I recently got permission to hunt a cattle farm. The terrain is fairly rolling with timber draws covering quite a bit of the farm. There is a section of timber in one corner that is solid 20 acres of timber. Something that throws me off a bit though is that being a cattle farm, all of the woods, and draws are fairly clear of scrub brush or anything like that. No grass or weeds, some smaller trees (but even they have a high canopy), a TON of big trees, and a lot of them are oaks. The timber is surrounded by fence on 2 sides, and the other 2 are surrounded by grass. The fence is the end of the property line, and I don't have permission to hunt the other side. (Cattle fence only -not a barrier for a deer...only for me and the cows). Sometimes, the cattle are in the woods, and sometimes not.

I have never hunted cattle pasture before, and I don't know if this is someplace that I want to spend too much time. I just got permission right before season, and didn't have a ton of time to scout. I got out when I could.

I have hunted it twice so far, and have only seen 2 does. Everytime I leave though, I see deer going out into fields (not cattle fields) that I don't have permission to hunt a mile down the road.

I know that this is the time of year that I need to be in the woods, and I will be, but I don't know whether to hunt this timber, or go to my old usual spots and hunt this next year so I don't waste my time trying something new and finding out it was a mistake.

My question (after all that) is : Would you spend much time hunting this timber setup, or if you had someplace better, would you find something else? If you would hunt it, how would you approach it? I feel like if the cattle are around, I have almost no confidence that the deer will be around. Is that accurate? Can anyone help me?