Rich, I've been around horses a good portion of my life, seems odd for someone to dump expensive feed (anything in bags specific for horses), waste, spoilage, pilferage, + attracting rodents like rats, flies like some of these feeds and lay their eggs, then they get worms, makes no sense to me at least, we always measure out what they get in feed, aside from their hay, even if turned out, the feed bowl/bucket gets taken away after, hung upside down, and cleaned as needed. Makes no sense why anyone would do that, maybe it's just whole oats or something similar, not pellets or sweet feed etc., we'd have rats around here if you did that. You never see any rats ever, not even indigenous ones, but start dumping that grain and they will show up sooner or later, used to get em at the manure pile, picking through it, feed was always secured and area kept clean in the barn, just grain in the manure was enough to sustain em.
I really enjoy planting forage crops for the deer, and I know in some locations what a nuisance they can be, we have to fence in our gardens, nothing else they really bother, 'cept saplings. I have always hunted them to provide some extra food, it's nice to know and watch them eat what you have planted. Some like to plant things that help antler growth, spring to early summer, but I do find an inexpensive forage crop to plant is oats, late summer, around here they have tons of cover nearby, so they bed close, and just hammer them oats (well the tender oat grass) seemingly the base of the plant, maybe it is sweeter, then later in the season, they graze the tops off, right up to December, depending on when the oats freeze out, but even then they will keep after em awhile even under the snow. High protein forage if I am correct and cheap to plant. I assume this is a good way to "finish em, the meat has been excellent, even the the oldest doe I got, teeth were worn down to nothin she was so old. Filled all my tags, from a stand overlooking a field planted in oats, that was harvested, regrowth + plus what I re-planted, this 7 acres just draws em in, seen more bucks and more traffic then ever, in total there was about 40 acres in oats, lots of forage for em.
Whitetail Institute has some great products, but darned expensive seed, I have planted their imperial whitetail clover and what a nice stand it became, til the darned geese came in one spring an decimated it. Keep the PH right, fertile, mow it periodically, will last 5 years no problem. Their "no plow" seed is probably the best bang for the buck, thing is though you want to plant it so that it is still tender, its only good for 6-8 months, be perfect if you could get it to take early mid summer, by the time fall hits, it'll stand out while everything else is dying out. I plow and disc anyway, germinates quickly and seems to have aggressive growth.
surprised they don't get ornery on him Lol !
