Mineral experiment

I have been conducting an experiment with different ingredients used in mineral blocks/supplements. I discovered something interesting. I have a 120 acre property I put 2 brand new mineral sites on. One on the north end and one on the south end. South end I used my standard mineral I always use, which uses a percentage of standard salt as an attractant. On the north end, I added Sodium Glutamate to the mineral. I put 20 lbs. of mineral in each location, and left cameras there 3 weeks. I went to check cameras. South mineral site had almost all of the mineral gone and there is a 3 ft round bare spot on ground. 2850 pictures. On the north end, the mineral was completely gone with a 6 ft bare spot and a 4" deep hole in the middle...in 3 weeks time! 6500 pictures. Its the same deer on both cameras, but they are visiting north site over twice as often. They stay at the north site longer each visit too. Sodium Glutamate is like hyper-salt; the same stuff McDonalds puts in their food to make it addictive (MSG). The deer act like crack heads around the stuff...its weird. This is only one test, but I am going to try it on my other farms to see if results are similar. 2-3x as many pics is a big difference. Nutritionally there isn't really a benefit....but if Sodium Glutamate is that much more attractive than salt, in theory one could use far less and have the same attracting power, either saving $ by putting out less, or being able to add higher percentage of minerals to the mix.

 

This is interesting. How about you run a true A/B test and have the sites side by side?

 

I thought about doing that, but I am worried about cross contamination with 2 sites close together, and since deer are browsers and tend to wander in and out of the mineral site, the data may be skewed. Deer could potentially walk in front of camera on site a even though they are feeding at site b.

 

Boonerville would you feel comfortable PMing me your mixtures. I would like to test it here in NC as well. Its ok if you don't I promise I won't be offended :-)

 

Interesting.

Where do you get the Sodium Glutamate?

 

They will all be outlawed soon anyway.

 

Covey - are you basing that statement on the CWD issue?

 

Very interesting Booner. I wonder if it'll make them taste even better.

 

Yes

 

Pretty interesting. Any idea if the increased intake on the north side is making deer visit watering holes up there more often as well?

 

I tried some homemade mineral last year, deer loved it.

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