most of our feeders are protected by the pens but the rancher leasing this land brought out his cattle this weekend. right now they are in the wheat fields but i suspect in time they will make it back into the hunting areas. just wondering if they have any real impact on deer and their patterns.

The deer on my lease flag out when cows come into the area. Since I went to feeding a blackeyed pea/corn mix the cows dont hang around long if at all. They generally just move through and once they are gone the deer come back.

The deer will get use to the cattle and in most cases the deer become very comfortable around the cows.

All I know is that I've been battling cows this season. My lease manager says they don't affect the deer. However, prior to the cows I had put up 4 feeders and camera's and I have literally thousands of pics of deer (4 feeder locations). After the cows came on the lease. The number of deer on camera have dropped to a handful. I now have more pics of cows than deer. I will have to say my cow dilemma have amused my friends and wife.

Recommend you fortify the pens. I've had to repair my feeders and fence every weekend since they've come on to the land (two feeders are destroyed to a point that I'll have to replace them, this happened this past week - they were stepped on). They've pushed over the barb wire and bent t-post over to a point they can jump over the fence. I wouldn't have believed it unless I had it on camera. The only pen that didn't have an issue was the one where I put an electric fence around it. I'm worried I've kept the deer out of that one, but I have seen some deer in that feeder.

Last story, I was bowhunting a location a few weeks back. I have 3 does and a mature 8 pt buck heading to the feeder. They had to just move another 10 yards for me to get a shot. They all stopped, turned and walked away. Less than 5 minutes later a group of cows hit the feeder location trying to get at the corn. Not only do I now have the challenge of patterning deer, I have to add the cow patterns in to the mix.

Verdict, I think they do impact the deer movement or at least on my lease they do.

I'd put up bigger stronger cattle panels to keep the cows out.

At my place the deer and cows eat together.

It seems to vary depending on the temperament of your deer herd. At my lease, deer will NOT hang around nor come into a feeder if the cows are present. Sometimes I literally have to exit the blind and run the cows off, get back into the stand and after things have calmed back down, deer come in. But of course I have to get to the stand extra early just in case of the need to run off the cows. Maybe the deer in your area wont be bothered by the cows.

^^this^^
For years when my best friend would come out to feed hay the deer would already be eating hay with the cows. They may step off a bit when he sat another bale but they'd come right back. They'll get used to them if the cows are new to the deer.

txhogger,

does your place have live oaks,other oaks that are dropping their acorns ? got a similar situation to yours....lots of good pics up until mid october and then nothing. owner would always put the cows on the lease right before season except this year..NO COWS! but still the deer have dropped way off. Deductive reasoning, on our place at least, leads to the acorns

Our place has always had cattle run on it but the deer still leave when the cattle move in from what I've observed. I imagine food conditions at the time of the observation plays into it a lot. The deer are probably a lot more tolerant of cows when they're hungry.

there are some oaks but not too many. i was asking what would happen. he just put them out this weekend so i have not had time to see the effects.

gotcha! we're covered up with the oaks so i think for us that is the main conflict. the cows being absent this season confirms it, in my humble opinion

I have never seen cows and deer together on my place, but I have seen cows and turkeys and deer and turkeys mingle at the same feeder. Opening weekend I had cows at my feeders every morning and evening and didn't see a single deer; Monday I went a bought a daisy BB pistol and started shooting the cows when they came around to run them off and had deer at the feeders monday evening and Tuesday.

The cows ignore our feeders now. Fenced off most of them because they used to knock them over. The cows have been out there longer than we have, so I'm sure the deer are used to them. I've never seen them together, though

does this work? it will give me something to pass the time with!

Saw a herd of deer grazing in a wheat field this evening....along with 30-40 cows. Tells me something!

every place is different .....but
"new" cows do scare deer ....
and cows will destroy feed pens when they are hungry
and i seen this a zillion times ......
if cows show up when i am huntin ,,,,,,
i get out of the blind pick up rocks
and chase the crap out of em .....
then i see deer ....
i NEVER have seen a deer near a feeder with cows there
oat and wheat pastures are a totally different story ....

I'm so going to get a BB gun before I head out to the lease this weekend. A had few lost calfs under my stand last weekend just mooing, running around my lanes and hitting the corn by the feeder. I had to climb down 3 times and chase them out. But they kept coming back. Needless to say I didn't see any deer that evening, probably because I was throwing my scent all over the location and running around like an idiot.

i bet a paint ball gun would be more fun but would probably piss the rancher off

That just made me crack up, thinking about what the rancher would say when he say his cows painted up like a Picasso.

i'd probably find out by finding my feeder dumped on it's side or something. actually i shouldn't say that. never met him and he could be a nice guy.

Id take cattle over just about any other livestock...cattle and deer wnt compete against each other for food like goats and sheep.... worse thing possible is horses...i hate those dam things

Sling shot works better than a bb gun.

I have found that cows coming to a feeder will push the deer off, especially in the woods. Once the cows pass, the deer usually circle back. The feeders that we have in the open areas, the deer are less inclined to leave when the cows move through. In the woods, ag fields, open pasture land and away from feeders, the deer will graze beside and even among the cows.

My

I have deer walk right through the cows alot

Our land owner dropped off over 100 head one week before opening day. Was getting tons of deer activity before and now nothing. Got over 500 pics of cows. Ive always hunted around cows in past and deer seem to be ok with them. Its just going to take some time for the deer to get used to them.

IMO, livestock have a very real impact on the deer in both a positive and negative way. I have been on a lease for almost 20 years, never had a season where there was not some combination of sheep and cows. When the livestock show up to the feeders, the deer tend to just hang around 100-200 yards away and graze until they leave, and on some occasions the deer are eating in the pen while the cattle are standing around (tends to be younger deer that do this). In my experience cattle tend to force the deer to feeders at higher rate as the deer have to compete more for food, which is nice when hunting but can also push deer out of an area in search for less competitive resources. Have they ever pushed deer completely out, no, but when the cooler weather comes in Dec. and vegetation is a little scarcer, supplemental feeding is key to keeping deer around. Again IMO.