Cheap and easy way to keep deer healthy in the drought?

I am looking for a way to keep my deer heard healthly in West Texas. Food is limited except what I am feeding them and water is almost gone any ideas?

PRAYER!

invest in water guzzlers first...things have to have water over food to survive.

then just keep feeding, there are things out there they eat that you wouldn't think they eat but do.

What is a guzzle? like a cattle trough?

there are different designs & ways to set one up. some even have it where you can collect rain water. you can google images for "water guzzlers" for ideas.

http://www.wildlifewaterguzzler.com/

-Water Guzzlers provide an affordable way to satisfy Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) water requirements, and cost share eligibility

-20% grade, rough-surface drinking trough designed with the help of National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) biologists to allow watering of both large game (deer, antelope, and elk) and small game (pheasant, quail, rodents) by allowing small game to enter and escape the trough without becoming trapped and contaminating water supply

check out the rest of the features..good things for arid climates

Don't you have to have rain for them to work? If it ever does rain they should have plenty to eat unless the place is already overstocked. Feed the deer alfalfa hay.

There is no cheap way. It cost some money. Were feeding $25,000-$35,000 a month in food right now. But that's why my animals are fat and horns improve dramatically each year. To answer your question pray for rain to green everything up. With fuel going up so well everything else.

And, to think I was fretting over having to buy 15 bags of corn!

Well I have super to common exotics as well as high genetic whitetail. We have allot of money invested in them. We feed 2,000 pound square alfalfa bails, 20 % protein,corn and soy bean in the spin cast feeders and plant food plots we water with our water truck. Takes allot to keep the animals healthy

We burn the thorns off of prickley pear during drought years and they love it

We just feed 4x4x8 alfalfa hay, corn, irrigate where we can, and keep supplement mineral out for them year around. Protein is just through the roof and feeding the hay as well as keeping the mineral out keeps out animals pretty healthy.

I guess it makes a difference if they are making you money. My deer are just moochers.

Yeah it does and I realize that. But we get alfalfa a lot cheaper per ton than what we get protein from the feed store. It may not be as good as the bag protein, but it works well with keeping them healthy when used in combination with supplement mineral. If you want something cheaper you may look into cotton seed and see what you can do there. I know it's been mentioned on here before. Perhaps someone can show a pic of how they feed it. Volume is the key on the price and you just have to check the prices and see what you can do. Check with some other hunters in your area and maybe you can split the total cost just to get what little you need. Also if your making a food plot, you will want to fence it off from hogs if you can and water it as often as it needs it. Food plots are expensive too, especially if they don't grow. We tried it but we just have too many animals out there and putting up a fence was not a option we wanted to do.

Curtis, this is how we feed cottonseed:

The longer it stays dry the higher feed will be due to supply and demand. Whole cottonseed is not as cheap as it once was and can be labor intensive to get it to the animals. Alfalfa is a great buy if you can get it cheap and it will go up in price if it stays dry in Texas much longer due to trucking cost skyrocketing. But still is the best value out there right now. Water is key and lot of ranches have decent to great water on them but with no rain the deer still have eat something just to survive.

Alfalfa is what we are leaning on right now to keep them healthy.

rain is free...just not so easy these days

How are you guy's feeding the Alfalfa?? free choice and in standard hay troughs?

I scatter mine out so more can get to it. If I put it in a feeder the dominate ones eat it until they get the runs.

I may have to give that a shot. Thanks

We have had just enough rain to green the mesquite. I could literally see the mesquite soak up all the moisture from the last rain. Two days later it was like it had not rained at all. With no browse, alfalfa gives them something green to munch on and protein for growth. I am going through a ton every two weeks. I add 20% protein blocks and minerals every other month. I am on year 4 of this feeding program and saw a 10 lb increase in weight per deer over the year before.

We are in bad shape compared to last year, nothing green. I have all the tanks and troughs running over. Every little bit helps. This drought is nothing new for us out in West Texas. The last couple years were great for deer and bad for hunting. Over the last 18 years I remember more dry years than wet. The upside to this is that if you feed now when it is most needed, the rewards will be incredible come November.

Alfalfa is expensive now and hard to find in our area. Last time I found any it was $12.00 for a small square bail.

Cotton seed is non-existent. All the supplies are generally spoken for before the fall harvest ever starts.

Well our bales are 4'X4'x8' and we order them from Kansas by the truck load. Less to worry about from blister beetle the farther no you go it seems. It works out a lot cheaper than protein by the ton.

The way we feed it is we use a skid steer (Bobcat) to set it out on the ranch. When it's dry like it is now we jusy set it on the ground. We also have two old trailers that we can use as well for when it's too wet wet to just set them on the ground.

A regular small bale feeder will work better for your needs. Or even a large cattle trough will work and keep the good leafs off the ground and less waste.

Here is a water cather I built just to give you an ideal on what they can look like. Not hard to build and this one will hold 320 gallons of water. I do top it off everytime I go to the lease and it works perfect.

Nice setup, might want to dig the trough down some to lower it for the smaller animals to drink. A fawn this summer will not be able to reach the water level. Also put a piece of cattle panel or some concrete cinder blocks in it so if a bird or small critter falls in they can get out and not die in the trough if you have not already.

Digging it down would also help insulate it and reduce loss from evaporation.

Mine are Democrate deer too... They know what time the feeder is going off...

I hate to ask a stupid question, but here goes... Do deer actually have to drink water to live, or is it possible that they get all the water they need in browse foliage?

Yes and No. In normal rainfall or better years they do not have to drink much water as they can get it thru the vegitation the consume. But in a drought with a taller browse line and not many green forbes then yes they will drink water. If you feed protein they will drink more water also. In South Texas they can eat cactus or browse plants and get enough moisture to survive on for a while if needed in drier times. At the same time adding water is probably the single most over looked management tool for all wildlife.

The cheapest would be to keep a low density on your property. Suplemental feeding and selective harvest generaly rais the population. If you keep the population where it should be naturaly then you deer should stay healthy, especialy if you feed.

But I like to go out and see a bunch of deer and have more chances at growing a tropy, so you pay to feed them when it gets dry.

We keep the protein full and have a tank that will go dry in about a month and have 2 large 20' round cement water trouphs and a 80 gal water trough at each feeder we fill every time we go. In wet conditions the troughs at the blinds evaporate and grow algea, but now they are near empty or empty every time.

matt

If you are in the cotton raising area check with area gins about there cotton burr pile (low protein ,free inseason and then burned) and somebody to haul a truck load. Dump corn, protein, molasses, mineral on top of pile. Desperate people do desperate thing BTDT

Outback Wildlife Feeders makes a great water guzzler. I bought 3 last year and they work well, but you still need rain. We haul water to them with this setup when there is no rain and it works so well one man can do it alone.

KCR Got any pics of the deer using that Outback Watering System ?

we see quite a few deer go to water but certainly not all of our population

I don't have my game camera over the water, but I have seen them use it in person. I watched from about 500 yards as several does would eat protein and then go over and drink from the guzzler.