had good results with the "Lucky Buck" Brand but that was 20 + years ago now.
KE