I was checking out the Mn DNR winter severity index and the vast mojority of Zone 1 is already 100+ with 2 months of winter left to go. We may see values tipping 200 by the time spring roles around. I was reading fawns can start experiencing winter mortality in the 130-150 range. Adults at 180.
The deer in My hunting area – North Central Minnesota are already looking real rough. This is the 2nd tough one in a row for that area. The deer #’s were at a all time low last hunting season. Not sure how much more that area can handle before they will need to do something serious to help the #’s rebound
Interesting, but unfortunately not a huge surprise.
One thing that’s stood out to me is not as much the amount of snow we’ve had, but that we’ve had almost none of those “thaw” days where the temp gets in the upper 20s / low 30s and the snow compacts and shrinks rapidly. Essentially, what we have now on the ground has settled and melted only a small amount since it fell.
I just read this morning that Lake Superior is over 90% frozen over and will most likely be considered completely iced over sometime later this month. While there are always small pockets of open water, the lake has not been considered fully frozen over since 1996.
I wish I was in a position to put out and maintain feeders to help the deer out. I hate to say it, but if you can believe the long range forecast, it’s not going to get a whole lot better in Feb.
Grouse
Up at the cabin near Walker I was watching a few deer come into the feeder in near chest deep snow….then I went up to Ely and was astonished, the snow was nearly up to my waist! I’ve been keeping the feeders stocked, and even bumped up the amount of feed. Hopefully a little something extra to help them out. Yikes though. 
Fortunately, northern MN deer have at least another 42 WSI days before they’re considered to have experienced a “severe” winter by the MN DNR. 
Meanwhile, in WI…they are already considered to have experienced a “very severe” winter.
Duluth, MN deer are apparently nearly twice as able to withstand deep snows and bitter cold temps than a Superior, WI deer.
What do you recomend for deer feed? I am of the understanding it takes deer quite some time to adjust to different food types. Are there deer pellets or other high protein feeds that they are able to metabolize and benefit from while eating natural browse.
Is it also critical to maintain these feeders consistantly as this would now be primary food source or can deer eat maintain a diet of feed and browse successfully.
I wanted to get some feed out on our property on madeline Island but haven’t done so yet as I didn’t want to do harm.
Any feed recomendations for an area with zero agricultural land and all hardwoods?
Thanks for your help.
Cam
Quote:
Is it also critical to maintain these feeders consistantly as this would now be primary food source
Welcome to IDO Cam! 
I am no expert by any means but you make a very good point on being consistent on maintaining your feeders, if you are going to feed deer from what I understand it is very important to keep the feeders stocked and that is not going to be cheap. Hopefully someone else will chime in here that is in the know about what would be the best feed for this time of year.
Unfortunately here in my hunting area zone 3 in SE MN there is a feeding ban still in place, I am sure the deer here are also having a tuff go of it this winter. 
Be careful if you are going to feed deer, once you start you have to keep feeding. They will become dependent on the feed very quickly. You will also attract deer from other places so the amount of feed you need to provide will increase. This could get to be a very expensive endeavor. Another thing to consider is what your deer are eating naturally now, if they are not used to ag crops feeding strickly corn can do way more damage than good. Hay can give them bloat if that is all you feed. The area that you feed them in will very quickly become void of all browse and not just this year but for years to come. All the deer will come in to get the feed and will naturally browse, never getting far from the feed. Soon you will have way more deer in the area than the area browse can support. They will destroy all the browse in short time, leaving nothing but the feed for a food source. This too can be very tough on them.
My corn plots at the farm this year were slim at best due to the drought this summer. I was seriously considering getting a feeder. After figuring out the cost of feed, the cost of running to the farm once a week minimum to fill the feeder and researching the affects of feeding the deer I decided against it. Its tough not to try and help them in these very tough times, but often you are doing more damage than good for your herd health. Deer are designed to live through tough winters and at times there are deaths from starvation, but that is nature, it sucks but that is the way it is.
Sorry for the rant, I just don’t want other people to make the mistake I almost did.
This is very good info. I’m on the other end of the spectrum in SD. No deer winter on my land, yet I have 15 acres of beautiful corn standing there. The pheasants appreciate it, but it’s way more than they need.
I’ve been feeding deer since early January. I put out 25 lbs. a day. Deer here were eating corn all fall/early winter thanks to a neighboring farmer leaving a number of rows standing and the rest of the field unplowed. I haven’t seen any increase in the number of deer showing up (anywhere from 2-10 per night, probably an average of 5). That is likely due to the fact that in several square miles here they MAY be 15 deer or so. Not gonna pull deer for miles and miles to a few pounds of corn. I haven’t noticed any excessive browsing around my feeding areas. They do hit whatever young aspen they can get to, but they certainly aren’t eating things to “the ground”.
I’ll continue to feed until either the deer stop showing up, or spring green up. I can get 13, 50 lb. bags of corn for about 70 bucks. That amount lasts me 26 days. I figure I’ll spend at most around $300 this year. For that amount I and my wife get the entertainment of seeing deer each night. It is a heck of a lot less than I’d spend for the same number of hours of entertainment in a bar over the course of 3-4 months.
Quote:
I’ve been feeding deer since early January. I put out 25 lbs. a day. Deer here were eating corn all fall/early winter thanks to a neighboring farmer leaving a number of rows standing and the rest of the field unplowed. I haven’t seen any increase in the number of deer showing up (anywhere from 2-10 per night, probably an average of 5). That is likely due to the fact that in several square miles here they MAY be 15 deer or so. Not gonna pull deer for miles and miles to a few pounds of corn. I haven’t noticed any excessive browsing around my feeding areas. They do hit whatever young aspen they can get to, but they certainly aren’t eating things to “the ground”.
I’ll continue to feed until either the deer stop showing up, or spring green up. I can get 13, 50 lb. bags of corn for about 70 bucks. That amount lasts me 26 days. I figure I’ll spend at most around $300 this year. For that amount I and my wife get the entertainment of seeing deer each night. It is a heck of a lot less than I’d spend for the same number of hours of entertainment in a bar over the course of 3-4 months.
This is the perfect scenario for feeding deer. You are there every day, deer numbers are low. I am more talking about traveling to the farm 3 hours away. Not knowing how the feed is holding up and higher deer numbers in the area.
Quote:
This is the perfect scenario for feeding deer. You are there every day, deer numbers are low. I am more talking about traveling to the farm 3 hours away. Not knowing how the feed is holding up and higher deer numbers in the area.
I agree completely with you that if a person isn’t “present” on a daily, or at least every few days….feeding isn’t a good idea. I’d add that if you are near/in a yarding area that feeding could become an overwhelming and unbelievably expensive undertaking. I talked with a young guy awhile ago who lives north of me about 15 miles. His and his families’ farms are near a yarding area and they are going through a round bale of alfalfa every week or less. That’s pretty expensive “deer food”. They don’t mind as they love having the deer around (up to 30 at a time as I recall) and have the bales to spare. That’s a relatively unique situation though I’d guess.
sticker & smsmith thanks for the replies and the all the good info, good to know! 
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
