What's the best Protein????

[Peyton]

We have been intensively feeding protein for the past 8 years. We've always used Cuerno Grande feed and have had great consumption (8-10tons/yr) and great results. This year our friend who designed and made the Cuerno Grande, sold his recipe and name to a large mill. Because of the change in ownership, the large mill, and a desire to shake things up with the deer, we are considering changing feeds.


I have looked at the design and mfr's of several feeds available in S TX.

Right now, I'm between Los Cazadores and Sportsman's Choice. The LC feed is an "engineered" feed that was designed from the beginning to be a deer feed. The filler that all feeds use is normally the main reason why a feed varies in protein content, digestibility, color, and taste. The LC recipe uses cotton seed every time they mix a batch. Other feeds change their filler to meet market prices and profit margins whenever they mix. Because of this I'm really stuck on the LC feed.

I know SC, Lissy & Eckel, Purina, Morman's, and others are good feeds but do you think LC is a step ahead? If you were going to change feeds, which one would you pick?

[Wildman]

Ol Roy Dog Food

[Peyton]

Good one

[Archery1st]

For down south Lissy & Eckles - those guys are really a step ahead of everyone else. I know at one point they were starting to work with a select few ranches to design a protein specifically based upon the native browse average yearly protein content. They would come out and take brush samples over the entire ranch and test it's protein content then design a feed to best fit you ranch to fill in the native brush gaps. And the deer will eat it.

For the Hill Country or anywhere else i could get it. Evergreen "Hill Country" 20% not because I believe it is scientifically better, just that it is equal to every thing else, it is considerably cheaper and the deer love it!

The best feed made does you zero good if the deer don't eat it.

[Wildman]

Seriously Peyton, I was shocked the other day when I looke at a bag of it at Walmart. It is 23% protien and the saturated fats were off the wall. I think supplementing that with some nutrition protien; meaning 3/4 dog food and 1/4 high dollar bag protien, would be just fine to put some body weight on animals and also improve horn growth.

There is an experiment in place right now. Jury will speak next Oct.

[Clark]

Its quite a bit more expensive and only 18%, but consumption rates let me know quick deer preferred it over L/E, Record Rack and HC 20%.
I've also tried Purina AM and that no-smell, powdery junk "Venado" from Dilley Feed.
I know its not scientific, but you can smell the difference with the Los Caz when they load the bags in the truck.
If cost wasn't an issue, based on consumption rates, which I know vary with the seasons, I'd go with the Los Caz, even over Purina. Just my .02
Good luck.

[FarFromHome]

i can't wait to see what them GoatPigs look like after getting a big dose of that old Roy. You all will wish you had believed in the legend then.....

[Breezy]

i like and have used record rack 20% for the past two seasons. i mix 1/3 rr, 1/3 clean delinted cotton seed, 1/3 roasted soybeans

[Peyton]

Wildman.....the coons might eat you out of house and home is you put Ol Roy in your feeders!

Clark.......how long have you fed LC? How many acres per feeder? What's your deer density? How many lbs per feeder per mo?

Gracias...

[Brotherbill]

Danny seriously are they eating it?Because thats a hell of am idea.

[qzilla]

I am pretty interested in this as well. We are currently feeding a custom 24% L/E pellet. OUr deer seem to eat it fine but, there are a couple of issues that make me want to look around.

1.) We constantly get range cubes (cake) stuck in our feed. For our free choice this is no big deal but, we also used timed feeders and it clogs them everytime.

2.) We have a lot of moisture year around. OUr feed never gets water directly on it yet, we constantly have clogging issues and we have to clean them out. I don't mean a little here and there it is bad.

Now a godd friend of mine has a place about 30 minutes north of us and he feeds the 24% Antlermax nad he grows some giant deer and does not have the clogging issue.

I think I am going to buy a few hundred pounds of each and put them in cattle troughs in some of our highest deer density pens and put cameras on them. I will watch them daily and see which feed they like best.

How many of you guys are getting anything besides L/E and Purina delivered in bulk in South Texas and who are you using? This is important as we truck in about 30K lbs a month!

[Wildman]

Bill, my dad had three bucks that he had "raised" that were orphaned due to fire ants. All three deer were "yard" bucks that were raised around dogs. All they ate was dog food out of the dog bowls. All three at 3 years old were IMPRESSIVE bucks.

Like I said, there is an experiment in place right now in protien feeders and we will see.

Peyton the coons are super coons out there already. They are protien feed, so the dog food will be a cheaper coon food as I see it

[FarFromHome]

Other than the Old Roy Test we are feeding the following special mix developed by our biologist (for the Preserve) on Whodathunkit II. It contains some vitamins and madication that is supposed to help in reducing the possibility of animals being affected by Anthrax. This is pretty important where we are as we are right on the border of where some bad anthrax outbreaks have happened.

FEED RATIO –

EST. PROTEIN 18.6%
EST. FAT 2.8%
EST. FIBER 10.8%
EST.TDN 61.9%
EST. CALCIUM 1.57%
EST. PHOSPHORUS 1.07%
EST. MAGNESIUM 0.26%
EST. POTASSIUM 0.29%
EST. SULFUR 0.10%
EST. CALORIES PER LB. 1044.4

TRACE MINERALS AND VITAMINS INCLUDED IN THE FEED; Vitamins, A, D 3, E, B-12, Riboflavin, Niacin, d-Pantothenic, Choline, Cobalt, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, and Zinc.

[Jamie]

I'm not sure anyone can answer that question…..

The only concrete evidence I've seen is Tuthdoc's post about that huge buck killed on the Junco that jumped like 50+ points in one year eating Purina…and that happened in a severe drought.

The problem in gauging the effects of protein itself is…what else was done? One major mistake humans make is to make logical assumptions and connections that may not be there. For example, they do "A" (introduced breeder bucks) and "B" happens (they start producing some huge bucks). It's logical to assume "A" caused "B". But what they are forgetting is they also did "C", "D", "E" and "F". Now which one of those changes caused "B"? Maybe it's one, maybe it's all of them combined. That's the difference between logic and statistics. Statistics is a mathematical means of testing input factors to determine how much of each input is affecting the output. Very, very few managers understand and use statistics. Instead they use logic, and logic can fool you. It can take 15 years of continuous Trophy Management before maximum benefit is produced.

Myself? … based on what Tuthdoc witnessed and what I've seen on the ranch we bought in LaSalle co., which has been under a Purina feeding program for 5+ years…I'm staying with Purina.

[Dale Moser]

I havn't found one yet that they'll eat...


I guess I'll bite the bullet and buy some purina, as our range conditions are as bad as I've seen them in 11 yrs.