As the snow falls today in Central Texas, I can’t help but think about the white-tailed deer throughout the country. I’m not just talking about the animals living right outside my door, but everywhere throughout the whitetail’s range. This is the time of year when habitat conditions are tough and when the nuts and bolts of deer population management are tested. After all, the white-tailed deer hunting seasons are over and the remaining deer are carryover, the core herd of the upcoming hunting season.

At the heart of deer population management is food availability. With late winter upon us, even though spring is just around the corner, white-tailed deer food is scarce over the landscape. Late winter is the most nutritionally stressful time of the year for a deer. At this point in time, the deer herd on every ranch should be at or below its base population size—the maximum number of animals that the habitat can support. Otherwise, the deer herd is at risk of a die-off from being malnurished due to inadequate food resources.

The ideal number of deer for a property can be somewhat subjective at the beginning of a deer management program, but keeping a close eye on habitat and deer body conditions will let landowners know where their base population should be. Less than desirable habitat conditions and lower deer body weights mean the population needs to be trimmed down even further. Big, healthy deer may suggest that the whitetail herd could be increased, but should it?

This is where two schools of thought regarding deer density and food availability collide. In nature, a given amount of habitat can only support so many animals until the food runs out. This law of nature obviously applies to white-tailed deer, but we as humans have the ability to add more food. Too many times, managers perceive the ability to add food to the system as a way to increase the number of animals that their property will support. However, this is just not so. Additional food does not increased the number of animals that the PROPERTY can support, it merely increases the total herd size.

So why is this a problem? The degree to which this becomes a problem depends on how far the actual deer population is from the ideal deer population for a particular property. A deer herd that is perfect in size for a property will have no problem getting through the nutritionally stressful times of late summer and late winter. This herd can even be provided with supplemental feed to ensure that all deer maintain maximum body condition and health, even though they don’t require it.

However, what happens as the deer herd gets further away, well above the ideal population size? Well, without the addition of food, deer begin to die. This is not just bad deal for the deer that have died, but an indicator that the herd is in poor condition. Once deer begin to die, you will be hard-pressed to find any deer that is in average to above-average condition within the herd. This is why deer seasons as we know them are in place—to maintain healthy deer herds.

But wait, why can’t we simply add more food and maintain more deer? Not only is this costly, but even as popular as supplemental feeding is, most properties do not have supplemental feeding programs for deer. Besides, food is only supplemental if the deer on a property can survive without it. If a deer herd requires feed, then it’s just that—feed. Removal of the feed jeopardizes every deer on the property and the herd.

In closing, winter is tough on all animals, including white-tailed deer. Looking out on this cold winter day makes me think about how limited food resources are during late winter in the deer’s natural environment. The most important component of white-tailed deer management is to keep the deer herd at a healthy level for the available habitat. Not only will this benefit the deer herd, but their habitat as well. And they need every last bit of it at this time of the year.

The benefits of supplemental feeding of white-tailed deer have been witnessed by researchers and landowners alike. In white-tailed deer management today, the combination of habitat management and supplemental feeding go hand-in-hand on most properties. Though some landowners choose to supplement through food plots, others use protein pellets. Regardless of the product used to supplement deer, the primary reason for providing supplemental feed is to improve the overall health of each individual animal in the herd.

The health of a white-tailed herd is readily measured through the individual body condition of deer, the antler quality of bucks, and fawn production. Although the presumed outcome of providing additional food is better and healthier deer, landowners often look for different inputs—or different food options. I’ve been asked time and time again over the years about feeding whole soybeans as a supplement for whitetail. It can be done, and it can be done successfully, but it’s always good to look at the pros and cons.

First, let’s not confuse baiting deer with supplementing deer. Baiting deer with corn can be great for attracting deer for the purpose of harvest, but corn is not a supplement. A true supplement adds nutritional value to an individual deer’s diet. Sounds simple enough, but why would a deer manager consider different options for supplementing deer? Well, the big concern are typically costs.

The dollar does not go as far as it once did, so hunters and deer managers are constantly looking for less expensive options. Currently, corn is $7, roasted soybeans are $12, and protein pellets are $11 per 50 pound bag (depending on where you buy them). Corn only offers 6 to 7% protein, soybeans average about 40% protein, and the pellets I quoted above are 20% protein. All of these products get cheaper at bulk prices, but let’s look at the value. In other words, what your deer get for each dollar you invest.

