home made deer mineral lick

[broomebuck]

WHITETAIL DEER HOMEMADE MINERAL MIX RECIPE

Ingredients: Makes 200 lbs. for about $23.00

1 part Di-calcium phosphate, this is a dairy feed additive bought at feed stores.
Comes in 50lb Bags at around $11.00 you need one bag.

2 parts Trace mineral salt, the red and loose kind without the medications.
Comes in 50lb Bags at around $5.00 you need two bags.

1 part Stock salt, ice cream salt. (very fine salt)
Comes in 50lb Bags at around $2.00 you need one bag.

Directions:
-Use a 3 pound or similar size coffee can to use as your measure for each part of the mix.

-Mix all together well but not until read to use, keep ingredients separate until ready to put to use.

-Dig or tear up a circle in the soil about 36 inches wide and about 6 inches deep.

-Mix your mineral mixture with the soil.

Maintenance:
-Replenish in 6 months with fresh supply of mineral, and then each year there after.

[rossman40]

You might want to check the prices localy. I checked and the prices are almost double to what I paid for it 2 years ago.

[broomebuck]

rossman40 yea im not sure if the prices went up i did not make it last year because i was rebuilding an old farm house but it does work really good

[rossman40]

I used it 2 years ago and used half a batch and then replenised it last year with the remainder so I'll have to get another batch ready for when we go down to the cabin Memorial day. It does work well and it seems that we do not see as many 2 point spikes but rather very small 6 points.

[Clumbsum]

I to used this recipe last year. I had good results with it. Last years price was about double
of your posted price. I checked again two weeks ago and the di-cal doubled again. The feed manager said there has been several mines go out of business. ( for what that info's worth).
I went with some range mineral for cattle mixed with extra salt this year will see how that workes

[rossman40]

The di-cal is the important part. Not only is the calcium and phosphate the major ingredient for antlers on the bucks it also helps the does with milk production when nursing fawns so it is a plus for the whole herd. The deer will not go for the di-cal by itself that is why you mix it with the salt. Using the trace mineral salt gives more of the lesser minerals which help metabolism. The big thing to watch for with cattle supplements is copper which is not good for deer. Vitamins like A, D and E are OK.

[rossman40]

Supposedly reports from New Zealand says that copper is not as bad as thought for deer.

I found a mineral mix at a local feed store which is 20% calcium, 10% phosphorus and the rest salt with trace minerals and vitamins for $13 a 50lb bag. I'll be picking it up Saturday and will let you know the full details.

[broomebuck]

thanks im allways looking for some thing new

[rossman40]

This is what I picked up. The guy at the feed store called it 20-10 and it seems to be 20% calcium, 10% phosphorous but only 12% salt. The salt content I would have liked to be up around 50% which is what the guy told me over the phone but it was less. I was kinda worried that the salt was too low and almost picked up a bag of stock salt to go with it. I put it out in the established mineral lick and the deer were in it that night so it must be decent. I still may add a 50lb bag of stock salt too it if I go down to the cabin on the 4th of July. For $13 a 50lb bag it seems to be about as economical as the 4 bag mix at current prices.

[Clumbsum]

The range mineral I purchased had similar analysis as what you purchased. I added a salt block on top of the mix. I have been getting alot of pics on game camera. Several bucks in velvet way past ears already. Can't wait to see what I end up with this year for deer.

[youp50]

There is known low levels of copper in deer with CWD. Maybe copper is good for deer.

[rossman40]

I put 100lbs of trace mineral salt in the lick Labor Day (they were out of the 20-10). I may put 50lbs of the 20-10 and another 50lbs of trace mineral salt this fall or early spring.

[youp50]

I have been doing a duke's mixture. Some di- mono calcuim, some red trace stock salt, some 'Sweet Lix" mineral supplement, and some dolomite lime stone. When I had a trace mineral salt block there some deer would come by once and a while and a porcupine or two would set up shop. Something in this mixture is turning the trick. If I let up a little, they will eat the clay it sat on. I set the block on an old stump three years ago, this year was the first year they really went after the stump. The deer have it chomped down to the good wood, all rot is gone and the soil from around the roots is beginning to disappear. I was in there yesterday and the deer are still working the lick.

[rossman40]

It is weird but the deer will not go readily to a salt block but once the salt is in the ground they will eat the dirt. Our lick started out with liquid Deer Cane and through the years we have just added salt. I did try one of those natural looking salt blocks but the deer didn't hit it hard till it was dissolved and the square looking hole in the lower left is the result. The lick is in clay soil so we just dump the salt in and a good rain fills it up with water and dissolves the salt, it is almost to the point where we might have to and some fill. This photo is about 2 years old.

[youp50]

There are not that many deer left in the whole county where I hunt. DNR is claiming population loss due to tough winter. And that timber wolves only eat 50 deer a year, each. And that most of them are road kill. Somebody forgot to mention that a wolf is perfectly capable of 'joy kills', like a Lab puppy in a chicken coop. Years age the DNR would use the media to urge folks to keep dogs tied in the late winter, to avoid stressing deer. Deer in deep crusted snow are at a disadvantage.

Many people are wising up and there are new cases of wolf shootings and the outcry and rewards posted for information every fall, not hearing about any information sellers. Wolves have exceeded the social carrying capacity around here. Many parts of Wisconsin and Minnnesota, too. I think the same out west.

New slogan around "Never wanted them, never will"