My research into feeding deer corn shows mixed results. Waiting for Feb or March when the deer are already starving is too late to start. You need to be feeding them the corn from fall on. The reason is as has already been mentioned. Deer cannot adjust quickly to new foods because they are ruminants and need time for their stomachs to adjust to a new food source. With corn prices these days, it can be quite pricey. Just randomly slinging some corn out here and there can do more harm than good. Especially in areas where deer don't have access to corn in their diet from waste grains as their stomachs are not already adjusted to corn digestion.
If you are going to feed the deer, especially in the north where winter kill can be an issue. You really need to maintain your feeding. If you don't, the deer may stay in an area not necessarily fit to their winter survival. When you cut off the feeding, the deer are then not prepared to utilize native food which in the winter is mostly browse in many areas of the country.
I am a fan of feeding whole soybeans as well as corn especially during the warmer months when deer aren't carb needy. From Sept to Feb, it's 100% corn. March is 50/50 corn/soybeans, April through Aug, 100% soybeans. At first our deer in PA didn't have a clue what soybeans were and we had to work at getting them to eat them. Now they suck them down almost as fast as the corn. The soybeans are super high in protein. Exactly what you want your deer feeding on in the antler growth months of April-July.
There are several things you can do for your deer that will help them through the winter months that is fairly easy and far cheaper than buying bags of corn and soybeans. Cutting tree tops of high preference browse species is great for deer. The tops of trees are the most nutritious and more easily digested. I like to pick out species like maple(all species), sassafras, oaks(especially deformed and under performing ones), and tulip popular are my favorites where I live.
You can also do hinge cutting on smaller trees. You only cut about 2/3 of the way through pole sized trees and bend them over. They stay alive, often for several years but the tops and all new growth is now within reach of the deer. You can make thickets for added cover doing this as well.
I also like to fertilize wild growing vegetation. Although not a native species, Japanese honeysuckle where it is found which is most of the southern 2/3 of the US is a top choice for me. You often find it growing wild in many areas. Opening up the forest it is growing in to allow more sunlight to get to it is a big help. Adding fertilizer in early spring and then again in early fall will improve growth and increase protein % from an average 6% in natural soils to as high as 16%. You'll definitely see the deer flock to fertilized honeysuckle. Other wild plant species I will fertilize include briars/brambles and wild blueberries. The deer will flock to these thickets to feed and take cover. Even fertilizing your woodlots where your mast trees like oak and beech can increase their production and we all know acorns are king when it comes to deer.
In my area ticks are a huge issue especially in summer the deer are absolutely infested with them. A friend of mine who is a deer farmer gave me this idea and I have used it for a few years now. They make medicated mineral supplements that have tick killing additives. I had provided minerals to my deer before this, but the new minerals with tick killer in it has really helped.
Even where our family land is in PA, the hunting pressure is intense and few deer see their 3rd birthday. So we have to do the best we can to make the bucks reach their potential as early as possible. There is little agriculture in that area so the deer are very reliant on native browse as winter food. The added corn certainly helps and so does killing a pile of does to keep the deer herd numbers in line with the carrying capacity of the land. Where we hunt in VA, it is extremely heavy with agriculture. There are acres and acres of soybean and corn fields with mixed fields of winter wheat, beats and sunflowers. Food is not a limiting factor there so we don't even worry about feeding our deer there. We focus totally on habitat work, providing cover for the deer. Just a few small food plots are used, but these really are not for the benefit of the deer, it's just to get them into areas where they are easier to harvest.
