This means you have the option to read your magazine on most popular phones and tablets. Could the use of salt/mineral mixes simply be due to an increased need for salt? Compared to sheep and goats, whitetails are copper hogs that need a lot of the mineral. Dig a shallow hole and loosen the soil before adding your minerals. They know that deer typically begin using supplemental minerals around spring green-up and continue until early fall. The best place to put a deer lick is near your closest water holes, ponds or water sources and near your food plots. Taking common ingredients found in most homes and mixing them into a viable, attractive combination that deer love is an easy process. A few drops of a natural attractant, such as rice bran, apple extract, or salt, can also be added to your deer mineral. No one can say for sure, but its probably because most minerals by themselves are bitter. Maybe I'm overly paranoid but I don't like adding persimmon-scented products in an area where persimmons don't grow. Minerals are important to all living things, serving a host of physiological functions. Almost all soils more than 2550 miles from a seacoast are low in sodium. A balanced pelleted ration can deliver all the mineral nutrition needed by the herd. The first step is have the soils analyzed for the critical macro- and micro-nutrients. To my knowledge, there is little to no research on the subject as it pertains to deer. Make sure the lick is near a water source. So when I am creating new sites, I try several locations and replenish the ones that receive continued use while abandoning the sites with little or no use. However, soil limitations often dictate using supplements to fill in the blanks created by scarcity of critical minerals in the native environment. Part 1, Importance of Soil pH. One method for making your own mineral blocks is to mix them with soil. Next, choose a central location near cover and dig a shallow, 6-inch deep hole a few feet in diameter. By delivering mineral in this way, youre exposing deer to greater risk of parasites and diseases. The sites attract deer and pose them for short periods in the right spot -- which happens to be right in front of the camera. Predator Hunting (Coyote, Bobcat, Fox, Wolf, Cougar, etc. Using a 32oz cup mix 1-cup dicalcium phosphate 2-cups trace mineral salt and 1-cup rock salt (ice cream salt) into 5-gallon bucket. I began the project by placing black plastic feeding pans at my oldest and most frequented deer mineral sites. Surely, the knee-deep depressions in the soil caused by repeated years of mineral supplementation are evidence of deer need, correct? Calcium and phosphorous are the two biggest components of antler growth after protein. These make up about 60 percent of the total weight of the antler. All Rights Reserved. These products can be mixed with water or placed in a tree stump. You want to get as much calcium and phosphorous into a deer as possible. We've learned that a multi-pronged approach to providing deer minerals is best. Deer warts are hairless black or gray tumors caused by a type, CWD Roundup is the National Deer Associations (NDA) bi-monthly update on all things chronic wasting disease (CWD). - The Best Explanation. Homemade Fortified Deer Block Bootleg Outdoors 146K views 5 years ago Mineral licks for deer Kosmo's Blackdog Outdoors 36K views 6 years ago You're signed out of YouTube Sign in to like. Homemade deer mineral supplements work best near waterholes and food plots. In conclusion, the best deer mineral recipe is one that contains trace minerals, salt, vitamins, and minerals that are beneficial to deer. Important macro-nutrients include: calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na) and sulfur (S). Here is a recipe one of the MO conservation agents passed on to us hunters. Clearly minerals are important in antler development. Watering Note: If theres no rain in the forecast, consider watering the mineral site. Bucks must live long enough to reach physical maturity while having access to high quality nutrition to achieve maximum antler growth. That's why mineral licks make excellent trail camera spots in the summer. Now, back to the 18 percent protein. Stan Potts doubles down in Montana and Wyoming. Lesser amounts of other minerals were found including potassium, barium, iron, aluminum, zinc, strontium and manganese. Too much salt and you will limit total intake of mineral. Also, if youre not getting at least the intake level of .2 to .4 ounce per head per day, then maybe you need to switch products, move the mineral site or make some other changes to make sure deer are consuming the desired amount. The most common intake claim by deer products on the market is 1 to 2 ounces per head per day or 1/16 to 1/8 of a pound. Rice bran is around $10 for a 40-pound bag. This is also why mineral licks make excellent trail camera spots in the summer. A homemade deer mineral lick should include minerals that are essential for deer health, such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, copper, zinc, and selenium. Have fun with it. Now, consider two different protein supplements, one with a level of 28 percent protein and one at 22 percent protein. Mike Clerkin heads to Buffalo County, Wisconsin to bowhunt whitetails. When I felt that the deer were using the site normally again, I removed all content from each pan and replaced it with exactly 5 pounds of mineral at each site. According to research, yes. What Are Arrows Shot From Untuned Bows Likely to Do. Gordon Whittington talks with 13-year-old Troy Metzger about the 2016 hunt that landed the young man a monster non-typical buck on this edition of Big Buck Profile. In a large bowl, mix together the plain salt, white sugar, trace mineral salt, ground limestone, dolomite lime, and Epsom salt. Type of mineral formulation affected total deer use of baited sites, with a high salt formulation receiving over four times the number of daily visits from deer as other formulations. You can also locate these sites near good trees for trail cameras. They bed seemingly wherever they want and there are no scrapes or super-active trail systems to target. However, a University of Georgia study detected 11 different