Meat quality: Good, consistent meat quality — including its appearance, texture, juiciness, flavor and functionality — can build trust with consumers, leading to more return customers.
Antler growth: Optimal antler size and growth is crucial to the success of a deer operation. Providing the proper mineral nutrition and other management factors can contribute to successful antler growth.
Feed efficiency: Maximizing feeding efficiency allows producers to grow and develop their deer as quickly and cost-effectively as possible without negatively influencing their health or lifetime productivity.
Maintaining good health: Maintaining optimal animal health throughout the reproductive, growing and finishing phases will help maximize a deer’s genetic potential.
Reproductive success: Working toward good breed-back and healthy pregnancies is crucial to the success of the herd.
Effective diet: Optimizing the inclusion of high-quality grains, forages and ingredients produced on-farm will help minimize costs related to purchased feeds. Enhancing the effectiveness of the diet by supplementing it with research-backed additives that offer a high return on investment will help deer reach their genetic potential.
Common challenges:
Bunk and water space: Ensure that there is adequate bunk and water space so that all animals have access to the nutrients they need to achieve their intake goals.
Dry matter intakes: Encouraging high dry-matter intakes by offering several meals per day will help maximize production and the deers’ rumen health.
Mitigating heat stress: Addressing potential heat stress concerns during the summer months will more than pay for itself over time by minimizing the likelihood of decreases in intakes, production and reproduction.
Vaccination protocols: Follow strict vaccination protocols in order to ensure optimal deer health at all times.
Mortality: Mortality is a term that refers to the death rate of a herd. Deer can die for a multitude of reasons depending on their age, environment, stress levels, management and more.
Coccidiosis: A common disease in small ruminants caused by an invasion of protozoa (Eimeria or Iospora) in the intestine, coccidiosis is often identified by inflammation of the intestine, lesions, diarrhea, weight loss and/or sometimes even death.
Stress: Deer are vulnerable to multiple types of stress, which is usually triggered by changes in their diet, climate, management or transportation, among others. Signs of stress in deer typically include weight loss, decreased water intake, lethargy and more.
Tips for maximizing health and performance:
Test feed ingredients for mycotoxins. The presence of mycotoxins in a deer’s feed can reduce their feed intake and have a negative impact on their rumen efficiency. Knowing the mycotoxin concentration in each individual feed ingredient will help with diet formulations that minimize mycotoxin challenges.
Provide proper nutrition. Rations should be balanced to meet the deers’ nutritional requirements based on any changes in the available feed ingredients.
Check your stocking rate. Maintaining proper stocking rates is essential, as they ensure that all animals have access to feed. Keeping tabs on your stocking rate also helps you avoid increased pathogen loads, which can occur with overstocked pens.
Conduct a slow transition from starter to finishing rations. This transition provides time for the deer’s rumen to adapt to higher-starch rations.
Provide appropriate supplementation. Offer research-proven products that support rumen efficiency.
What’s important for deer?