In my experience the deer seem to utilize them when needed but NOT when they had other plantings available. For instance, every deer on my property would march right through the Forage Oats to get at soybeans. I've NEVER seen anything that could out produce RR soybeans when left standing into the hunting season. That being said, I did see an increase in Oat utilization once the soybeans where eaten.
Here are pix of a couple of my Forage Oat plots
Oct 30, when most everything else was dead and brown my Oats were still a rich dark green.
Notice this Forage Oat plot on Sept 24 and then the same plot during the late season firearm hunt! Note how the deer have pawed through over 12" of snow to get to the Oats