Corn is an attractant so the value is that it will draw deer into your area. However, the money you spend on a bag of corn does nothing to actually help the deer other than making their belly feel a little more full. The addition of protein, however, really can improve the diet and body condition of individual deer. Soybeans and protein pellets are both more expensive than corn by weight, but the value (what the deer gets versus what you pay) is much better!

Soybeans, at 1.7 times the price of corn, deliver over 5 times the amount of protein when compared to corn. Protein pellets, at 1.6 times the price of corn, deliver over 3 times the protein. Soybeans also have 3 times the fat content of corn. The value of soybeans and pellets over corn is obvious, but there is more to consider when it comes to supplementing a deer’s diet. In addition to macronutrients (protein, carbs, fats), what about the essential micronutrients required by by white-tailed deer?

Protein is great, but deer can not survive on protein alone. Important micronutrients for whitetail include calcium, phosphorous, potassium, copper, selenium, zinc, and vitamins A and E. This is where protein pellets pull away, so to speak, from whole or roasted soybeans. Soybeans can have good levels of micronutrients, but not always. The nutritional value of the bean will depend on the conditions under which it was grown and this affects the macro- and micronutrient levels. This will ultimately impact the amount of nutrients that are digestible by deer. In addition, roasted soybeans have more (bypass) protein than raw soybeans.

Where they are readily available, soybeans are a practical way to supplement the nutrition of white-tailed deer. Of course, any food added to a deer’s natural environment should only be considered a supplement. Supplemental food is not habitat in a sack and can not be substituted for good deer habitat management. However, soybeans can be used effectively to supplement animals where good deer habitat exists, but micronutrient levels can vary.

Spring is officially here and plants are green again, but the lack of rainfall has kept native vegetation from really taking off. On the bright side, trees, shrubs, and vines are leafing out thanks to some precipitation and warmer temperatures, and providing new-growth browse for hungry white-tailed deer. And speaking of deer food, there is some on-going research that may shed more light on the supplemental feeding of deer and its impact on native plants. Deer managers agree that supplemental feeding, whether it be protein pellets, whole cotton seed, or some other type of high-protein food, really helps local deer populations.

However, the words “supplemental feeding” have become almost synonymous with “deer management” in some circles, and although not totally accurate, it’s not far off. Although the management of deer populations incorporates much more than the addition of free-choice protein, most landowners giving deer management an honest effort are providing some sort of supplemental food. So as common as this practice is for the management of white-tailed deer, it also deserves further attention. By definition supplemental food is, well, supplemental. The foods placed out for deer are merely there to add to an individual deer’s natural diet, not replace it. If this were false then a property could support an unlimited number of deer as long as food was continually added to the system. This won’t work. 

But some often confuse deer breeders and deer management. Yes, deer can live in pens devoid of vegetation with protein pellets and water, but imagining a ranch that looks like a deer pen would be a sad, sad sight and the deer population would still suffer from density-dependent factors. It was commonly thought that the addition of supplemental food reduced a deer’s use of natural plants — and it’s true — but maybe it all goes down a little different. Past research found that deer provided with supplemental food in the form of free-choice protein pellets still used native plants, but the deer only consumed the most highly preferred plants available to them.

However, preliminary results from research conducted in South Texas suggests that supplemental food does not encourage selective foraging by deer. So why is it important? Well, we all know that deer prefer to browse on certain plant species. Food preference is probably a function of palatability, digestibility, and overall nutritive value. In areas with high numbers of deer, highly palatable browse species become over-utilized, stunted (hedged), fail to reproduce, and can die. When this happens over a ranch or ranches and year after year, entire plant species can disappear. This leads to an unhealthy system with plant species after species succumbing to over-use over time.

Under the first scenario, supplemental feeding would not prevent the over-use of preferred browse species by deer, but new research may find that free-choice feeds reduce the use of preferred browse. This is important for deer managers that are interested in providing good wildlife habitat because it gives real credit to the fact that free-choice pellets really are supplemental. Deer not only use preferred browse species, but they also use moderately and slightly preferred browse plants. This widespread use of browse species suggest that supplements can buffer the use of native plants by deer, but not fully protect them.

So regardless of what the current study finds, both scenarios end up proving that deer can not live on supplemental feed alone. Even when supplemental food is provided free-choice, white-tailed deer still desire native browse plants in their diets. Not only are these plants important for food, but also for the shelter and screening cover they provide for deer and other wildlife species. And let’s not forget that browse plants typically contain protein levels ranging from 15 to 35%. And that can feed your deer and really supplement your supplement, for a lot less money.

