I know someone that would just call around to different Hannafords and they would usually set stuff aside for them to take.

What kind of animals? I know sometimes breweries or distilleries donate spent grain as livestock feed.

Deer. Grain, oats, would work. Not sure difference in flavor or nutrient wise for the spent grain, but maybe it’d still be of interest for the deer?

It should be. When I lived down south most spent grain was used for cattle, and I imagine their diet is pretty similar to deer.

Good to know, I live just down the road from a brewery, I’ll look into it.

If your plan is to eventually hunt where you are feeding deer, be very careful how you go about this. Its very illegal to do that.

Only illegal if baits being used during the hunting season. Have left the trough all year in the same spot, hunting around it as well. Just never used feed during the season and haven’t had a problem. But I can see where it could be a problem with certain people/game wardens

Local brewery does 2000 pounds a week lol unfortunately already being taken by a cattle farmer

>But I can see where it could be a problem with certain people/game wardens

Exactly this. This will greatly depend on the warden in your area. Some won't care, others will find a way to make you guilty. Most fall in the middle with the tendancy to consider you guilty until you prove otherwise.

Considering they have no reason to be going into my property, and are not able to see it from public view, they won’t have any reason for bothering me. Not sure why my comments are being downvoted, I assume by someone who doesn’t like hunting but also buys their meat from the grocery stores lol. But where as the baiting isn’t for hunting there’s no laws being broken.

I think you are getting downvoted because while you aren't technically breaking any laws, you are in a bit of a grey area. You are certainly attracting them to the same area you intend to hunt. While you may not have any food out during the hunting season, they are still going to go back to your site looking for food since its there the rest of the year. Its not illegal, but its a bit scummy.

That being said, as a fellow and avid hunter, I get where you are coming from. Any advantage, even a tiny one, helps put food in the freezer, and I'd rather eat venison or moose any day than what you get in the stores. But some people don't like thinking about what it takes to do that.

That’s where you’re wrong though, as a hunter you know deer move around, up to miles at a time during the rut for some mature bucks. Feeding deer during the winter months is just giving them the access to food they otherwise wouldn’t have in the winter months.. where as there were hardly any acorns to begin with this year, and nothing else grows in the winter months to be ate.. and the legal feeding period ends far before we even hunt our property anyway. And where as we only rifle hunt, that pushes the time from feeding and hunting even further apart.. But people will always view it as they please, and they’re welcome to that. Because I frankly I don’t care about anyone else opinions about what I do where as I know I’m within legal rights, and abide by all other game laws. You think as if a bag of grain is going to instantly alert and attract all the deer within a few mile radius to come feed there? Considering it’s the same deer we’ve seen all year on camera, they haven’t quite gotten the word out to all their friends.. when they start lining up I’ll know they got the word out.

Sounds like you are 'grooming' the deer. Don't let the conservatives find out. They will ban my cooking with fruit cookbook!

You are being down-voted because ethical hunters do not use food to attract prey. Ethical photographers do not use food to bring in the subjects. They learn the habits of that animal and go 'hunt' them. They find them where they belong and 'capture' them legally.

Ethical neighbors do not put out food to attract unwanted critter. What damage do those animals do getting to and from your property?

Its one thing for a wildlife management program to put out food to support animals during a weather event. Putting out extra food to get more animals in a particular area is called bait. That is unethical and illegal.

I down-voted over the ethics of it.

You are completely right, though I will say deer in different parts of the state seem to behave a bit differently. I've hunted in the western mountains where yes, deer absolutely travel for miles almost constantly. Its incredibly rare to see the same deer in the same area because they are always on the move for food.

I also hunt in the north-central part of the state, surrounded by farmlands. Those deer do not travel nearly as much because food is readily available in the numerous corn and potato fields. I've had the same set of deer hanging around my property for about the last year or so. I have a large corn field adjacent to my property and just up the road from that are potato fields. I catch them on my camera all the time, and the doe is very recognizable as she has a certain pattern of white fur above her nose. Maybe its because she also has 2 young ones with her and they haven't detached yet, but their behavior when food is readily available does seem to change when compared to more sparse areas of food in the mountains.

Of course once snow is on the ground, all bets are off and you are right. Providing them with food is actually a good thing to keep them healthy. I don't disagree with you, just making (maybe poor) assumptions on how people (non-hunters) view food plots in general.

Still, we live in a state with some very contrasting views on hunting. Many implants to the state disapprove and would prefer to make our state an untouched wilderneess while failing to understand how much researsearch goes into maintaining the populations of animals like deer and moose throughout the state. If left alone, the populations would get out of hand and cause far more problems than good. If over hunted, we'll lose out on a wonderful tradition here.

“Grooming”? Lol if grooming is giving deer food to survive the winter on👍🏼

Ah yes the “unethical hunter” comment. Shows how uninformed, or incapable of reading you are. Because giving deer food to survive the winter is so unethical? And no one is preying over the food, as noted already. Feeding deer in the winter months is exactly what you mentioned, the wildlife management department sanctions the dates of when feeding is allowed, and that’s been followed and abided by. Goes to show you’re just incompetent and incapable of reading, and enjoy jumping to conclusions👍🏼

Unfortunately haven’t ventured into the mountains too much for hunting, but will have to at some point, where as I’ve seen some beautiful deer dragged out of some beautiful mountains. Have a camp in central part of the state but don’t frequent it enough to be able to notice feeding patterns and what not. Most of my hunting is in the southern part of the state, not much farm land around my property, and acorn count was way down this year so food is scarce already. Thank you for understanding and being level headed with me. I understand the very many different viewpoints of people we have here and the dangers of over killing and under killing the population, I just wish everyone was able to realize the game wardens and biologist know what they’re implementing.

