I'll likely freshen up my mineral sites here in the next month or so. Not sure what mineral/attractant to go with this year. Any suggestions on actual minerals? Not really looking to make my own and I do know there is a difference in just salt based attractants and actual minerals. All "minerals" I've came across are simply highly advertised salt.
I have never hinged enough to have a good statement for follow up yet. The patch I hinged some throughout is roughly a stretched 20-30 yard wide 1/4 to 1/2 acre of them between two food sources. I am gonna pay attention to not only brows but how much they survive and if they "bush" up instead of leaf out or both. If they don't stay alive very well but send shoots I'll probably zip the tops of them clean off and drag tops to strategic blocking spots and allow cottonwood "bushes" to form. There are some decent ones out there for sure. If the salt content is over 50% I'm not interested at all. I am now partnered up with Realworld Seed/Wildlife Products so I'll be utilizing their's if I use any this year, but others out there have a similar salt content. Realworld's Maximizer shows below on left: Obviously they won't list a couple of the mixes out there that are close to what they offer, but it does list a lot of the "big" names.
You could get into long conversations and arguments on this topic, for sure! Salt isn't bad. The deer need it. They don't over eat it (their diet isn't a prepackaged, salt-laden, unhealthy mess like ours). If you want to use just salt, do so without concern. This would include softener salt, plain white salt for cattle feed, etc. Trophy rocks may belong here as well, or in the next group. Now, trace minerals are important for deer health. If you want to give them some well-rounded trace minerals to supplement them, find a supplement that has them. This would be mineral salt, many mineral supplements and again, some Trophy rocks. The next level is where it gets tricky. Macro minerals and growing antlers. Most mineral products load up on calcium and phosphorous. The problem is, most supplements have HUGE quantities of this in them. But it doesn't help much because the deer can't utilize that much of it, so most is excreted and wasted. Deer pull the minerals from their bones to grow antlers, in much more modest quantities. So much lower amounts of these minerals should be in the supplement. Anything more is hype. See Dr. Krulls research. There are many plain and flavored versions in stores of these supplements. Last, there are the supplements that double as true attractants and supplements, but not with huge qualities of salt. Our product fits here. Lucky 7 Trace Mineral Attractant. It has some salt, molasses, brewers yeast (protein) and more. And its attractants bring deer in from a distance. Deer utilize it all year long. There are other brands as well with different formulations.
They finally started eating them. Not sure I will plant them again but they are tearing up the ground to get them now.
Antigo wausau area. still got wayyyyy too much. It went down but well over a foot on the ground yet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Google GRANDPA RAYS they have it all from minerals to food plot blends you name it. 20% salt is all they add. Also ADVANCED WHITETAIL HUNTING they also are pros in planting plots and minerals .
