How many should you have per 100 acres or per 1000 acres?? how is this determined, by area or by number of deer or what? What is a good average cost running protein for 6 months or a year. I figure a place that has low deer counts and doesn't feed protein will use less then a place that has high deer numbers and they are use to eating it. Some of the protein hogs(deer) I have seen on here I think could cost you alot in feed bills. think I am about to dive in the protein world and say bye to the corn.
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We have 8 demand protein feeders on 1200 acres mostly and we will fill them up twice 300 lbs each. We probably have to many feeders but we would rather have to many and not enough. -
That question varies from place to place. Our deer eat about 50 lbs a day. I have two 1000 lb feeders. My BNL has two 1500 lb feeders. The rest have 55 or 85 gallon feeders. I count 7 in my head; so, that's 11 on 2300 acres. If everyone ran one 1000 lb feeder, we'd probably be in pretty good shape. The smaller feeders won't last much more than a week during high use times and almost never 2 weeks. It's better than nothing, as every little bit helps.
You need to figure out what you want to budget for protein, and put out that many feeders of the appropriate size.
Last year, at last year's protien prices, I figured that the feeders on the Junco that were empty each month would cost around 2000/feeder. It's higher than that now.Comment
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We have 1 in every 100 acre pasture, 500#er'sComment
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we have one to every 300-500 acres on 10,000 acres.Comment
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Most biologist I have talked with recommend 1 feed station per 250 acres....But check with your pocket book early on and see what you can afford to spend....The protein we are feeding is running $10.40 per 50 lb sack....up from $7.95 per bag last year....Comment
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you may want to go to timed protein feeding as well to spread out the length of feedings, regulate total $ spent. i have some that gage the rain and will not dispense when the rain or to high humity. free feeding seems to attrach move varmit type,
cya,
Bob G.Comment
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if you are gonna put that much out just buy it bulk like in a overhead bin. you lookin at some serious dough for that much protein.i feed out here in crane and its expensive as heck. and honestly its a pain. but the only reason i feed is because its not much more than corn. do a deer survey with you biologist, count the deer per acre or per 100 acres however they wanna go about it. then go from there. there is absolutely no point in putting that much protein out. even on our place in mason thats way too much protein too close together even for hill country numbers. i would go with a 1000 pound feeder per 200-300 acres. and the water is just as important. i keep mine as close to the water as possible so the deer dont have to travel much when its hot. cover food and water and they will stay close to home.Comment
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Our lease is 1300 acres. I have a 1400 lb, a 1200 lb, and an 800 lb protein feeder. So far this year our deer average about 2000 lbs per month. This is our second year to feed.Comment
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thanksComment
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anyone else?Comment
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You may consider starting out with smaller feeders (55-85 gallon barrels) and using 2-3 of them at each feeding station. You could even start off with one and add more as needed.
On our lease protein feeding is voluntary and I think we have 15 stations on 5,000 acres. Everyone pretty much has them set up at their corn feeders.Comment
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The average for every deer to get his/her share of protein is 300-400 acres per feeder. This is on the big spreads down in South Texas. Smaller places may be able to get by with a feeder for every 800-1000 acres.Comment
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The only way to have too much protein is to have so many feeders that the deer don't turn it over fast enough. If they're eating it, then it's not too much, no matter how many you have. I guess the other way to have too much is to have more feeders than you can afford to fill. I could stick another 1000 lb feeder within a couple hundred yards of my current feeder and they'd probably empty it just as quickly.
Here's what I'd do. If you are feeding for yourself, and the other members aren't, then I'd set out as big a feeder as I could afford to keep filled. I wouldn't go under 1000 lbs. That's 20 sacks. Even if they start out slow, when they do start to eat it, you don't want to mess with a smaller feeder. Set it up where the deer are. If that's near water, then great. If not, then let them go to water when they're finished. Also, set it where the deer are NOW, not where they are during the rut. If it's the same then great.
If your group is going to protein, then I would disperse the protein feeders over the entire lease, giving each member a feeder to be responsible for financially. Don't worry about equal distances, just make sure you put them in primo spots. If you see that you need more, you can always add more.
I doubt very seriously anyone can afford to feed TOO MUCH protein. If you have any kind of population, you'll probably cry uncle in the pocket book before you reach that amount.Comment
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We have a 2000lb feeder for every 530 acres--total of 10 protein station's
will be adding more next year trying to get it to 1 feeder per 300 acres--we like to use the 2000 lb feeders so we do not have to fill them as much--we also feed year roundComment
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