Cattle in farm country

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Moose
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Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Moose » Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:16 am

So this year I set some trail cameras out and one card didn't work :roll: . Anyway there is pasture, hay fields and crop fields. I noticed once the farmer let the cows out on the harvested Fields (beans and hay this year) no pictures of deer and as soon as he took them home for winter the deer came back. Is that pretty typical in with cattle? If so it's only good for early season and late season. During the rut the cows are everywhere on the farm since everything has been harvested and no deer.


Moose
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Moose » Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:58 am

I should also ask if this is one reason why I'm having a hard time finding buck beds due to the cattle.
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Atimm693 » Wed Jan 19, 2022 1:24 pm

Yeah it's been my experience as well.

A couple places I hunt are dynamite when the cows are elsewhere, and a ghost town when the cows are turned out. You may find them co-mingling here and there, but for the most part I think deer are too skittish to tolerate them very much.

Beef cows will browse just as much as deer if allowed in the woods, and whatever they don't eat they will stomp into mud. They are very hard on the understory and compete for the same food sources.

I can't speak much for crop fields but that has just been my experience hunting farms where the cows are allowed to go wherever. Take a walk through the woods in February/March on one of these places that the cows have been allowed to pick through and all that will be left is sticks and cow trails.
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Bogle » Wed Jan 19, 2022 3:41 pm

Pretty much the same. I have found that if there are woods where the cows dont go in to, and havent gone in to due to fencing, the deer wil come in to the fields during the rut even with the cows. However, the thick woods would be better. If the cows are allowed to wander in to the woods etc...... your best bet is to hunt the fence line closest to thick cover, which may be the neighboring property. One of the proeprties I hunt, has a cow pasture to the North and a cow pasture to the South, but there are big woods to the East and West that are fenced off. There is a small strip of woods, about 30 yds wide by 50 yds long that divide the cow pasture and connect the big woods. During the rut this funnel is golden even though there is a gate separating the pastures and they feed the cows in it.
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Abishai
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Abishai » Wed Jan 19, 2022 3:56 pm

I'm currently learning to hunt around cows as well. Here where I'm at in Texas cow country and deer country are the same thing. They'll use the same trails and creek crossings, but usually not at the same time. Most deer food is corn feeder or browse so there aren't a lot of fields where they'll come out even if there are cattle in it.

My gamecams had cow pics and deer pics together. It's frustrating as all get out to have a nice set and have cows come walking through. It'll tempt a guy to make some hamburger--that's for sure.
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby dan » Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:38 pm

Yep, deer tend to mot like sharing areas with cattle
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby upwind predator » Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:11 am

Yep if the cows are present the deer will avoid the area the cows are in or really skirt it hard. Won't see them mingling together
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Thu Jan 20, 2022 3:02 am

The spot I killed my local buck this year was 28 acres and has cattle on it all year. I don’t ever see them mingling together but I don’t believe cattle send deer running for the hills. I believe places that have cattle all year will let deer accept them and just work around. Versus cattle that just show up one day in a rotation grazing scenario. In my parts if deer wouldn’t tolerate livestock and hogs they would have no place to go.
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Primetime » Thu Jan 20, 2022 4:22 am

From what I have seen is the deer and cattle dont hang around together. But Ive seen plenty of instances where cattle will be on one side of a large crop field (lets say a north side) and there will be deer on the other side (south side). I've also seen where crop fields were fenced off from the woods/pasture area and the cows would be in the woods/pasture area and there would be deer everywhere in the crop fields.
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby Moose » Thu Jan 20, 2022 4:48 am

My issue is the cows are on pasture until the crop is harvested (corn,bean rotation) then the cows get turned out onto the harvested Fields and can also run the timber and fingers. So nothing is off limits to the cows after harvest.
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Re: Cattle in farm country

Unread postby seuss79 » Thu Jan 20, 2022 5:45 am

The farmer next to me will put cows to pasture in fields next to us from time to time. Runs a 1 wire electric fence. When he does this, at some point they find a way across it and end up in the woods(my uncle's) behind my house. Deer that frequent those woods are disappear for a while when this happens.

Seems to happen every year but my uncle says they are not hurting anything. Unfortunately for me nothing I can do.


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