Bulk Protein Feeding

[niceg3s]

I have built a healthy population on my place in East Texas, but I want to start feeding protein from gravity feeders. We have a little over 200 acres. The adjacent tracts are cattle farms that are not hunted. About 900 acre block. I plan on doing at least four 300lbs feeders. Does anyone buy protein in bulk or by the ton? Could I just feed cattle cubes?

[Slick8]

Many places will sell it in bulk but how will you handle it? If you had a storage bin and small blower or auger trailer it would be the way to go.

At worst, if all four are empty, that's 24 sacks or about less than $300 per filling. Now the question is, how many deer will you be feeding? Those 300 pound feeders could go dry in a couple of weeks with a healthy deer heard hitting it hard.

I would imagine that the deer in East Texas are similar to what I and many others see when it's wet, you'll see limited usage. With the extremely wet year we just had, I saw few does and the bucks hit it hard during the prime antler growth of early to mid summer. it cut my feed bill in half this year.

[niceg3s]

Many places will sell it in bulk but how will you handle it? If you had a storage bin and small blower or auger trailer it would be the way to go.

At worst, if all four are empty, that's 24 sacks or about less than $300 per filling. Now the question is, how many deer will you be feeding? Those 300 pound feeders could go dry in a couple of weeks with a healthy deer heard hitting it hard.

I would imagine that the deer in East Texas are similar to what I and many others see when it's wet, you'll see limited usage. With the extremely wet year we just had, I saw few does and the bucks hit it hard during the prime antler growth of early to mid summer. it cut my feed bill in half this year.

I have about 30 deer that I have seen on a regular basis. I was going to put about 250lbs in each of four feeders. If I end up buying more than 1000lbs, I can put it in a feed bin in one of the barns. I was planting soybean plots, but the hogs are tearing up everything. I have had good results feeding deer year round. No one else hunts or feeds in the area. I suspect the deer to tear through the protein much better than my timber property to the south where there are numerous people hunting and feeding.

[Slick8]

If you can put it in a feed bin and buy a lot, you may get the feed store to deliver. Depending on how much you buy and how far away you are...

Have you built good pens for the feeders? If not, you'll have a lot of waste to the hogs.

Sounds like you have a good plan, keep us posted.

[Patton]

I doubt a feed store is going to come deliver anything short of several full pallets. 40 bags per pallet where we buy it (2000 lbs) and they are happy to help load it in the truck with the fork lift but I doubt anywhere will deliver that.

And I agree on the pens, those hogs will do a number on your protein stations.

[Kdog]

You are going to need pens for your feeders with hog panels if you have hogs. Make them as big as you can, so the deer are comfortable and have room to move. Mine are around 275-300' in circumference. You may even just do 2 pens with 2 feeders each instead of 4.

Maybe try planting clover too. It's high in protein and much cheaper that bags of protein.

Not sure about buying in bulk. Where I hunt is remote and we are not set up like that. I just get what I need in bags to fill it up. Good luck.

[niceg3s]

Wow, I was hoping the pigs would stay out of the gravity feeders, but I guess not. What kind of protein are you feeding? I'd like to stay around $8 per 50# or $320 per ton. Can I feed cattle cubes or horse/mule feed?

[bgleaton]

We feed a 20% deer pellet from our feed store in Brady, TX (I believe the brand is Angelo Pellets). The majority of feed stores will have a 20% deer pellet that you can feed and they will also have a lot of different cattle feed, so you can try both and see what your deer like. We do feed cattle range pellets (3/4in cottonseed pellets) to our deer herd from December through the end of February along with keeping our three 1,000lb+ protein feeders going from December through end of August and keep one protein feeder full year round. We also feed through our corn feeders and throw out alfalfa and rice bran during deer season through the end of February. We feed all of this because we normally only receive around 20in of rain a year on average and it's fairly rocky in some areas, so it's tough for us to do food plots. If you have some good soil and get a fairly good amount of rainfall, i would definitely look into planting some clovers.

[retrieverman]

Wow, I was hoping the pigs would stay out of the gravity feeders, but I guess not. What kind of protein are you feeding? I'd like to stay around $8 per 50# or $320 per ton. Can I feed cattle cubes or horse/mule feed?

Are you serious about pigs staying out of the protein?!?



I've thought about feeding protein on my place in OK, but the last I priced was $14.50 a bag. I'm out.

[niceg3s]

Hogs and coyotes are ruining my place. Have at least 5 regular coyotes roaming. Killed two so far. Will be working the predator call late morning next weekend.

I reviewed my 2013, 2014, 2015 deer count. 2014 is when hogs first appeared. There's 30+ now and the deer are not showing up on camera near as much. Will be building a trap this weekend.

Culled a spike this year, but will not be shooting any other whitetails. Nothing on the cameras over 3.5.

[mills650]

We've been feeding protein for 2 years and it's made a big difference. We feed from Feb through Aug; early to help when there's not much else to eat and through summer to anchor them on the property.

We've only had one hog actually eat FROM the feeder (on camera). However deer (and coons) are sloppy eaters and will drop a lot on the ground. They'll eat it off the ground if nothing spoils it unless the hogs come in an run them off first, which is what was happening. I ringed the feeders with 8 16' hog panels and the hogs stay out. The deer jumped the fence that same day to get to the protein. Our hogs have never pushed through or jumped the panels although they could if they really wanted.

[jctex81]

Pigs will clean up 300 lbs of protein at my lease in 3-4 days tops...once they find it they camp out

[GTXHUNTER88]

We are about 18yrs in now feeding protein. we buy 7 tons at a time refill if heavy use every two weeks some years like this year it lasts 2 or 3 months. Be sure you have some water available it will really keep them on your place.

[bbqfan5909]

My suggestion is put one 2,000lb feeder in middle of place...you will me amazed how far those deer travel to hit those protein feeders. Also, put close to water.