The Top 5 Proteins Proven To Grow Big Bucks In The Off Season (2024)

FAQs

What is the best food for deer to grow big antlers? ›

After weaning through the next year, buck fawns fed a 16% protein diet had larger antlers than those fed 4.5% and 9.5% protein diets. This is true for two-year old bucks as well. Across all age classes, a 16% protein diet is ideal during the antler growing period.

Purina AntlerMax Deer 20

Purina's most popular 20% protein pelleted ration is designed to support the deer's natural forage diet. Specifically formulated for what free range deer require to support overall health, reproductive performance and antler growth.

Productive, high-protein food plots in peas, beans or lab-lab can provide up to 35 percent protein when properly fertilized and are also very palatable, so your deer are able to digest most of the protein and nutrients that they consume.

If you decide to plant a food plot during the spring, choose soybean, cowpeas, clover, and other perennials. These will provide a good source of protein. In the summer, consider adding sunflowers. Try to choose a type of crop that can't be found near your property.

Locate a natural potential travel route from bedding to feeding areas or between doe bedding areas and make it appealing to bucks by adding a variety of shrubs or tall annual grasses and partially felling a few low value trees.

The Macro Minerals; Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, etc. will generally promote body and antler growth and improved digestion, while the Trace Minerals like Copper, Zinc, Selenium, etc. will promote immune system health and help deer fight off disease and infection.

Providing bucks with high levels of calcium and phosphorous can jumpstart antler growth. These minerals are beneficial for pregnant does, and aid in milk production, metabolism and bone growth. They're also key to fawn and yearling skeletal development.

The safest option of all is to have high quality, early successional habitat on your property. If you don't already have the young, dense, and nutritious re-growth that deer need to browse on, the most inexpensive way to feed deer is to do some emergency timber harvests.

Point 2: Antlers are fast growing

Growth is triggered by increasing daylight and subsequent testosterone production. Adult white-tailed deer antlers can grow ¼ inch per day, whereas elk antlers grow about an inch per day. Moose regrow a few months after shedding, making their growth rate even more impressive.

Mid Spring to Late Summer

The ideal amount of protein depends on the conditions. If it's an extremely hot and dry summer, deer will not have an adequate supply of leafy greens and a pellet that is too high in protein can be tough for them to digest.

What is the number one food for deer? ›

The real mainstay food item of deer is browse. Browse plants can be shrubs or young trees within reach of deer. Browse plants will always be available in one form or another, no matter what the weather conditions.

A higher level will not hurt the deer, it is just more protein than they can effectively utilize. The 20 percent protein feed is not designed to be fed as the total diet. It is a supplement to the natural diet during periods of nutritional stress such as antler development or late stages of gestation and lactation.

Whether that's by providing additional food sources, additional bedding cover, or adding a water source, everything helps. Do what you can even if it's on a small scale. It'll help both the deer and your deer hunting.

Typical cereals planted for deer would include oats, wheat, triticale and rye. When native green forage becomes less available from fall through spring, these crops will attract large numbers of deer and provide valuable nutrition to help them through this difficult period.

Although these animals will eat feed that humans provide, carbohydrate-rich foods like fruit, grains, and corn aren't normally part of their natural diet, especially during winter, and can cause serious health problems.

To help bucks produce bigger racks this summer, provide them with protein and minerals in large quantities. This not only helps with antler growth during the spring and summer, but it also helps does that are raising fawns and the overall health of the deer herd.

But it's a lot more than just that. Overall, there are three main elements in antler development: nutrition, genetics, and age. And the best driving factor for bigger and better antlers is actually nutrition. If a buck takes in the right quality and amount of food, then its antlers should grow large and strong.

Corn does not have the nutrients necessary to grow big antlers, and too much corn can even kill deer by causing acidosis, diarrhea, and founder.