Danger of feeding corn to deer
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: jstephens61
13-Dec-17
Not to mention spreading CWD.
From: GotBowAz
13-Dec-17
Interesting. Im sure many folks dont know about this. Here in Az its illegal now to bait but when it was legal the baiting was done year around so the deer system had most likely gotten used to it. What I dont understand about it though is why aren't the deer used to it by hard winter? There is corn everywhere, at least back east in the farming areas. Maybe hay would be a better solution for hard winters without agriculture.
From: Charlie Rehor
13-Dec-17
For more information about the potential harmful as well as helpful effects of corn Check out www.sit0brand.com
Franchise opportunities available.
From: kokosing
13-Dec-17
Feeding deer during hunting season is used for only one reason.
From: Genesis
13-Dec-17
Most immediate danger to deer is a 2 inch Rage crashing the party.....Long term,I dunno
From: GF
13-Dec-17
“The ideal scenario for someone wanting to feed would be to start in November, before the first snow, and not quit until spring,”
I’m looking around for Dana Carvey’s Church Lady.....
“My... How CONVEEENIENT!”
They allow baiting here because they’re desperate to cut the herd down, but it’s just such a bad deal all around...
From: Mad Trapper
13-Dec-17
Our game officials have preached this for years. We have standing corn and the deer eat it. They always have. I have fed corn in Feb when the acorn crop is down and we are experiencing a tough winter and have never encountered this problem. I have friends in Texas who feed deer corn practically all year long with no ill effects. My take on it is if your deer have never had corn and you start feeding it to them, you may have these problems. But I am not a biologist so I don't know for sure. I can only go by what I have seen over the last couple of decades. Certainly interesting in learning more. Tried feeding commercial deer feed pellets as well as bales of alfalfa. The deer much preferred corn.
From: LINK
13-Dec-17
I think the problem is in areas with a lot of snow causing deer to over eat corn. In NW Oklahoma there are corn feeders at a rate of about 4 per square mile and you never see any I’ll effects, just fat deer. Their natural browser is never covered for more than a day or two and the deer browse far more than they eat corn. Also the deer here hardly ever run out of nutrient rich food sources. They have grass all summer, bindweed when things dry out and by the time hunters start putting corn out there is winter wheat along with milo and corn being harvested.
From: Timbrhuntr
13-Dec-17
Old news its been known around where I am for years that you cant just dump corn in the middle of winter when a bad storm hits you have to add browze to it. As far as CWD well I'll just leave that one or be typing for a week ! The problem is cutting down all the browze so deer are left with very little natural food at least where I am. Same goes for turkey little or no cover or food sources so we supplement all the time with corn mixture and never seem to have a problem been doing it for 20 years.
From: sticksender
13-Dec-17
From: Jaquomo
13-Dec-17
We had this happen to a moose in our neighborhood. Someone decided it would be a great idea to feed it grain. Poor thing died in the middle of a small lake right in town while everyone watched it thrash around, moaning, for hours. The necropsy results indicated it literally "cooked" from the inside. Bad deal
From: tradmt
13-Dec-17
As long as we get to smoke that mack daddy shooter buck, what else really matters?
From: LC Archer
13-Dec-17
+1 Genesis Baiting is a way of life here in SC and many other states. You can refuse to do it but deer movement is definitely affected especially when it is cold. Thankfully late September and October they are less impacted by piles of yellow gold.
From: Missouribreaks
13-Dec-17
Alcohol kills some hunters too, does that make it all bad?
From: TrapperKayak
13-Dec-17
If you want to feed deer food that is good for them, cut down some large deciduous trees and let them eat the tops. They will flock to it and continue chewing it all up until they are munching sticks a half inch in diameter. If you want proof, go into a woods in winter, find fresh blowdowns, and you'll see heavy deer sign all around the tree tops. Especially maples and nut trees.
From: Bowriter
13-Dec-17
Yep, some of us have been preaching that for quite some time.
From: Inshart
13-Dec-17
Several years ago during an extreme winter here in north central MN, prior to the infestation of timber wolves, there was a huge herd of deer yarded up about 5 miles from where I lived at the time, just trying to survive by eating browse. Some local hunters went in and hing-cut a bunch of trees and a bunch of brush which was working great.
