Without a doubt, the most popular deer attractant on the market today is corn. Corn is inexpensive, it doesn’t rot or go bad easily, and deer love it. Most hunters at one point or another over the course of their hunting career have used corn to attract deer either to their hunting location or to a game camera.
There are a couple problems with corn. In the last several years, the cost of corn has started to rise, making feeding deer more expensive than ever. With the increase of inflation, hunters everywhere are being forced to cut back on spending and with the cost of corn higher than ever, some hunters are cutting back on the amount of feed they are buying.
The second problem with corn is a much bigger one than the first. Corn isn’t very healthy for deer; in fact, it can actually kill them. Deer often go months at a time without eating corn. Most hunters and land managers don’t feed corn year-round. They feed it right before deer season, during deer season, and some hunters feed lots of corn after deer season. Deer are in the most danger of getting sick when they go from having no corn to an unlimited amount. It is like handing a kid a bag of candy and letting them eat as much as they want. When a kid eats too much candy, they will get sick. When a deer eats too much corn, they will get sick.
Dave Wheeler, owner of Lucky Buck Mineral, says hunters should never feed an unlimited amount of shelled corn to deer. “Some of the dangers of feeding shelled corn are that the deer aren't used to eating it, even if you have corn fields in your area. They're eating it off the cob. They're eating it as it's developing and as it's maturing. They're not suddenly getting a large dosage of it that they're gorging themselves on. Farmers would never feed their range cattle that way. It would make them sick and potentially die. There have been studies on wild deer that have shown a significant number of deer dying from acidosis (a buildup of acid in the bloodstream) and diarrhea from overfeeding overeating corn. Feeding deer corn on the cob or in a feeder that is on a timer where they only have access to small amounts is a safe bet,” Wheeler noted.
(The benefits and advantages of [Freak Factor] are endless for hunters who want healthy deer, are short on time, and are looking to save money)
Why can corn make deer sick and kill them? Eating a large amount of corn can cause the digestive system of a deer to fail, leading to diarrhea, bloating, and dehydration. The corn can also trigger a rapid increase in lactic acid production in the deer's rumen, which can lower the pH level and kill off microbes. This can lead to acidosis, founder, or enterotoxemia, which can be fatal. The bottom line is corn is a good thing in small amounts, a bad thing in large amounts.
Hunters can control corn intake with the deer attractant, Freak Factor from Lucky Buck. Dave Wheeler formulated Freak Factor with an ingredient that controls intake. “This is a hunger-based attractant that's very healthy for the deer,” Wheeler said. “High protein, high fat, high bypass protein and really smells good. It'll bring the deer in from a long distance. The most important aspect is that it controls intake. It is designed for small frequent meals rather than allowing the deer to gorge themselves on a product. The deer are required to come back repeatedly, which is exactly what you want them to do and they won’t get sick.”
Giving deer access to an unlimited amount of shelled corn can be deadly. “You can avoid getting deer sick with small frequent meals on a timed feeder. You can also be safe free-choicing what they want, as long as they don't run out, but that's difficult to do, expensive and a lot of work. With Freak Factor, you don’t need a feeder; just mix corn with Freak Factor and deer will eat small meals instead of gorging them-selves. If a hunter is already using a feeder, mixing corn and Freak Factor into a feeder is a great option. My preference is to mix it with corn at some ratio: whether it's an 80-20, 20-80, 50-50 or 90-10. Whatever ratio, however long you want that corn to last, you increase the percentage of Freak Factor to make a longer application time because they're going to eat smaller frequent meals,” Wheeler advised.
One of the greatest benefits of Freak Factor besides being healthier for the deer is it will last longer than feeding just shelled corn so hunters can spend less time going back and forth to the woods and spend less money on feed overall. “In the cattle industry, ranchers and farmers have been controlling feed intake for decades to keep their range cattle healthy and to make their job easier because they don’t want to have to constantly be feeding their cattle. We are using this same concept with Freak Factor.”
Since hunters can control the amount of corn and Freak Factor a deer eats, they can increase the odds of success in the field. “All hunters know that going back and forth to the woods filling feeders or dropping bait on the ground can leave human odor in the woods and spook deer off of the food source. When using Freak Factor, the food will last longer, the deer will frequent the food source more often, and this will give hunters better odds of killing the buck they are after,” Wheeler noted.
All hunters, especially those who only get to hunt on weekends, will love all the benefits of Freak Factor. “This is the first product on the market that is formulated to regulate the amount of corn a deer eats,” said Wheeler. “The benefits and advantages of this are endless for hunters who want healthy deer, are short on time, and are looking to save money.”
