our land owner sprayed one of our pastures. every single tree has lost its leaves.2650 acres.will this ruin our season?

If you don't mind me asking, what part of Texas?

motley county just south of northfield.

Your season is screwed. Just pack it up.

NO it wont. the deer wont leave, the cover will still be there. good luck!

thanks for the info guys.man i hope your wrong duckman i am looking forward to this season.

The trees loose there leaves every winter, should be no difference, but the deer do eat some parts of the mequite tree. It will be worse when he sells all the dead mesquite to a wood cutter to come cut down after deer season and the wood has cured. Sounds to me you are leaseing from a guy who only cares about grazing. Needs to be a happy medium can't believe he did the whole pasture, unless it is one huge ranch.

I had a lease once where everything was sprayed. We called it no mans land becuase nothing ever came into that area. Good luck

thanks guys. im going to have a talk with him.he told us he would be spraying but i could not believe he did the whole pasture.he owns 12000 acres and he says he rotates spraying half every three to five years.i didnt think it would be every stinkin tree.

About 1/3 of one of multiple pastures we lease burned last spring. Killed all of the mesquites. Although the grass and ground cover came back, the trees were dead as a door nail. Unfortunately, I have to say that the deer never really returned to the burned area with the dead mesquites in any substantial numbers. As a result, we gave up that pasture this year and leased another one.

Same thing happened to us last year. Fire destroyed a big draw on our lease. Now Nothing. We dont plan on hunting that part at all this year.

This also depends on how big the trees were. Were they the little shrubs or the big hard woods, also are there any other trees in the area or other types of coverage?

people talk about loosing trees and leaves; but i think the best managment tool and the least used is FIRE! Over grazing and lack of fire is the reason that south texas is so grown up.

deewayne - I agree; however, we are in west TX/panhandle and trees are few and far between. They simply dont exist.

Hunting is secondary income. Mesquite is bad for the grass. Always gonna be a conflict between good cattle country and good cover.

We sprayed our place in Spur. Wish we hadn't for the deer, but the cattle have alot to eat now.

if you are leasing the place for deer hunting,then show some consideration towards them dont just take there money and say good luck.knowing you are about to spray the whole pasture!secondary income or not you still took someones hard earned money!

There are plenty of deep canyons and draws on the 2650 acres pasture. The deer still have lots of places to hide. Even though it's wide open now, all of the other land in that area is pretty much wide open also. I don't think it's gonna hurt a thing.

YOU BETTER HOPE YOUR RIGHT! CLAY ALREADY SAID HE LIKES YOUR SPOT!HE SCOUTED IT OUT LAST TIME HIM AND MIKE WERE OUT THERE.THEY BOTH LIKED IT.

They sprayed the place next to us a few years ago and it ruined it but that was the only cover there was no cactus or brush for the deer to hide in .Hope it isn't that bad for you

Jigman... I also hunt in Motley County, but we are slightly east of Northfield. With all the canyons in the area, and the way the deer up there act, you shouldn't have a problem. Come on, how many times have you driven back to Childress, or even to Turkey right at dusk and how many deer have you seen? I was sitting in a blind 60 yards from a feeder, with little cover, and was whistling very loudly at a very nice 8 (I had already shot my buck). He didn't mind. He hung around for 45 minutes and munched some corn. The deer up there are different. What I'm more interested in is the change in limits. You should be too.

Now a 5 deer county. 2 bucks 3 does, extended season by 2 weeks. Mule deer the same. I'm feelin it. I'm tagging out on does opening weekend, no matter what. I'm not waiting this year. I waited until after I shot my buck (around Thanksgiving) and didn't see 1 doe. Saw about 20 in the first 2 weeks.

sorry I didnt read every post in the string but I can say this, depending on the product he used the effective hit rate of trees could be somewhere around 65% the following year. Sure the leaves get burned off but that is cosmetic damage and not a true kill in most cases. Depending on the population of the trees, 65% less might enhance the available grass and produce a healtier deer? If there is a tree every 10 sq feet then you have 4356 trees per acre. 35% live and you still have 1500 trees to the acre. I'm not a wildlife biologist, just a ag chem guy.