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5120 5th Avenue
P.O. Box 505
Eastman, GA 31023
Phone: (478) 374-4667
Toll Free: 1-888-402-4776
Toll Free: 1-877-501-3337 (DEER)
Fax: (478) 374-0906
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Buck Bale
Start feeding now for next season!
Buck Bale is the culmination of extensive scientific research and testing by our nutritionists and field technicians. Rest assured our formulations are guaranteed to meet and exceed the nutritional requirements of your deer herd. AG Daniel Company is proud to offer such a highly nutrition product at an economical price. Power packed with nutrients in a ready to use block and able to deliver vital proteins, fats, enzymes, vitamins and minerals in quickly digestible forms to maintain your deer herd’s growth and development. The integration of Buck Bale into your wildlife habitat improvement program means the building of better bucks period.
Buck Bale at a Glance:
- Buck Bale is fortified with additional proteins, fats, enzymes, vitamins and minerals to enhance nutritional intake to improve overall health and digestion in deer.
- Buck Bale can reduce feeding pressure on newly established food plots as well as the natural forage in a deer’s home range.
- Buck Bale can promote better fetal development resulting in more healthy bucks from the start.
- Buck Bale can boost antler development and relieve bucks from the stress of the rut, thereby assuring a greater genetic potential in mature bucks.
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Big Antlers: Nutrition or Genetics?
The first set of antlers typically are grown at 1.5 years of age. Antler size increases annually until maximum antler development is reached at about 5 years of age. Bucks consuming less than optimal forage quality would be expected to reach their maximum antler size at an older age and would be more susceptible to annual variation in forage quality.
Antler development is affected greatly by nutritional intake prior to and during antler growth. We now know that a number of nutritional components interact to generate the boney matrix of antlers, most importantly protein, energy, and minerals.
Early studies in Pennsylvania showed that whitetail buck fawns fed 4.5 or 9.5 percent protein from weaning until 1.5 years of age grew smaller antlers than buck fawns fed 16 percent protein. This effect could have been due to retarded development of the pedicle (the base from which the antler grows) or due to negative effects on growth of the first antler. Studies in New Zealand with red deer fawns showed that low quality winter and summer forage had delayed pedicle development and also grew lighter, shorter antlers. The fawns having unlimited access to high quality forage initiated pedicle development much earlier than those with access to the lower quality forage. White tail fawns in Michigan fed a diet simulating an early greenup with access to acorns had about double the number of antler points at 1 year of age as fawns fed a diet simulating late green up. This relationship between diet quality and a buck's first set of antlers is important .
The minimal level of protein in forage required for maximum antler development varies with age. In a Texas study, 2 year old white tails fed 16 percent protein grew antlers almost twice as heavy as bucks fed 8 percent protein. Recent research indicates that as little as 10 percent protein fulfilled the requirements for antler development of adult bucks. However, younger animals that are actively growing require much higher levels of protein than adult animals. For example, weaned fawns require up to 20 percent protein for optimum growth.
Typically, biologists recommend that an average intake of 16 percent protein will allow maximum antler development. However, that doesn't mean that protein in excess of 16 percent is not of value. On many properties, protein content of prevalent forages declines below 16 percent, especially during summer and winter. When this happens, forages exceeding 16 percent can help bring the average protein intake level to within the optimal range. Active management of native vegetation and an effective food plot program (cool and warm season annuals and perennials) can insure the availability of forages exceeding 16 percent protein.
So how does feeding Buck Bale improve your herd and enhance your forage management?
Ideally, you will be able to plant a variety of foods that deer prefer at different times of the year so that there is always something attractive on their plate. In a perfect world, each spring will provide a leftover bounty of high-carbohydrate grain and an early green-up of winter wheat or rye. As spring advances the deer will quickly shift to your high protein clover plots. During the heat of summer they will be hammering your soybeans and alfalfa. In early fall sorghum seed heads will be the tastiest thing around, as deer shift out of the beans and into the grains. Then, in late fall and winter they’ll flock to the high carbohydrate content of your corn plots to fuel their furnaces. Unfortunately, this smorgasbord approach requires a lot from the deer manager. Without adequate acreage the deer will wipe out each seasonal planting before it even has chance to produce benefits. High quality food plots aren’t cheap and there is plenty of hard work involved. As we both know the deer may decimate a food plot before it has a chance to grow more than an inch above the ground. By using Buck Bale to supplement your food plot you will be able to relieve some of the feeding pressure on your food plot.
The most important point to remember is that Buck Bale is designed to even out the nutritional deficiencies of an area throughout the year. Generally there are two major stress periods for deer: winter and late summer. Southern hunters may have to plan for both stress periods. Interestingly, recent research has placed the late-summer stress period as the most critical time for many Southern states. Not many hunters view the late summer as a major stress on deer. All the luscious and easily digestible plants found in the spring are much less palatable during late summer. As a result, adult bucks and does may have to live on below-average forage. Any late-born fawns must rely on reduced quantity and quality of milk. By adding Buck Bale as a part of your management scheme a doe will have access to a good source of fats and she will produce a higher quality of milk.
The most important point to remember is that Buck Bale is designed to even out the nutritional deficiencies of an area throughout the year. Generally there are two major stress periods for deer: winter and late summer. Southern hunters may have to plan for both stress periods. Interestingly, recent research has placed the late-summer stress period as the most critical time for many Southern states. Not many hunters view the late summer as a major stress on deer. All the luscious and easily digestible plants found in the spring are much less palatable during late summer. As a result, adult bucks and does may have to live on below-average forage. Any late-born fawns must rely on reduced quantity and quality of milk. By adding Buck Bale as a part of your management scheme a doe will have access to a good source of fats and she will produce a higher quality of milk.
