We have had a pile of snow last year???   It is that kind of winter that can take alot of wildlife out.  Grouse , partridges and the song birds that stick around find it impossible to scratch through the snow and ice to get to anything that might remain nutritious. When you live in the city you have no concept of how wildlife struggles to survive the long cold gruelling prairie winters.

I happen to be fortunate enough to be able to assist the deer that live near me.

We are hunters and have a thriving taxidermy business.  Wildlife is what puts the bread and butter on our family's tables. Hunting provides meats to go along with the bread and butter..... We in ways are obligated to look after what we feel is a gift from nature.

THE Saskatchewan Environment Department will tell you different. DO NOT feed the deer!  Leave it to nature !!! The strong will survive and the weak will die...It is all a part of nature...

I beg to differ......What is natural about how our deer have to forage these days?

When I first came to be a hunter I spent alot of time in the field in the fall. Crops would ripen with the sun and it was a good fall if you got your crop off by beginning of October. AS I would walk to my tree stand I could see life everywhere in the field I crossed.If it wasn't harvested the deer were nearby waiting for dusk so they could sneak in and get the last few bites of the nutritional crop before it met the combine. If it had been harvested there would be lots of green , weeds, regrowth whatever for the deer, and other wildlife to munch on.  Life was abundant in the fall of those times.

Now the crops are dessicated by mid August and harvested by the end of August. After the crop comes off the fields they are sprayed to combat weed growth and the other plants take the hit too! The goal to kill any living plant in the field.
BY the time the snow falls the deer that used to live off the fields in what was their "store up" time of year have had to resort to eating in ditches and farmyards. There are slim pickings for our wildlife these days.......

There are many of us that hunt and do taxidermy that feed the deer. I am thankful to all of you that do. I have seen deer so skinny come into our yard in February that they look close to death, They don't eat much but you would be surprised how a cup of feed a day can carry that deer through to spring.  February and March are the hardest months for the deer in a winter like this. Without nutrition all winter they start to weaken.If only branches and dead grass are available  they eat it to fill them selves but there is little nutrition and they start to die.

There isn't a deer in my yard that will die from starvation... Not when they know the food God will show up and spread a little food amongst them.....And then there are the deer that know if they just put their noses to the window they are likely to get a handful of ambrosia apples .  There are alfalfa bales by the barn, lentils in the barn, sunflower seeds in the shed and lots of apples (for now) on the table.