I took my wife and 2 young kids over there several times counting well over a 100 deer in this small area.
Then a few "save the animals" type thought it would be a good idea to take several bales of hay and drop it off for them - against the advise of the DNR. A few weeks later I counted over 20 dead deer from the road that the DNR later said died of starvation with full bellies of hay.
Their systems simply can not "make the switch" to hay from browse.
From: ahunter55
13-Dec-17
what Inshart said on the hay. We have on average a dz. Squirrels come to our deck & eat the 2-3 cups of corn & sunflower seed we throw out for them daily. We have other critters come to as we have 7 bird feeders too. We live where there is corn all around, guess what the Deer go for? I also throw scraps out which has a little bit of everything at times & we have 4 CROWS that stop by EVERY DAY to check as they have "learned" often than not there will be something they like. Animals get conditioned when food is placed on a regular basis.. I have night critters coons, possums & skunks stop by at night & clean up what the day critters leave
From: Sage Buffalo
13-Dec-17
Corn doesn't hurt deer over population does.
From: South Farm
13-Dec-17
A few other dangers not yet mentioned...you could throw your back out, you could go broke, you have to make up (and remember) really cool stories about how you shot the big one over a pile of corn, you indirectly harm the earth by cutting into the supply of corn that could otherwise create ethanol, you could put a family of moonshiners out of business and force them back on government cheese and peanut butter, and last but not least you could risk humiliation when your friends see the teenage girl at the feed store loading 50# sacks in the back of your pickup because you don't want to get mill dust on your suit.
So I ask, is it really worth it???
From: Proline
13-Dec-17
I beleive its all in the manner presented. You go dump a hundred pounds of corn in a pile February first in the woods and you likely will have problems. You run corn through a broadcast feeder 3 times a day that dispearses 75 or 100 lbs a week to supplement them beginning just after season end in December and continue to green up............not a problem.
From: PushCoArcher
13-Dec-17
I put corn out from July-March and the biggest danger I've seen is going broke as stated above never seen any ill effects on the deer herd. There is little to know agriculture were I hunt in SE Oklahoma and we have very mild winters. A ton of people feed corn in Oklahoma and as far as I know there hasn't been a case of cwd in recent history if ever. Also the stereo type of a hunter dumping out a bag of corn and hunting over it is a bit over played. I have many feeders and only one is near a stand and it's in the middle of a food plot I use corn for trail cam surveys and to increase the number of deer on my properties there's always been plenty of water and cover food is the limiting factor where I hunt. Most people I know stop feeding corn as soon as November ends don't know anyone who starts feeding more in the dead of winter (it was 69 degrees here today so not exactly harsh winter conditions)
From: Ben Farmer
13-Dec-17
What about in situations like this year where I hunt in Ohio. We had tons of rain in November. There were HUGE corn fields still standing in December. I'm sure the deer are still cleaning up leftover corn in those fields now and will be for sometime yet.
From: kota-man
13-Dec-17
They will all die Ben. ;)
From: Ben Farmer
14-Dec-17
Guess I won't buy my Ohio license next year Kota-man:)
From: lawdy
14-Dec-17
Deer are ruminants. Up here they are keying on mushrooms and moss to get their gut bacteria ready for foraging. They are also hitting the apples which are brown and frozen. People feed deer up here which has resulted in the ancestral deer yards being logged as the deer have moved to people's back yards. We have reached the point where if deer are not feed all winter, in many areas they will all die. Plus, with the feds buying up and taking our whole county, our deer herd is going to see a drop as they don't log. The moose are disappearing fast which helps deer as they are brutal browsers. I survey deer yards in the winter and find low coyote predation in what natural deer yards we have left. Coyotes up here love deer feeding as they too eat grain and that keeps them healthy so they pick off deer hiking from one feeding area to another. I own 60 acres and 30 of it is a deer yard. I log it a little in the winter and leave the tops. It is a mess to walk through but the deer there thrive, plus I trap. When I cruise a yard, I carry a pack saw and cut a few hardwoods. The deer love them.
