Protein Feeding questions

[tuthdoc]

They try for 1 deer per 40 acres. I think there's more. LOL We have a couple small blowers, but it's all sacked and we have to move it. I doube we'd ever get them to spring for a trailer blower. After all, they have us.

[Encinal]

A deer to 40?

heh

I may have more deer than half the Junco...

[tuthdoc]

Yeah, they're really pushing to get it higher. Don't know if they'll ever get it there, but they depend almost entirely on the helicopter survey, and we know how accurate that is.

[Encinal]

Yeah, they're really pushing to get it higher. Don't know if they'll ever get it there, but they depend almost entirely on the helicopter survey, and we know how accurate that is.

It's really easy... stop shooting does... and if they make you shoot does... shoot doe fawns.

[tuthdoc]

We haven't been allowed to shoot does for the last two years on the north side of the hwy. That's about 25,000 acres with no does shot in two years. Amazing. We just hope they don't fly off the deep end and make us kill too many next year.

Most of our hunters would do OK shooting doe fawns. However, there's too many that would make mistakes and kill buttons.

[Encinal]

I hear you on button bucks. You hate to make mistakes... but you would be surprised how big of a mistake % you can have and still be building your buck population long term by shooting doe fawns.

As for counting a deer to 40 but having a lot more deer than that... start counting at 9am september 5th...

[tuthdoc]

They did the survey in September this past year. The grass was neck deep and the count was way low. Result, no does allowed. I saw more does this past season than any year on the place. Result will probably be "overkill" this next year.

[Encinal]

That's really a shame...

Who makes those recommendations? Ranch Biologist or MLD Biologist?

Did they actually think you had a die off from the year before?

Let me guess... they counted probably 2/3 of the deer this year than they counted last year...?

[tuthdoc]

I don't know if it's a MLD biologist or a ranch biologist. Just doesn't seem very scientific to me. No die off. As a matter of fact, the range even in the drought year showed no sign of over browsing. Not much ground cover resulting in a very poor fawn crop, but the adult deer fared well. Rack size was down overall, but the deer weathered it in good enough shape to have some fine critters this year and we'll see something special the next 3 years.

[Encinal]

No... of course you didnt actually HAVE a die off... but did they count significantly more deer on the survey the year before than they did this year making them assume you had a die off?

We saw 2/3 of the deer this year pre season than we did the year before.

[Jamie]

It's getting more expensive every day...

I calculate I'm feeding around 55 tons per year of protein on 3,000 ac...with about 250 deer. I have a feeder for about every 400 acres....and a cottonseed feeder for every 100 acres.

Add another 10 tons of cottonseed....8 tons of shelled corn...nevermind, I'm broke

At the current price of $380/ton, that's an annual feed bill of $20,000+ (gulp) for protein alone.

[tuthdoc]

Good to hear from you Jamie.

Doesn't look so good when you put a pencil to it, does it. I could go to our ranch every 20 days and put out a ton in two feeders. Right now, a ton of Big Rack is over 320 dollars. Add a ton of corn and I could spend 600 dollars a month. I asked the girls at the feed lot if they had anything I could add to my protein to make the deer slow down some. We had started topping off our protein feeders with 2 or 3 sacks of cottonseed meal. It was about the same, just a little more, than Big Rack and it was 41 percent protein. Well, it's almost 11 dollars a sack now. Sheesh.

When the Junco partners start figuring what 400 sacks per month times 12 months cost, the deer might be going back to natural vegetation. LOL

Am I figuring this right. 400 sacks is 10 tons. 10 tons x 12 months is 120 tons? Dang, I'm too old to lift that much feed. I need a bigger deer, for sure.

[JeffJ]

So how many tons of bulk do you need to go through to break even after buying the bulk bin and air-blow auger?

[STGS]

JeffJ,

Another one of those questions you don't want to put a pen and paper to....

I save $20 per ton of bulk feed (vs bagged). A 3.5 ton Bruton jet feed will run you just over $10K, that means I have to feed 500 tons to break even. Now if you factor in the wear and tear on your body loading 50 tons per year by hand, the number gets a little easier to bear. Nothing in this game is cheap....

[Encinal]

So how many tons of bulk do you need to go through to break even after buying the bulk bin and air-blow auger?

Factor in time of labor and cost of feed and it gets really easy to justify at higher volumes.