By Tom Fegely
|
|
It’s common knowledge, even among greenhorn deer hunters, that three ingredients determine the size of a buck and, of course, its antlers: age, nutrition and genetics.
The characteristics a deer inherits are beyond most hunters’ influence. For nearly all hunters who manage and pursue their deer on private lands, genetics isn’t under their control.
Not so for age and adequate nutrition. The former is relatively simple: don’t squeeze the trigger on small bucks. But in many quarters it’s difficult to enforce.
“If I pass up that little 4-pointer it may be the only legal buck I see all season,” a friend argued just prior to last year’s buck season. “If I let him walk, somebody on the other side of the property line is going to kill him anyway, so why shouldn’t I shoot it?”
His argument is a valid one, although in recent years some states have set antler restrictions permitting those 1 1/2 year old juveniles – which compose 75 percent of each year’s harvest – to live beyond their second year. One is my home state of Pennsylvania, which has enforced a highly successful antler restriction, placing bucks not possessing a minimum three-points-to-one-side off limits. Multi-tined and heavier-racked bucks are already being taken, not only in farm country but in the state’s forested northern tier as well. Any management goal allowing a buck to reach, or at least grow closer, to its genetic potential must include passing up deer that, perhaps, had been fair game for many years. Relatively recent findings have concluded that even spike bucks, once thought to signal inferiority, can turn into trophies given time.
Nutrition, however, is a different matter. Throughout the year bucks, does and fawns go through cycles in which their food availability ranges from bare necessities to lush bounties across the four seasons. Winter often finds supplemental foods such as corn placed here and there to fill the gap between winter’s meager pantry and the first sprouts of spring greenery. Problem is, fed corn doesn’t last very long and has limited usefulness in winter.
Like restricting the shooting of young bucks, for the past 15 years or more landowners and hunt clubs have been making conscientious efforts to influence overall health and antler quality by planting food plots, the most popular of which are clover-based forages and “booster” rations, most of which offer substantially more than short-term benefits.
“There are two periods – starting in mid-January and followed by the early green-up in March and April – that deer benefit most from supplemental foods,” says Matt Harper, deer nutrition specialist for the Whitetail Institute of North America. “Re-growth is beginning to occur and it’s important for any animal to begin to recover its body weight at a time when very little natural forage is available.”
Insufficient dietary needs during both periods will result in not only lower body weights but will also affect antler growth, Harper and his cohorts discovered in the development of several unique products marketed by the highly respected Whitetail Institute.
It is scientifically accepted that antler development is a secondary sex characteristic. Body growth comes first, and a buck unable to recover its pre-winter weight won’t reach its antler potential during the 200-day growth period. The same holds for underweight does which may bear underdeveloped fawns or produce less milk for its offspring. Both sexes require sufficient fats and oils, known as lipids, derived from their foodstuff. Energy-yielding carbohydrates are also converted to fat for use during these hard times when nutrient requirements and food intake are at their most critical stage.
The better a deer survives winter, the sooner minerals and proteins will shift from skeletal growth to antler growth, but the former always takes priority.
Calcium, phosphorous and a variety of trace elements including selenium, copper, zinc, potassium and others are also necessary in a whitetail’s diet. Although the total mineral content of a deer’s body is only about five percent, hardened antlers are composed of 55 percent mineral matter with calcium, phosphorous and magnesium making up more than one-third (22 percent, 11 percent and 3 percent, respectively) of the mass. The same minerals needed for antler bone are also necessary for milk production, blood clotting, muscle contraction and general metabolism, according to studies at Penn State University.
“Trace elements may be just as important as calcium and phosphorous for antler growth, but they’re not found in great amounts,” Harper explains. “It’s like making a cake and missing some minor ingredients – it just won’t taste the same.”
Food plots can have their limitations in winter, Harper has learned in his animal nutrition studies. “Plots that were used (prior to winter) may remain green but are often dormant in January and February and don’t help as much in the all-important recovery period.”
As a deer’s nutritional demands vary from one season to another, the availability of natural vegetation, food plot fare and mineral/vitamin needs change, as does a deer’s diet. Although hunters are most interested in what it takes to produce an optimum set of antlers, many other complex internal activities take place in the growth and function of muscle, bone and organs. The better a herd’s needs are met, the greater the prospect of bigger deer, bigger antlers and healthier does and fawns.
