Livestock/Deer interaction

[BW]

My own personal experience has been many years of bowhunting in southern Iowa with cattle around me on a regular basis.

With a good balance of cattle(not a feedlot) I see very little negative impact and probably more positive. I say don't let the first impressions disappoint you.

I learned a lot in the early days by standing my ground while the cattle stomped out all the deer sign. They will not drive the deer out if the deer want to be there. I have one rutting area that I camp on every season and gladly wade through the herd to get there.

They very often cover up your activity in an area. One evening I strolled through a dozen head right around my stand and half way up the tree I spotted a 150" buck tending a doe 60 yards away and they never knew I was there because the cattle were grazing around.

Many years ago I actually seen a huge 10 point charge and spook a few calves that were in the area while he was tending a doe.

Another evening I flushed a bunch of cattle out of my stand area and harvested a 250# bruiser an hour later checking a scrape full of cow manure.

As for me, I'll gladly hunt with the herefords if the deer are there.

 

[Rog]

Any views on how livestock affect deer patterns? Anything would be helpful.

 

[Guest]

I hunt, and have hunted for years, a large pasture with fairly large patches of timber. There's always some deer activity when the cattle are present, but when the cattle are gone...WOW! It's been my experience that the deer don't like to be bumped from their beds by cattle, so they bed elsewhere and use the timber on their way to feed. When the cattle are gone (earlier this year because of the lack of moisture which leads to lack of grass)the deer swarm all over everywhere! I believe the activity level is down when cattle are present, but I also agree that cattle have a wonderful masking ability. Maybe a trade-off?

 

[scout]

Rog, Any water cutting through it? A small creek winds back and forth in a constant "S" shape in my area. The banks are steep and the deer cross where the cattle have cut paths to cross. The sign can be spotted at the crossings. Also a wrist rocket can assist in driving off the cattle. If you keep the first one from grazing close the rest will stay away.

 

[Rog]

The reason I posted is because I have some new land that has about a 70 acre stand of timber with about 25 head of cattle in it. They mostly stick to the bottom of it but at times are on the timbered hillsides. The pasture is bordered to the North by a neighbor's unpastured timber and by crop to the east, south, and west. The cattle have pretty much obliterated any readable deer sign and other than reading fence crossings I'm having a tough time figuring out a game plan. Anyway, thanks for the input guys.