corn kills deer? how,
Whitetail Deer
all corn or just some, and why, and how would i know if the corn i use is bad. is this why numbers are droping?are there some websites or articles that explane.
Google this, "Do Deer digest whole corn." and "Feeding deer corn". There are a few good explanations about feeding deer corn, ie, the pros and cons.
Paul
But yet deer have been hitting corn fields for years and are still flourishing.
Corn on it's own isn't immediately fatal, obviously. The problem arises from those that intentially feed them corn in large amounts - piles at a time, and generally at times of the year when other food sources are very scarce. Corn isn't easily digestible, has VERY LITTLE nutritional value, and can ferment in a deer's digestive sysytem. If it is merely just some part of the animals diet, then 'no problem'. No, corn fields don't kill the herd. Small mountains of shelled corn in February can definetely kill them as they tend to exert as little energy as possible in the frigid months to find food. So, if the they hang out near these bait piles and primarly eat just that, then eventually they'll neccessarily have to die. They absolutely can't digest massive quantities of it as they don't posess the type of stomach that can handle it, and I believe the problem is even worse for Elk.
But, for reasons I can't comprehend, some folks have a weird desire to feed wild animals. It's some type of emotional based pay-off of sorts for them. Like these people who hord cats by the dozens in order to "save them", and in by doing so, kill 'em.
The answer, as I see it, is to simply let wild animals live as nature intends them to - on their own.
feeding deer doesn't doesn't hurt them. articles are people's opinions who don't like baiting. show me an article that prooved a deer died from eating corn, and i'll eat my boot and yours. downright silly. no one can feed a deer massive quantities of corn. a deer only eats what a deer wants, regardless of how big or little the corn supply is. i have close to 1000 acres, i have hunters thru jan 31 for bowhunting, and never once in 20+ years has any deer been found to die from eating corn, or anything remotely close to that possibility. deer eat corn every single day in the summer as well as the fall. ever wonder how those deer int he midwest are so healthy and big bodied? hmmmm, but they are all dying? deer also eat silage that spills from the sock at the farm i lease in january. they literally eat every speck that falls from the bucket when we feed at milking each day. that corn has been fermenting for months and i don't see any dead deer lying around. sounds like a biology lesson is in order. if you force feed a person corn, they'd probably die as well. anything in extreme levels becomes toxic. but until you hold a deer down and pump 100 pounds of corn down its throat, this is silly. i heard too many worms will kill a happy fish too!! this is how bad rumors get started.
Holy smokes........now corn kills deer? Time to ban farmers growing corn. Good grief guys, get out and hunt.
Baiting doesn't kill deer, farming kills deer! What a joke!
Cornfields do kill deer. They are drawn to the cornfield. My stand is next to the cornfield.
There are a lot of people out there whose opinions are for sale. Wildlife biologists are sadly no different. In states where they want to keep baiting illegal the powers that be have put their biologists to work cooking up reasons it's bad. The problem is that states where baiting has been legal for many years have experienced no more problems with disease related deer deaths than anywhere else.
Am I saying that no animal anywhere has ever died from these alfatoxins? No, merely that the threat is being waaaaaaaaaaay over blown by people with a vested anti-baiting background.
Every day in this country people take a deep breathe and suck lethal bacteria into their lungs that eventually kill them. But thankfully, just like the deer and the alphatoxins, it's a very rare thing compared to the overall population of people in this country. but if we were to invoke the anti-corn guys logic every one of us should "STOP BREATHING AIR IMMEDIATELY TO AVOID THIS RISK". LOL!
Well the latest thing I read SerbianSharks last deer died from his second hand smoke!!!!
Need more info on where you heard that corn kills deer, not likely.
Roger, deer are ruminants they are designed to digest MUCH harder to digest feeds than corn. Corn is a hi digestible, hi energy feed. Your example of a pile of corn at the wrong time of the year is definately possible if corn suddenly became a large part of their diet.
The following is what could cause ruminant-corn related death. Ruminant stomaches are designed to handle low energy feeds like grasses, forbs and shrubs. when a high energy feed IE corn, is introduced too quickly it upsets the microbe balance of the rumen and causes a condition called acidosis. This condition COULD kill deer. if a deer did not eat roughage to balance the corn this condition could appear. In a wild situation this is HIGHLY unlikely. you really only see acidosis in feed lot cattle where the only feed available is highenergy, and the energy was increased too fast.