That research was the basis for the development of a trio of nutritional augmentation products first marketed by the Whitetail Institute in 2000 following extensive study by the Whitetail Institute Research staff. Labeled Cutting Edge, the granular (not powdery) attractant is formulated in three unique formulas for use in three seasons – late winter/early spring, late spring and summer and then fall and early winter. Dubbed Initiate, Optimize and Sustain, the blends are designed to meet a whitetail’s varying needs as preferred food availability changes across the year.
For example, Cutting Edge plays the same role for deer as humans enjoy by taking vitamins and minerals and eating protein-rich foods. We can’t possibly survive by taking “pills” alone, no matter how helpful they are, but they do fill the needs we might not otherwise get in our daily rations. All three of the Whitetail Institute’s carefully chosen products contain similar ingredients but amounts and percentages change to serve a deer’s ever-changing nutritional needs … and more.
Initiate is designed for use in late winter and early spring when deer have the need to recover from winter’s rigors but Mother Nature still hasn’t produced any nutritious “groceries.” Preserving body weight is a must.
“Initiate is 20 percent protein plus energy, minerals, vitamins and fiber-digesting aids,” said Harper. “Deer consume large quantities of `stemmy` material but if it can’t be efficiently digested it won’t do a deer much good. The fiber-digesting aids we put into Initiate accounts for more nutrition from natural vegetation.”
Think of Initiate’s fiber-digesting quality as an “enabler,” of sorts, making the intake of natural vegetation more efficient and hence, more nutritious per pound via the production of bacteria in the rumen, aiding in the digestion of fibrous matter.
“Deer simply get more from their natural foods,” notes Harper. “That’s important all year but especially necessary prior to and at the beginning of antler growth.”
As whitetail country shifts into second gear, April showers bring not only flowers, but also the first hints of greenery and lush food plots. This is the time to switch to Optimize which provides high protein and the correctly formulated minerals and vitamins.
“Antlers are just beginning to show by April and early protein needs are very important then, even though antler growth will continue through most of summer,” said Harper. “I suggest starting to use Optimize in mid March in the South and mid April in the North.”
Even the growing soft, blood-filled velvet antlers prior to mineralization are made of a protein-rich substance known as collagen, which is almost entirely composed of protein.
As leaves begin to color, menu item number three – Sustain – moves to the forefront. Sustain is formulated for late fall and winter, providing energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and those all- important fiber digesting aids at a time when food supplies are meager and may require extra effort to access. The need to dig for acorns in snow, to travel to corn and soybean fields with minimal morsels, survive cold winter nights, carry fawns into their third trimester or maintain body weights, all sap strength and energy from a deer’s body as food supplies dwindle. The availability of Sustain, as the name infers, is to help prevent a severe drop in a deer’s overall health and provide a jump-start come spring.
Don’t mistake the use of supplemental minerals, vitamins and other substances as substitutes for natural fare and high-quality food plot plantings. The role of supplements is to complement natural browse and food plots and to fill the gap during periods of abundant forage as well as the time of limited availability. No single supplement can do the complete job, and none of the Cutting Edge mixes should be considered a complete feed. Nor is Cutting Edge a salt-heavy “lick,” as are some such products on today’s market. They contain as little as 1.5% salt. To keep deer interested, however, the trio of granular supplements offers a taste enhancer called Devour to keep them coming back for more.
It’s important to consider that no ingredient or man-supplied supplement influences only antler growth, Harper said. As stated, replenishing body weight and restoring bone loss from spring through summer takes priority whether supplements and other plot-foods are available or not. When a buck’s skeletal frame is strong, and only then, will a larger portion of calcium, phosphorous, trace minerals and proteins be channeled to antler development.
Interestingly, healthy bucks are able to store minerals in their skeletons and draw upon them as needed for antler growth. According to a Penn State study, this little-known phenomenon in antler development occurs prior to velvet loss and the end of the 200-day antler growth period. For a time, male deer experience a form of osteoporosis, similar to the weakening of bone – lacking sufficient calcium in particular – affecting older women and some men. However, healthy bucks blessed with nutritious browse soon replace those lost minerals.
Availability of the three Cutting Edge formulas in company with high-tech food plots such as Imperial Whitetail Clover, Alfa-Rack or Extreme will aid nature in the efficient utilization of browse, farm crops, acorns, apples, beechnuts, honeysuckle, grasses and the dozens upon dozens of other whitetail table fare, filling the gap between Mother Nature’s menu selections and the rich and necessary side dishes served by landowners and hunters.