I'm convinced that in areas that are mineral deficient, providing a good supply of calcium and trace minerals works.
I have the rare situation where I hunted the exact land that I ended up buying for 10 years BEFORE I bought it and started managing it with food plots and mineral licks. It has been obvious to me that this area is very deficient in minerals, left to their own devices, the racks are small, twisted, uneven, and crooked. 3 year olds would be lucky to be a small 4 with short tines.
Fast forward to 5 years of mineral feeding and I now have deer that are solid 6 pointers at 3 years old. Far fewer crooked, twisted racks.
Obviously, if you live in an area that it blessed with ample in-soil or waterborne minerals, you will not see the difference that I've seen. Yes, of course there are many, many other factors that could be at play. So yes, the answer to, "Do minerals do anything?" is still "maybe, it depends..."
But to me, I look at the cost and for a very small investment, why wouldn't I feed mineral? If no other benefits were even possible, I'd still have licks just for the benefit of getting good trail cam pics.
Grouse