minerals in the whitetails antlers. ). I have also found that unless there are major changes in the vicinity of the site (i.e. Have you ever traveled through western Kansas? Making your own deer mineral isn't hard, nor is it expensive. Deer need both protein and minerals to grow their antlers. You can use granular minerals or dicalcium phosphate, which can be found at a feed store. Its best to get started as soon as spring green-up starts taking place, but keeping minerals out year-round is better. These folks should know more than anyone about proper nutrition for ruminants, a group that includes whitetails. These are the most potent and effective of the three elements. Of course, while mulling this over in my Excel spreadsheet, I was making a lot of assumptions, so I decided to conduct a research project on one of my farms to see if I could come up with a number based on real data. Without question deer need minerals, and they will readily use mineral licks. Dump no more than 25 lbs per deer lick per application, Lightly kick a little dirt on top of the mineral to make it apear as natural as possible. Over the years, Ive written on a number of occasions about mineral supplementation for whitetails. in Food Plots, A different approach, Research is learning what is wrong about a forage. July 1, 2022 |Timber 2 Table Wild Game Recipes, February 27, 2023 |The Realblog with Stephanie Mallory, February 28, 2023 |Brow Tines and Backstrap. Before beginning the test, I allowed 30 days to let the deer get used to the feeding pan and then began the test after I started seeing consistent usage on my trail cameras. A good wrinkle to add here is to mix up the recipe used in the video -- that'll give you about 100 pounds of mix -- and then blend in some sort of dry attractant to help the deer find the location quickly and to add some additional flavor value that might keep them coming back for more. B.Y.O Deer Base also contains, magnesium, sulfur, potassium as well as all the essential trace minerals and vitamins needed by deer. In reviewing the scientific literature, I quickly discovered there was very little known about critical minerals for deer. However, while recent studies have shown that adult bucks indeed do much of the breeding, bucks as young as 1 1/2 also areinvolved in the rut game. locks tend to be the least effective way for deer to get supplemental minerals. They have just about every option available to them. At least eight were using the site each day, including three yearling does, two adult does, two yearling bucks and one 3-year-old buck. Honestly, I'm not sure and it really doesn't matter to me that much. Once they've found the location, it's the salt that keeps them coming back. Have you ever wondered why deer hammer mineral licks in the warm-weather months more than any other time of year? You could also create your own homemade mineral licks for deer, by combining various bulk minerals (e.g., stock salt, trace minerals, dicalcium phosphate for deer) from your local coop. During the spring and summer, deer operate at a sodium deficiency due to the high potassium and water content of the forage. Make sure you dont place too many deer mineral blocks at a time, but you should put out one lick for every 40 acres of land. Notice the pond in the background. There are commercial and homemade granular mixes available. Sign up for NDAs free e-newsletter now! Get tips from Steve Bartylla in this Hunt em Big. Here's the finished mineral site with dicalcium phosphate and trace mineral salt thoroughly mixed together with the soil. The Best Way to Cook Chanterelle Mushrooms, 12 Reasons Why Your Venison Tastes Like Hell, Watch Pennsylvania Black Bears on Live Den Cam, Midwesterner Discovers Very Rare Melanistic Deer, Why an Old-School .30-06 Hunter is Switching to the 6.5 PRC, Southerners Shoot the Oldest Bucks, Texans Bag the Most Does, and More Highlights from the 2023 NDA Deer Report, Lost and Found: Neighbor Finds Hunters Huge Buck More Than a Year Later, Alabama Rut Kicking, Police Dog Saves Deer Hunter from Icy River, and More Deer Hunting News. The best place to put a deer lick is near your closest water holes, ponds or water sources and near your food plots. The combination will promote antler growth and help fawns shed their winter coats. ! Growing antlers are composed mostly of proteins (80 percent by weight); whereas hardened antlers contain roughly equal amounts of proteins and minerals. Research shows granular minerals facilitate increased consumption by animals as theyre able to literally eat (vs. lick) the mixture. 2023 Grand View Outdoors All Rights Reserved Its a bountiful area that produces wheat, corn and beef cattle that feed thousands of people around the world. Comes in 50lb Bags, you need one bag. A good rule of thumb is about one site per 100 acres of property. There are three main types of mineral supplements. Salt 5.0 lbs, Salt 12.5 lbs. Homemade Mineral Lick Go to your local feed store and buy (1) 50lb bag of granulized dicalcium phosphate, (2) 50lb bags of trace mineral salt, and (1) 50lb bag of rock salt. Once youve thoroughly mixed the minerals with the soil, youre done. All North American Whitetail subscribers now have digital access to their magazine content. For example, in much of South Texas (which is broadly deficient in P), low rainfall makes trying to grow traditional food plots a fools errand. Instead, we apply 50 pounds per acre of triple-superphosphate (0-45-0) fertilizer to native brush. Deer will consume anywhere between 1 to 5 percent of their body weight each day, depending on the time of year, with winter consumption being on the low end of the scale and summer consumption being on the higher end. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. The first step is have the soils analyzed for the critical macro- and micro-nutrients. Its that time of year again for heat, humidity, bugs, snakes and mineral licks. Deer minerals are simple math. In the above video, I share a simple recipe for making about 100 pounds of the mix for less than $40. I replicated the test on three different farms to help alleviate variables, at least to a certain degree. 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