Another possibility is someone fed contaminated corn and the contaminate was what killed the deer.
Another indirect effect that has been studied is increased disease spread. Higher concentrations spread diseases faster.
I've watched deer in late season walk by corn and feed on freshly trimmed cedar branches. I'm sure cedar is harder to digest than corn. I've read some stupid stuff, but deer dying from corn is right up there with the best!
Well, how do deer NOT die from corn?
We had a 17 acre corn patch this year. But due to the drought, much of the local corn was testing too high in some type of acid that is harmful to domestic animals.
So they came out and tested our corn patch, and they said levels of 150 or so can kill chickens. Levels of 300 or so will kill cattle. Ours tested something like 330 for level of some acid. So the insurance "disastered" the corn, farmer tilled it under.
But the deer are in there every night. So if the acid is bad enough to kill chickens and cows, to the point that you can't even sell it, why DOESN'T it kill deer?
Bake
Yep, corn sure does kill deer....9 of 'em died near my corn pile last winter....course, there was a different kind of "point" involved.
Bunch of horse hockey. Unless it is a devastating winter and there is nothing to eat anywhere then it will not hurt them. If its that bad they would die anyway.
Deer browse. They eat a little here then move and eat some over there. A twig here, some corn and leaves there. They will not set and eat 50 pounds of corn from a pile.
Bake, the reason the deer can eat the corn and not die is because they don't test it, they just eat it.
Rob
Does corn kill deer, like McDonald's kills humans?
The answer, as I see it, is to simply let wild animals live as nature intends them to - on their own.
This would be thebest answer, Roger, but unfortunately, there are just enough people willing to get in the way.
I found this story in a 2009 issue of Deer and Deer Hunting magazine to be interesting concerning use of corn for deer.
Warning!
This pile of corn is for birds and small mamals Any DEER caught eating will be shot on site!
This is the only way I know for sure that deer have died from corn.
Can be killed by acidosis or lack of enzymes need to breakdown and digest the corn. They need time to build yp these enzymes to break down the corn. They eat and eat and cannot digest it. They die with full bellies os corn later in the winter. You are also bringing deer in from all over and they oft clear out al the browse in the area. Once the browse is gone the less dominant deer don't grt the hay or corn. Deer are suppose eat and need browse in the winter.
Ansci, you got my point well, thank you. Mine wasn't an anti-baiting based opinion. Some of you need to comprehend what it written, not what you *THINK* others are trying to say. As stated, being PART of their diet is just fine and always has been.
its the cars as they cross the road to the corn field.
only the deer have the real answer. with all the possible things they could eat that could kill them, that doesn't seem to be a problem. they aren't stupid, and they are very capable of deciding and managing their diets. man has become so artificially intelligent in his own mind, he suddenly knows more than the deer. show me a deer that died because of a full stomach of corn.......... no deer is so stupid to gorge himself with something to the point of killing itself, only man does that. they know how much to eat and what to eat, and to think that we need to police ourselves from feeding a deer so that it doesn't die from too much corn is downright silly.
Corn doesn't kill deer anymore than global warming supposedly kills polar bears. Ever notice how many sunny warm zoos have polar bears ??
"no deer is so stupid to gorge himself with something to the point of killing itself, only man does that"
you must not have been around farm animals very much. cattle, horses, sheep even dogs can overeat themselves to death.
If they suddenly have to access to on ample amounts of corn or a high starch food, espicially in winter when other food supplies are limited. Absolutely it can kill them.
Don't know about deer, but Norseman is right about cows.
I have a family friend who has cows. A few years back they left a gravity wagon full of corn in the lot. The cows would scratch their backs on the wheel that opened the door. They managed to turn it enough one day while scratching to open the door and dump all the corn on the ground.
The cows stood there and ate huge amounts of the corn. The way I understand it, that could have killed them, but it wasn't the real problem. The real problem developed when they started drinking water. They lost 8 or 10 cows that day. Luckily, the vet got there and was able to save the others.
So, don't know about deer, but cows will overeat themselves to death.
A horse will eat itself to death too. We used to have an old mare that we had to drylot every spring when the new grass came up because she would eat herself sick. Near death
Bake
