Feeding Corn

[Raymond]

Hey Folks,
Is it healthy for the deer to have cracked corn throughout the winter months? I have heard some stories that was against this practice and some that were for this practice. Is there any definite answers to this question? Lets hear the pros and cons.
Thanks,
Raymond

[bucknbill]

i think as long as it is not moldy all the wildlife would like it in the winter..i know i like treats sometimes healthy or not

[Raymond]

Yeah you know I like treats. I bet they would too.
Thanks for your response.
Raymond

[shaftthrower]

Cracked corn is more $$$ Than Shelled corn. Shelled is what I use.

[Raymond]

Cracked corn is more $$$ Than Shelled corn. Shelled is what I use.

What is shelled corn, is it the whole kernel?
Raymond

[Hester0305]

Raymond,

I use shelled corn in my feeders sometimes 6 to 8 months out of the year and get plenty of pictures and turkeys and bears that just love it. I also started feeding some Alfalfa pellets this year in my feeders to mix with the corn and the deer love these also. The key to the Alfalfa pellets is keeping them dry in your feeder, if you use a closed lid feeder that sling the corn or pellets out that's not a problem. If the deer have a problem with their digestive tract on corn I couldn't help you with that one because they seem to love the corn as long as acorns aren't abundant.

Take care Raymond,
Eric

[MADMAX2]

"Jimmy crack corn and the deer don't care"!!

[shaftthrower]

Cracked corn is more $$$ Than Shelled corn. Shelled is what I use.

What is shelled corn, is it the whole kernel?
Raymond

Yes

[Galgo]

Personally I fell if you are feeding deer a minimal amount of corn during the pre and hunt season to create a pattern you are not doing much harm. but feeding large amounts of corn during the winter months could be harmful. Just my personal opinion but digestive issues and transmission of diseases like CWD cannot be helped by feeding. Here is some good reading to help you form your opinion.

F

Feeding the deer?

But what about feeding the deer? They need a little help too, don’t they?

NO, no, no! Do not feed the deer.

So says Jerry Feaser of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Jim Crum, deer biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, and Dr. Anne Ballmann, veterinarian and wildlife disease specialist for the National Wildlife Health Center.

And in New York, it’s actually “illegal to feed deer by putting out any material that attracts deer to feed.” Or face a fine of up to $250 and 15 days in jail for each day of the offense.

It’s unanimous among wildlife professionals. Feeding deer is a bad idea. In New York, it’s criminal.

Don’t feed the deer! Corn is what most wildlife lovers offer deer, and even if it’s labeled “deer corn,” feeding corn to deer is about the worst thing you can do. Unless you’re trying to kill the deer.

Feaser points to a PGC brochure, Please Don’t Feed the Deer, which is available at www.pgc.state.pa.us. (Click on the white-tailed deer icon, then “Living with Whitetails.”)

“By late fall, deer instinctively reduce their food intake and continue to do so through most of the winter,” Feaser says. “During that time deer rely heavily on fat reserves and their ability to conserve energy.”

Deer survival. In fact, a 1984 Pennsylvania study found that deer could survive a least a month with no food at all. During winter, deer lose 20 percent or more of their body weight by burning fat reserves. They are well adapted to survive the many stresses that winter presents.

Crum understands that people mean well, but, “I see too many deer on my necropsy table with bellies full of corn.”

Digestion problems

The problem is that deer digestion is a finely tuned physiological process. Just the right combination of microorganisms, enzymes, and pH enable deer to digest a normal winter diet of woody vegetation. When offered a sudden supply of corn, a deer’s digestive system doesn’t have time to adjust to a high carbohydrate diet. The result can be acute acidosis followed by death within 72 hours.

At the time of death these individuals can appear normal and well fed. It’s just that they cannot digest the corn. Within six hours, corn alters the environment in the rumen. It turns the rumen acidic and destroys the microbes needed for normal digestion.

Not all deer die immediately from acidosis. Its effects vary with the age and health of the individual. Some may simply slow down, get clumsy, and become easy prey to speeding traffic and hungry coyotes.

It takes deer two to four weeks of feeding on a new food source to establish populations of microbes necessary to digest the new food. It can’t happen in just a few days during a snowstorm. And healthy individuals that might survive in the short term often succumb to complications weeks later.

Caution

Furthermore, Dr. Ballmann cautions that supplemental feeding “concentrates deer in small areas where a variety of infectious diseases can be spread.” And in traveling to and from a supplemental source of food, deer, especially the young and the old, expend energy they can’t afford to lose.

Feeding deer is never a good idea. I know this runs counter to what many people think, especially those who feed deer. But just because deer don’t die in your backyard doesn’t mean they aren’t dying elsewhere in the woods or on the highway. The worst thing you can do for deer is feed them. Some will starve, and some will fall prey to coyotes, but that’s how healthy populations stay healthy.

Help in other ways

If you really want to help the local deer population, concentrate on habitat improvement. Plant mast-bearing trees and shrubs. Plant a stand of conifers to provide winter cover from wind and snow. And create forest openings to stimulate the growth of the woody browse that sustains deer herds all winter long.

[goosesmasher]

What about if your putting the corn into a cut corn field that has corn everywhere all winter long?

Goose smasher

[Hester0305]

Well I pulled my trail Cam Pics this afternoon from in front of my feeder and the last 3 weeks I have 5 different bucks that made it through hunting season and a lot of mature does that will make fine table fare this fall. The deer around here must get used to eating corn out of feeders because we see some of the same deer each year after year and what we feed them is no different than what they would eat in a corn field somewhere. I enjoy looking at the deer and seeing how many made from year to year. These deer come to our feeders to eat and we watch them grow up to be mature does and bucks. I also plant food plots where they can have their choice of what to eat. I've not heard about corn being bad for deer down here in the South because they are a lot of people feeding corn in their feeders and out on the ground, just look at Texas where you see feeders everywhere and deer everywhere. The Ranches in Texas take a lot of pride in their deer herds and they feed a lot of corn, to keep the deer in their general area.

[maple]

Unless your deer have been fed corn all winter, don't start now. Their digestive system won't be able to digest it and it will definitely cause problems to the animals. If you MUST feed, in the case of a particularly hard winter, use pellets, which are much closer to natural browse than corn.

[Bullzeye]

I've read articles that say its bad and I've read articles that say that its fine, maybe it depends on what the deer normally eat. Where I hunt its normal to see deer in the cornfields digging in the snow getting left over corn kernels on the ground after the corn was harvested.

[Ont_Excal]

I hunt corn country and the deer feed on corn almost year round as a lot of the land is no till.

If I feed late in the season then carrots, apples and pumpkins work best for me.

[Raymond]

I want to thank all you folks who have respond so far, I appreciate your help very much. For my area there is no farmland only people who plant small gardens for their own use. So, with what I have read and heard here I think it is more beneficial for the deer to not put any corn feeder out. And instead maybe have my son cut a clearing and haul the wood out for our own use next winter. I had bought a bag of cracked corn this fall and never got to use it because of my health, so it will be a nice treat to feed it to the birds by throwing on the front lawn?

Since there is no farmland around would it be okay for the deer to be feed some corn during the spring and summer months?
Thanks,
Raymond