kingranch

new to hunting with cows on the lease. The place we leased this year has 12 heads of cattle. I am going to fence off the feeders and the little food plots i am putting in..
should i use barb wire or can i get away with just regular wire... And has anyone used a certain seed for food plots in texas with good results?
also one more question. Do the cows seem to bother the deer sticking around or do they seem to mingle amongst eachother...cause i know the cows arent going anywhere. thanks

BigTiny

You can use cottonseed for fodder unless it is a spreader type feeder. It works in trough and gravity feeders. Cows and hogs don't like the cottonseed, but the deer really like it and it provides them with an alternative to corn if there are folks feeding corn in your area.

North Texan

Use barbed wire, and I would use five wires. Set the lowest wire about 21" high, and the highest wire about shoulder high. Does and fawns will crawl under, bucks will most likely jump over, and as long as the cattle can't stick their heads between the wires, they should leave it alone. Also, make sure it is braced and stretched taught, or the cattle will simply push it over.

Results for food plots vary with locations. East of I-35, a lot of things will work. From there, your options become more and more limited as you move west. I'm from Throckmorton County, and the commercially marketed food plot blends I have seen people try haven't done so well. Most require more rain than we get here. Wheat will work most years for a winter plot, but summer plots are hit and miss. This year was an el nino year, and the extra precipitation it brings will make a lot of things work. If this is followed by a la nina, you are better off keeping the feeders full.

txjourneyman

12 cows isn't many! My lease is 370 acres and has a lot more cows than 12! I ignore them for the most part although if I see them in a pasture I may be bowhunting near a pocket full of rocks may come in handy to run them off.

kingranch

i have never hunted up here in north texas... we just got a lease out in morton valley eastland, texas area..
How the hunting in that area anyone know?

North Texan

Should be pretty good. I think Eastland was one of the counties TPWD is experimenting with new harvest regulations, which should boost the quality of bucks in the next few years.

ipscshooter

If you set the bottom at 21", the pigs are going to get into your corn. For the high wire, are you talking about shoulder high on a man, or shoulder high for the deer? On the lease I hunt, it seems like most of the feeder fences are about 3 1/2 to 4 feet high, and that seems to be enough to keep the cattle out.

Cattle tend to make the deer run off. I think I'm going to pack a wrist rocket and some marbles next fall...

npaden

I currently have cows on my land but am probably going to terminate the grazing lease this fall when it expires. (I just bought the land and the lease was already in place when I bought it).

I've been talking to some people who just set their feeders out with no fence and the cows don't really bother them. Anyone else have a feeder set out without a fence around it with cows on the place?

txjourneyman

Yeah, i haven't fenced my feeders off and I rarely have cows come in to them. It does happen occasionally though. Hogs on the other hand will totally take over a feeder.

TexasOaks

Cows do bother feeders. We have cows; not very many, but feeders with no fences have cows in them. Npnaden, remember you cant have agricultureexemption on propertytaxes without the cows.

Usually cows and deer don't conflict much as what they eat arenormally differentand don't seem to mind each other. Unless you have food plots cows will eat those.