Whoosh. Sarcasm.

They let you own a gun yet you can't even control your native tongue. Perfect.

If you're going to use shady tactics to increase your chances of bagging a dear you can at least pay for it out of your own pocket instead of asking for handouts.

The State discourages winter feeding of deer.

“Shady tactics” tell me you have no idea what you’re talking about without telling me. Nothing shady about feeding deer during the winter months when there’s no other food available for them. And it’s completely legal, so not sure what your problem is?

Discourages but has a set date to allow feeding them? Okay. Makes sense.

Yeah, you're just feeding them out of the goodness of your heart. Right.

Control my native tongue? Concerned people are allowed to have guns? Cry about it.

What a scum thing to ask obviously you're not from me

The reason I’m feeding them doesn’t matter actually. And it’s legal, so still not sure what your problem is?

The fuck did you say? Please do tell me why you don’t think I’m from Maine😂 you fucking clown

Does your family eat apples I think that's the scumiest thing I have read on ithis in a long time

The reason you're feeding them is exactly the reason it's scummy.

Obviously not from Maine what a scumbag thing to a** Hey shut your mother eat cashews

Ah yess, an opinion that doesn’t fucking matter.

Eat my ass. Born and raised in Maine. Bitch boy.

You're obviously not from Maine I think you should pack up and just leave

Oh yeah? How so tough guy.

Maine doesn't need people like you please pack up and leave

And I'm being nice get the f*** out

Not going anywhere. Suck my nuts.

I heard there was some copper piping free for the taking a few houses down since you're looking for the scumbag discount.

Uh oh, the hurt liberals are coming out of the woodwork now.

You're obviously feeding our animals

Yes. Discourages, but allows it. Except during hunting season, when it's used as bait. It can actually do more harm than not feeding them.

Feeding wild animals so they get big for next year? Hmmm sounds like what farming does to me… and you prolly buy tons of it from the wallyworld

Could possibly, if done improperly.

Why are you mad?

So they get “big” lol. More like so they have the needed nutrients to survive the long cold winter… but think as you please. And negative, our freezers are full of wild game meat, and that’s the meat we eat. Not your force bred and farm grown beef.

Oh no I’m shaking, would hate for you to be mean.

Bro you realize I’m arguing with you not against…. 🤦‍♂️

Did not realize that considering I’ve just been getting attacked by everyone who has no idea what they’re talking about. So i apologize if I came on the attack lol. Only one other like minded person has responded besides you, and it took a couple replies to get level with them lol

Tell me you’re a liberal without telling me you’re a liberal.

Tell me you've stolen catalytic converters without saying you've stolen catalytic converters.

Yes. Like feeding them kitchen scraps, potatoes, cabbage and lettuce trimmings. High sugar feed, like apples, should be introduced no later then early December, and you should be prepared to feed through February, and expect more deer in February than December. What is recommended is a complete dairy or deer feed in pelltized form. Everything you're looking to do is the improper way to do it.

Weird how there are only two people on your side and all of you are incapable of rational, coherent thought.

So where did you get your degree? And what’s your profession? Never said I was going to be giving them strictly apples and only apples.

No it just goes to show how much the people the people of Maine have changed and how soft and unaware most people are now.

I don't think the guy baiting wildlife and hunting from his doorstep can talk about being soft.

Neither did I. You're here asking for apples and waste produce. I don't have a degree in Environmental science, but I can read the " Winter feeding of deer: What you need to know" pamphlet from MEIF&W.

Hunting from his doorstep? Lol. Goes to show how clueless you actually are.

So what does it say about mixing in apples with grains, and oats? Funny my post never actually asked for an environmental science lesson.

don’t feed wildlife. Full stop. Just don’t. Creates more problems than it solves. And second, speaking as a farmer we take a lot of seconds grain from breweries to feed livestock and it cuts our feed bill down by almost half in the winter. Without that brewers mash we probably couldn’t afford to feed our animals. Please leave that stuff for the farmers so that they can continue to raise good quality, healthy food in our state.

Sounds like you just don’t want people cutting into your savings lol. Raise those force bred animals 👍🏼 while I’m just trying to help support wildlife, makes sense. 😂

God damn you're a dense motherfucker ain't you. What's got you so triggered that you can't handle any disagreement. Keep moving those fucking goalpost, eventually you'll wear people down and they'll stop responding to you and you'll "win" the argument.

I can’t even begin to unpack what you just said.

Nobody is crying except you, Carhartt. Make with the pic of your weathertek phone holder ASAP to prove your manhood.

Right cause the food plot I plant is for me… it’s to attract wildlife. So they survive the winters. So they have a reliable food source. So they can reproduce in an environment that’s safe cause I don’t have predators. Most of you northerners don’t know much about land management outside of forestry.

I’m assuming all these people that are against you feeding animals during the winter are from southern Maine or Bangor.

I say keep on keeping on, just don’t feed corn as they get 0 nutrients from corn. Also just keep in mind you can’t stop feeding them midway through the winter. It’s only illegal and scummy to feed deer during October/November since it’s hunting season.

Good luck