From: LINK
14-Dec-17
All you lazy baiters are ridiculous! Why waste your time and money? Get off your lazy duffs and plant a corn food plot like I do. Just go mow a strip every week during season and it works like a charm, even without mowing I can wack that swamp donkie Kong with my airbow every day when he comes in to the sound of the mower. ;)
All kidding aside we don’t need more ethanol and some of you guys are dilussional about hunting corn. I have food plots, I have corn piles and I have food plots with corn piles in them. I see no difference, except the corn gets them to stand in front of a camera. I think some of you guys live in States with no crops and no baiting and your just simply jealous, get off your high horse.
From: South Farm
15-Dec-17
..and it started again, like it started before..
From: lawdy
15-Dec-17
Last winter, over in Pittsburg, NH, near me, over 100 deer were hit by logging trucks and cars while crossing Rte 3 going from back yard to back yard. That is more than found in the deer yard mortality surveys before feeding became popular. I play gigs over there occasionally. Picked up a nice buck laying right in the middle of town at 1:30 in the morning after a gig two winters ago. My drummer and I drove a few hundred yards down the road and found a doe that wasn't as banged up so we traded them.
From: dm/wolfskin
19-Dec-17
Yes, deer are becoming extinct. Bad food, cars, and global warming are killing them all.
From: Forest bows
19-Dec-17
I have seen corn kill alot of deer!! Lol I would have to agree it's bad for them!
From: BC173
19-Dec-17
Sometimes I wonder who makes this stuff up.
From: dm/wolfskin
19-Dec-17
Pigs eating corn die too.
From: Mad Trapper
20-Dec-17
Where is Ned? He is the Bowsite's resident CORN EXPERT.
From: longbeard
20-Dec-17
Sometimes a little knowledge can be dangerous! Or it just fits the narrative of the person with no knowledge.
From: tonyo6302
20-Dec-17
A biologist in North Carolina told me shelled corn was the problem. It molds when it gets wet and left in piles, and the Deer bloat because of the mold. Some deer die from the mold bloat.
.. .. ..
.. .. ..
He also told me that corn left on the cobb was never a problem. Even a pile of it on the ground, would not mold like shelled corn.
That explains why you don't see a deer die-off from crops left in the field - and why when you drive the back roads of eastern North Carolina, you see signs for "Deer Ear Corn for sale" at a lot of farms.
From: dm/wolfskin
20-Dec-17
Corn on the cob will mold if it stays wet on and off. Corn on the stalk will mold too with wet conditions.
From: Timbrhuntr
21-Dec-17
I agree corn on the cobb will mold too . I put ear cobb corn for 2 years I was able to get some from a farmer before he combined and just went back to regular combined corn as it is easier to get.
From: SteveB
21-Dec-17
Baiting with corn wont hurt deer unless they don't have anything else around to balance their diet. That's the truth. Overpopulation is far worse.
From: Timbrhuntr
22-Dec-17
I did the oats thing for a few years but I mixed the oats in with the corn. The deer would eat all the corn and leave the oats on the ground so I just went back to corn !
From: drycreek
22-Dec-17
Aint no danger of a deer dying from eating corn where I hunt, unless they want to fight the damn hogs for it :-)
From: Habitat for Wildlife
22-Dec-17
If you kill enough hogs in an area do they learn to stay away, or become nocturnal?
From: Missouribreaks
22-Dec-17
Lots of bushels of corn in a standing corn field, hope the deer know the huge danger.
From: Swampbuck
22-Dec-17
Habitat, the answer is No fn way!! I've killed three in one sit in the morning, went back, hunted the same stand in the afternoon and killed two more.
From: drycreek
22-Dec-17
Swamp, I guess that depends on the hogs. We give them hell here in the off season and I can promise you they are as smart as the biggest buck in the woods. We shoot them day and night.
On another place I hunt, what you stated is normal, but there is lots of acreage and even more hogs, which means you are probably shooting into a new group each time. I've had as many as thirty in a group on a game cam pic, and not sure there weren't more out of frame. They pretty well keep deer away if they are in your immediare area. I despise the bastards.
From: Swampbuck
22-Dec-17
Thick!!
Thick!!
Drycreek, just the ride in :(
From: JimG
23-Dec-17
I live in Kentucky where it is legal to bait. I have already fed over 3,000 lbs. of shelled corn this season and have every year for the past seven years or so. Whats hard on them is a broadhead through the lungs. Never found a dead deer. I have 500 plus acres mostly wooded they have a good balanced diet. I have forty fruit trees I have planted.
