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There were 4 or 5 deer licking the concrete cover for my lift pump. Thinking I should pick up salt block with trace minerals on my way home. Is there something better I should be getting?

Yeah, I'd guess that they are looking for minerals !

Minerals. Is it fresh?

Here's what I use...

MINERAL LICK RECIPE
The ultimate goal of mineral supplements in deer management is to increase antler size and improve overall
health of deer herds by providing minerals or trace minerals that may be lacking in a given area.
One mixture or home recipe of deer minerals is a mix of one part Dicalcium Phosphate, 2 parts trace mineral
salt (loose), and 1 part loose stock salt. All of these are available to purchase at most local feed and farm
supply stores.
Just to give you a little background on these minerals and what they are designed to do lets start with the
Dicalcium Phosphate.
Dicalcium Phosphate is used primarily as dairy cattle feed additive and other animal feeds. It
promotes feed digestion, weight gain, and milk production, which is obviously beneficial to a lactating doe
deer. Dicalcium phosphate contains roughly between 18 and 21 percent phosphorus and 19 to 23 percent
calcium.
You're probably asking why this is important by now. Well if your talking about growing antlers on deer you
need to take a look at what is the make up of a deer antler.
Hardened antlers contain 40 to 50 percent organic matter from mostly proteins while the most abundant
minerals consist of calcium and phosphorus. The demands for these minerals on a daily basis can be
significant for antler production.
In addition, a lactating doe's milk contains high percentages of both calcium and phosphorus to pass on to
their young, also causing a significant mineral drain on the doe. What makes all this significant is the fact that
phosphorous cannot be synthesized by the body so it must be provided in needed levels in the animals diet.
This is where a mineral mix such as this could be very valuable if an area is lacking in these naturally.
Trace Mineral Salt does two things for deer. The first and foremost is it does have the salt/sodium to
attract the deer and promote the use of the mineral. Secondly, it provides the trace minerals such as
magnesium and potassium that are very important to herd health but are not found in significant quantities like
others.
Stock Salt is again like part of the above. It has the sodium to attract deer to the minerals. Most mineral
mixes have salt as their most abundant ingredient since a mix of just phosphorus, calcium, and other trace
minerals have little attraction to deer once mixed with the soil.
Each Station Should Be Replenished with the following:
Dicalcium Phoshate (1 part) (25 Pound Bag)
Trace Mineral Salt (2 parts) (50 Pound Bag)
Stock Salt (1 part) (25 Pound Bag)
Mix all these together once ready to use but keep components separate during storage. Dig a hole in the soil
about 36 inches wide and 6 inches deep and mix the mineral well with the soil.
This should be replenished after 6 months and then once a year thereafter. Most use seems to be during the
spring and summer months on mineral licks. It's a good idea to keep these areas replenished and stocked in
the same spot to maintain use.

Hanco: Best guess would be last September. I bought the place in October and there's a sticker saying that the septic got serviced in September. Were probably replaced then. They look pretty new.

S&A; That is probably better than what I'm doing, and I might do it later, but for now, I'm just looking for something to grab at the TSC and drop it in the woods. I got a salt block with trace minerals from the cattle section. Probably not as much Ca or P in it as I'd like, but it's better than nothing. I was planning to dump a bunch of lime on the lawn as it has something that might be micro clover or some kind of vetch in it, and I'll probably add some 10 10 10 to it.

Cut or find a nice oak butt and set a trace mineral block on top of it. Then dump a bag of good cattle mineral with salt over the block. The salt and mineral will leach into the oak butt and the deer will eat the wood and dirt. Add loose mineral and salt as needed.

Been using several stumps for that purpose for several years. The stumps almost look petrified now.

We keep those out in pastures for our livestock. The deer use them in the empty pastures when we rotate stock...I'm sure they use them in the pastures with stock on them as well but not as much.

I've thought about packing a block in to some of the more remote spots on mountainsides that I hunt but I've never done it. Club puts out bagged mineral/salt in tree stumps as others mentioned but those are in atv accessible locations.

This is what I do. I get the red mineral salt block from TSC(no the white salt block) and just place it on the ground. The deer love it as I go through 3 a year. It leaches into the ground and they lick and paw the ground so I move the block over several feet each time I put a new one down. It's fun to look at the block as they work it down....there are round dents all over the top of it where they lick them. Have even watched fawns lick them with mama's.

Coulda been licking to recondition their tongues.

Yes. A mineral issue. Help them out but get well away from the wife's flower gardens. Odd how variable things are around this country. As a kid in Va, Tenn, WVa shed antlers were history in a matter of months. Everything that moved would chew them up. Southeast Oregon desert ground here, and a dropped antler will go untouched for years. Decomposition is mostly a freeze/thaw thing with bones and antlers eventually just turning to dust. Not much interest by game in mineral supplements either with salt blocks lasting for years.

Thanks will be trying this if I can find all the ingredients local.

Used to help with a lot of Mtn goat hunts, the goats would lick one section of a granite cliff, the only time I was at that spot I busted off a rock sample. Thinking it was salt the goats were after I licked the rock.

Tasted like goat spit.