Corn kills Deer?

I read in one of my hunting magazines that this time of the year when the corn has been harvested and they switch to browse, that if someone starts feeding them corn after a while of them not eating it that it can kill them. Story states that after switching to browse they no longer have sufficient numbers of the bacteria needed to digest corn. If you then dump a pile of corn out there they will of course gorge themselves on it but will actually starve to death with a full belly of corn because they are unable to digest it.

If they are being fed corn continuously this isn’t a problem but if a deer wanders in that hasn’t had corn in a couple of months this deer will likely die. It makes sense, what are your thoughts on this?

I have heard of hay doing that but not corn.

i have heard of the same thing…imo just leave some corn standing…..now try to explain that to my grandparents…

but deer dont really eat corn during the summer either

There is some merit to this discussion, and I think as outdoorsmen this a topic that we should all educate our selves on. I have done a fair amount of reading on this topic in the past and will say what I recall. If need be I can re-look up some old sourses that I used to gain an understanding. From what I remember: feeding deer hay or straw during the winter can starve deer because they guorge themselves on it. This food source holds little nutritional value in comparison to natural browse. Therefore there is peer reveiwed sources stating deer have been found dead with a full stomach of hay/straw. Feeding deer something in large quantities that they have not eaten for a while will also deminish there health in comparison to natural browse due to gourging and lack of nutritional balance. Feeding straight alfalfa or corn (specifically shell corn) after a long withdrawl from those sources can cause a build up of stomach acids (possibly via the bacteria connection) and stress the deers health. On a side note-think about how much deer feed in cut corn fields on the combine left overs. Add that to what you have for snow cover and assess how much corn really lacks from their diets. Too much of any thing can stress a body for many different reasons, especially given the harshness of the outdoor environment. If this is a topic of great interest, I have 6 years of higher biology education and have a good understanding of processes-I would be more than happy to look further into this topic again using peer reveiwed sources to benefit the Ido communities heard.

Interesting reading. I’ve heard of this in regard to plants like alfalfa and clover but never about corn.

Salads have the same effect on me….

Maybe it’s because of the constant burger and beer diet

At the risk of creating a stir…

Whay on earth do people feel complelled to feed deer ANYTHING? They aren’t cattle.

Yes, there is snow and it’s hard for them. They’re equipped for it. Yes, some die in the winter. That’s how it works.

Because the weaker die, the herd is kept stronger. Artificially “protecting the herd” not only leads to too many critters in the ecosystem (which creates its own set of problems), it also weakens the herd in the long-run.

While this is not a popular opinion, it just kills me the way so many folks obsess about this stuff as though they are maintaining livestock.

Guilty here I feed the deer in my backyard so I can watch them And LOVE every minute of it I have even been known to find a shed or 2 back there

Any suggestions on supplemental feeding I have heard of a pellet type feed that is good for them ? ? ?

As far as Pheasants I haven’t seen one with in miles of me for a few years now

Supplemental feeding if done right can help a deer live through harsh winters that have a high severity index. This year may be one. If you are feeding, you need to commit to it for the entire year because the deer will adjust their travel patterns and rely on that food source. If that supplemental food source runs out, that’s where the deer will really start to suffer.

As stated above, the deer need a consistent and balanced diet. If the deer in the area are not used to what is being dumped, their digestive systems will struggle. Corn is high in starch and can lead to high acidicity which kills their bacteria needed to digest their food. Feeding pellets that has a mixture of hay, corn, oats, soybeans along with vitamins and minerals is much better as long as you introduce it early on and you continue it until the snow melts.

I don’t feed corn at my current place. It would bring the deer out of their normal feeding areas and I would have to do it all winter long. At my last place the deer bed and ate browse all winter long right in the back yard. I would feed some corn, but not a lot. I would spread it out in the snow in the areas they were already feeding in, as a little supplemental food. I never put down enough to sustain the deer or enough that they would stop eating their natural food. I really didn’t need to put out corn at all. But it worked to coax them the extra 10 feet into an opening in the trees for a nice view of them from the house. It’s amazing to get up in the morning and see a dozen deer bedded down 40 yards out the back window in the large pine trees. I sure miss that place.

Great points added Brad

We didnt feed last year, and wont this year due to the amount of food plots we have. In past years, when we did feed through the winter we were always very careful as maintaining diversity. It was never enough to make the heard dependent upon the source, just enough to get an after season assessment of what survived, then maintained through the year. In an area that is very broken for cover and a longer term decline in local populations we felt it help acclimate more deer to our property and worked them into our spring plots.

Yes, there are good points here about deers natural ability to survive. Fact is in my area we do not have excessive numbers of deer. Wintering heards do not get to great sizes that are vulnerable to spread of disease ect. My opinion: If I helped one weak deer survive a winter so be it, there are plenty of other factors (other hunters, cars, ect) that will most likely account for that deer anyways.

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I couldn’t agree more…To me it is just plain selfish to feed deer so that you can look at them! They are well oiled machines and are built for winter. MAYBE in late February and early March when their fat reserves have been used but certainly not this time of year…Put your time an energies into feeding pheasants! RR

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Im not trying to be a jerk, but Im going to stir the pot a bit on this one…. First, your feeding pheasants is no different than my feeding deer. You think its selfish for me to watch my deer, I would then be inclined to think the same right back. Second, why would I supplement one of the most prolific invasive species in the midwest? Pheasants are not native to North America and were introduced in the early 1900’s. Pheasants are a big problem in trying to bring back the diminished prairie chicken population because of nest parasitism. Finally, you cant honestly say that you dont think deer are getting to some of that corn you leave for the pheasants?? I do not say this in offense to you, just putting it out there… You feed your population if you want, ill feed mine. We as sportsmen should just take the initiative to educate ourselves about what we are doing if we are going to do it

Point of adding that statement is simply the fact that maintaining populations of pheasants in some areas does have a real and negative affect on native species, its not all 100 percent positive having the extra game bird to chase. Just like maintaining weak deer does have its negatives to the herd. Overall point is that there may be negatives in what I do, but there is always a down side to what we all think is right, just depends on what we personally prefer.

Instead of feeding pheasants talk a couple farmers into leaving things like buffer strips. Letting water ways grow and maybe the narrow strips we used to have called fence lines. And some CRP grass never killed a pheasant. Theres plenty of food for them just no cover anymore. As for the deer we have so many corn feilds here in Iowa and who knows how much corn on the ground the deer never run out of corn to eat. It also doesn’t matter how deep the snow is they can always find it.

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I couldn’t agree more…To me it is just plain selfish to feed deer so that you can look at them! They are well oiled machines and are built for winter. MAYBE in late February and early March when their fat reserves have been used but certainly not this time of year…Put your time an energies into feeding pheasants! RR

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For the sake of conversation, is it selfish to plant food plots for the express purpose of killing a “trophy” and stroke your own ego. The Hanson buck wasn’t fed a perfect buffet of plant and minerals at strategic times during the growth of its antlers. I’m just saying that it is hardly selfish when compared to what we do in pursuit of the biggest deer.

How could alfalfa be bad for deer?? It is an excellent source of protein, isn’t it???? Straw? I don’t think I have ever seen anything eat straw. A deer’s diet changes seasonally.

Corn doesn’t kill deer, it makes them fat and taste good .

Prairie Chickens???? Don’t taste as good as pheasants, can’t sustain populations in our modern day agricultural landscape, and is unrealistic to thik that this bird will ever be prolific across the midwest again. Feed the pheasants, I do.

KH