Time to feed, is it legal?

Its ok to feed them in Nd. If you start just keep doing it for the rest of the year. We always put out some bales.

i12fish Said:
Dumb question, but I need to cover my butt. Gonna call the G&F tomorrow to be sure but wanted to see if anyone knew. I run an elevator and we have about 50-80 deer hanging around close. Watching them die every day, 2 yesterday, and 2 more today. Dropped 2 big round bales today and I plan on putting a local fund together to keep it up the next couple months. It's just too dang early for them to be dropping off like this.

So, not looking for any type of debate, just if it's legal or not.

Thanks

Good for you! It most certainly is legal for now however the G & F would rather have it their way and not allow it. Pure disgusting and plain insane.

Anyway, here is a link with some of this discussion over the past couple of days. Not an expert on hay but most guys on here recommend to make sure that it is good quality alfalfa or peas or something of the sort. Hope you can save a few of those deer. Three winters like this have definately taken their toll. I can't imagine if we got another one like it next year. I'm really glad for those who are taking it upon themselves to to the civil thing and help and try to preserve our precious resource of deer for the future.

I don't want to sound like a cop out but would most certainly give a donation if I had not taken it upon myself to buy grain and feed the wildlife myself. Currently it's costing me $50-$75 a month to get the buggers some feed since their forage is buried under 3 feet of snow. Money well spent though.

Once again, I thank you for your consideration of our wildlife during this nasty winter.

im glad to see at least four people  counting myself trying to preserve the deer population alittle this winter. and to ensure a few more hunting opportunities for the future!

LOL!!

Where can a guy get hay three bales of alfalfa? Me and four other people want to know.

Bismanonline.com has 74 ads right now for hay bales.

yes there is tons of hay all over ND right now for sale.  the past two years have been very good for hay growing.

Absolutely you can.  They definately need help this year.  We are losing deer everyday.  The days of people with 3, 4, 5 doe tags in there pockets are over!  Which I think is great.

Just don't feed them on public land.  That would be considered baiting, and that's illegal.

Just don't feed them on public land.  That would be considered baiting, and that's illegal.

God bless you.  And God bless the farmers and their unharvested fields. This has to be a strange thing for those who don't hunt.  The "Circle of Life" is dynamic, painful and beautiful.

Oops, forgot the link last night.

http://www.fishingbuddy.com/a_tough_winter/?commentId=413646

Been feeding them for the last five years at a number of locations all winter.  Hay, screenage, corn and whatever I can find but mainly corn.  Also food plots but not the best right now.  Yes, it is expensive ($4/bushel) and maybe I am doing some harm.  Some think so.  But without the feed I know there would be more dead.  One fawn was dead at one site so haul him to a neighbor for his coyote bait.  I will assume to cold as a small fawn.  Hoepfully he got a few coyotes.  I did not want a dead fawn at my site. 
Son sat there one night in December.  A doe and two fawns came running by with a coyote on their tail.  Coyote stopped at the site so he got a shot with his bow.  Great experience.  About an hour later some more deer came up and up came a coyote, maybe same one, through the trees.  All deer ran away except a 150 class buck.  Got another shot at the coyote but again in the trees at 30 yards and assumed he missed.  Could not find that arrow.  Went to the spot where I left the fawn and all kinds of tracks and it did not take long for the fawn to be gone and maybe some coyotes.    db

i12fish , where is this at?  I think it would be a shame for the GnF to not help out since they make their living off of wild life.

We better start doing something or we will be sitting without a deer tag. I can say out of all the years I have hunted this last year a bunch of people I know didn't get a buck tag. In the unit were in is usually 90 to 100% . 

HDFatboy, we're in the Central part of the state. Luckily for us, we have the resources and equipment to make this happen and don't need help from them. If they have help to offer, I hope they give it to those who are watching this with no resources or ability to do anything.

Do Not use pure alfalfa,there is not enough scratch factor.Rumanints need a certain amount  of roughage,to make thier digestion to work.Mix alfalfa is best.

I've long been a proponent of food plots.   Having said that, I was out on snowshoes the other day on the river near the best foodplots probably in ND!   What surprised me first was the relatively  few tracks I saw compared to years before, in the usual deer thoroughfares to and from the food plots and with binoculars, the relatively few deer tracks in those great standing corn food plots!   Only one lonely deer was feeding where maybe 10-15 would have been last year at any time of the day.

Once out on the shoes, and I didn't go far from the road because of the deep snow, I ran across carcasses of three dead deer within 1/2 mile from those 1st class corn plots!   I hope there wasn't another three on every approach to the plots!   Hopefully none!  BUT did those deer die of starvation, grain overload, or what?  Coyotes hadn't found them yet so they weren't guilty.   Presumably normal winter kill  in this tough winter despite great (and expensive) food plots.
So for me, though I sincerely do believe food plots and winter cover are great, I realize that not all our efforts are perfect nor even worthwhile.   Mother Nature is cruel and this year the biological winter funnel is pretty narrow.   The big question is how much difference do our feel good efforts really make?    I don't know the answer - probably more good than harm in most cases, sometimes more harm than good too, but we could debate this all week.....