Unscientific diet study

[Danno]

I am a ruminant nutritionist so I have a particular interest in this. What I am proposing is a kind of survey to track changes in whitetail food preferences as we go through the season. What I am proposing is that as we field dress our deer that we open the rumen and make a note of the the contents. Estimate the percentage of any material that you can identify. Alfalfa, soybeans, leaves, and grass,acorns and definately corn should be easily identifiable. Note the date and general area. I'll try to summarize this at the end of the season. Maybe this will help us learn more about their behavior. For example, my guess right now is that in Iowa, even if you harvest a doe in an alfalfa field, she'll be full of corn. Just a thought.

 

[5465]

i have done this with every deer i have ever killed! i am always curious as to what they have been eaten! don't know if it will help you much with me putting in my input from here in ohio, but i would be more then glad to help!

 

[blake]

Danno,

I help out, I almost always check to contents of the rumen on the deer I harvest, count me in.

 

[mole]

I checked my buck on Sunday night and he was 90% Alfalfa with the remainder being corn.

mole

 

[teeroy]

i checked the yearling i got this morning, 3/4 corn, 1/4 alfalfa/clover

 

[PYBucks]

I didn't shoot one Saturday night but I watch 17 deer come out into our corn plot. They ate corn for about a half hour. Then they all left and headed to an alfalfa field about 400 yards away and across a dead end road.

Tim

 

[FurDog]

Corn....corn...corn....that's why they are so darn tasty compared to the muleys I'd shoot out West.

I'll keep some stats for ya throughout this season.