An important component of any deer management program is ensuring the physical health of individual white-tailed deer, as well as the overall deer herd. Individual deer health is important for maintaining body mass, promoting maximum antler growth in bucks, and optimal milk production in does. Because the energy and protein requirements of deer have become more understood over the years, deer managers now focus much of their attention on meeting and even exceeding the food requirements of white-tailed deer. This can be done in either of two ways, either from native habitat or through supplemental food.        

Although protein pellets ranging from 16 to 20% protein are often offered in free-choice feeders, people often consider other sources of protein for diet supplementation. Several sources of “alternative” protein include crop seeds such as soybeans and whole cottonseed. However, cottonseed contains a compound known as gossypol, a toxic pigment the plant naturally produces and is believed to discourage consumption by animals. Gossypol can reduce reproductive ability in some mammals when consumed at high rates. Fortunately, recent research in Texas has found that white-tailed deer are not negatively effected by whole cottonseed, even when it makes up a high percentage of a deer’s diet.

LSONEWS: “We’ve done a series of independent projects,” said David Hewitt, the institute’s Stuart W. Stedman Chair for White-tailed Deer research. “We had five bucks on a 40-percent whole cottonseed diet and five bucks on pellets and chopped alfalfa from June through September. We looked at body weight, semen samples, and blood. We did not see any negative effects the first year.

The bucks on 40-percent whole cottonseed did lose some weight while the other bucks (on pellets and alfalfa) did not. Again, there were no toxic effects on the sperm or red blood cells. The bucks maintained their weight while the control group bucks gained weight. The doe weights did not change.”

And at over 22% percent crude protein, cottonseed really is a high-protein food alternative that is also rich in phosphorus, one of the most limited nutrients in native forages. And in addition to deer performing well on it, there are some other positives surrounding the feeding of whole cottonseed. Non-target species, such as feral hogs, raccoons, and other varmints do not eat cottonseed. This can help your bottom line by limiting consumption by animals other than deer.

Cottonseed is a solid choice as a supplement for whitetail because it’s high in protein and does not easily degrade in moist conditions. In fact, you can simply place it out on the ground or in a free-choice feeder. EasiFlo cottonseed has the same nutritional benefits as regular (fuzzy) whole cottonseed, but is starch-coated to improve handling. This new cottonseed flows freely and can easily be augered through traditional grain-handling equipment. Whole cottonseed as a supplemental food for deer can increase growth rates, improve fawn production, and increase antler development in bucks, but it is not a complete ration.

Whole cottonseed does lack many of the micro- and macro-nutrients that protein pellets contain. And although cottonseed has many great qualities, its availability may be limited in your area. So remember, regardless of whether you decide to supplement a deer herd through protein pellets, crop seeds, or food plots, supplements are only intended to compliment native forage, particularly during periods of stress.     

When it comes to white-tailed deer management we do know a lot, but we do not know it all. There is a lot that is not known about how white-tailed deer affect their habitat under different densities with and without supplemental feed, however, that is exactly what a research project initiated on two South Texas ranchesd hoped to determine — the effects of deer on native vegetation.

To accurately conduct the research, six 200-acre enclosures were constructed on both ranches. In addition, they were divided into 3 pairs — each with target populations of 10, 25, or 40 white-tailed deer. One of each pair was supplemented with a free-choice (all you can eat) pelleted supplemental ration and the other was left to forage from only native forbs and browse. To document changes in habitat condition, canopy cover and biomass were estimated annually.  

Forbs consumed by deer declined where feed was not provided, but they increased when feed was available. The supplementally fed pens with the lowest deer density had the greatest decrease in forb use. However, even under various densities and some pens not receiving any supplemental feed, the pens did not show any significant a difference in plant utilization. 

From the study, the researches concluded that free-choice supplemental feeding appears to alleviate foraging pressure, however, results should be considered preliminary because extreme annual variation in rainfall may have different outcomes. The results of the study were somewhat complicated because although the researchers could control many factors, they could not ensure that all pens were exactly the same with regard to vegetation. In addition, had the research taken place during drought years, the results could have been much different.

It makes sense that higher deer densities would have greater impacts on native plants, especially in areas where deer do not receive supplemental feed. However, this study did not come to that conclusion and it probably had something to do with outstanding natural habitat conditions during the study period.  Had the study followed the individual herds for a longer period of time, or had habitat conditions been poor to very bad, then the low density deer pens would have faired best, especially those with supplemental feed.