Cattle and their impact on deer habits?

[Oneknocked1]

hey folks, new to the site but an avid listener of the podcast. Wanted to pick the hive mind on Cattle and what people's experiences have been on how they impact deer movement. I am in central Virginia where I hunt farm and woods country. The family place has nice bucks and great habitat but they constantly rotate beef in the pastures and wood lots. The bucks seem to like the bedding in the thick edges where the cows also hang. I see deer feeding in the same fields as the cows sometimes but they seem to keep their distance (60 yards or so). Do you think they would move bedding when the cows are rotated? It's difficult when trying to pattern a buck and then right before you hunt the farmer moves the stock. Ideas? Experiences? Can I use this to my advantage? Thanks for taking the time. Our season opens tomorrow!!!

[mainebowhunter]

Huge impact. They eat all the understory. They have completely removed bedding areas for us where we hunt.

[Oneknocked1]

We seem to have a less destructive impact. But definitely still a shift. We hunt 325 acres and they run about 75 head on a 5 pasture rotation so not a TON of cows. But for example, a target buck who we knew to be bedding on a pasture fence row by a creek opened up a rub line and scrape last week. It was easy access in a place human scent is common so I felt safe hanging a camera on one of the rubs close to opener. I only checked it once, mid day on a favorable wind. 2 days later the cows moved in. Cameras been up for 2 weeks and he hasn't touched the rubs. What I'm wondering is do people think he has shifted temporarily and will return when the cows move pasture or is he bumped for the season? They move the cows roughly monthly.

[Whitetailaddict]

Huge impact. They eat all the understory. They have completely removed bedding areas for us where we hunt.

X2. I've seen the exact thing while scouting numerous properties. If cattle are there i see much less deer sign and most of the understory used for bedding is gone. During the rut they may cruise through but i have found them to shift bedding when cows are present. The only exception I've found to this was on a piece where there was swamp land mixed with cattle pasture. The cows tended to avoid the swamps and the deer still used the swamps where cattle avoided.

[Bedbug]

I got into bow hunting on these types of property's. In my area as a kid they seemed to be the only private land I could get permission on. Often times in exchange for fixing fence or other grunt labor. But it gave me some valuable take aways on (how cattle and deer co-exist).
10 years later I still find myself hunting a few of these area's because they do have there advantages. Theres alot of more experienced hunters than me on this forum but here's what I personally find reliable year after year.

•(The deer don't see the cattle as a threat but an annoyance.) The reason for this is the the constant noise from the cows. It takes away from 1 of the 3 senses all deer use to survive. Mature bucks don't go for that vulnerability I often see them avoiding the cattle.

• (The deer simply don't like to bed inside of the same pasture the cattle are in) i just never see it aside from "stage bedding" in route to a food source, or rutting but still very rare.

• (The presence of humans and human scent.) Huge Advantage for entrance and exits! But don't think you can get away with anymore than hunting elsewhere. They know exactly when and where they should see or smell humans.

•(Rotational Grazing) it sounds like your dealing with this.
This is a game changer in my opinion. The result is way more travel inside the pasture. Travel patterns are constantly changing, primary bedding can be found inside the pasture but it's sporadic, and daylight movement is usually limited to cover from elevation changes due to the grazed down plant cover. Overall just harder to pattern deer.

•(Neighboring hunting pressure) if I could give one peice of advice it would be to key in on perimeters of pastures that but up to woodlots pressured from hunters. This is where I find the mature bucks bedding. On edges and points coming out towards the pasture sometimes into it. Similar to a cattail swamp the deer use pasture as an escape route from danger. Unlike in a swamp though I find them Bedding on the downwind edge of thick cover where they can see into the less dense pasture for any other danger. Often leaving these areas parallel to the fence line towards food sources and doe bedding.

Hope that's helpful and I'm not the close minded type if somebody is seeing something that goes against anything I said I'm open ears

[Jphunter]

Huge impact. They eat all the understory. They have completely removed bedding areas for us where we hunt.

X3 pretty much what I have seen also..

But if there are any small pieces that cows can't get to for some reason or if you can find a small portion that is fenced off with good bedding cover deer will use them for bedding.

[Clink]

Worked Highland Cattle once and those son of a guns eat anything and everything!

[Stanley]

I hunted a really dynamite area 25 years ago. They started to run cattle in the timber. Completely destroyed the ground cover. It's like a wasteland in there now. Not worth hunting now.

[Oneknocked1]

I suppose I should have given more details. I've hunted the farm over 10 years. This is only my second year targeting big bucks specifically. Before that I was just hunting deer and killing them regularly. The areas always had big bucks and always had cattle so it's nothing new. I think they just move around them. Also the farm is laid out very nicely they logged the bottoms and kept the ridges many years ago. Good hard wood lots, lots of acorns, lots of hard and soft edges, two ponds, theee creeks, one small swamp. It's ideal but has direct and indirect pressure. Really appreciate the advice, taking all of it in. Keep it coming, goodluck and thank you.
Also is there a way to post a satellite screenshot of the property to help you guys see what I'm seeing?

[Hatchetman]

I have a heavily used public spot I hunt next to a cow pasture in Mn.. The public is only 80 acres and really gets pounded by other hunters mainly squirrel hunters as it is heavily wooded with a lot of big oaks.
The pasture is split by two wooded finger drainages ones only about a 1/4 mile long but the other is about 3/4 mile long. I set up on the far back corner of the public on the east facing slope of the long drainage where it transitions into the woodlot.


When I first sat this spot I was surprised to see deer going in and out of the pasture but they did, It seemed does mainly but I did see bucks as well.
I think it was the second buck I shot in that spot on a morning hunt. It ended up running into the pasture. After getting permission from the farmer I took up the blood trail into the pasture. It was mid morning, with nosey cows at my side. I had only made it about 100 yds in when just across the drainage on the other slope out of a small brushy pocket erupted 9 does and fawns baling out in every direction. At the time, I just thought to myself , wow that's a lot of deer coming out of little spot. it didn't dawn on me cause I really just wanted to find my buck, which I did in about another 100 yards but after rethinking the whole thing days later I started to wonder how many more deer found sanctuary up in that drainage with the cows. So I thought, well probably big bucks don't bed in there, but with does stuffed in there like that they'll be in there checking them out come rut.

I started hunting this spot more and more during the rut and most times had really good action. I have shot 5 bucks to date out of that spot the biggest being a 153 in 2014.

I apologize "Oneknocked1" If this situation doesn't really equate to yours as it sounds like this is a private farm your hunting so human intrusion probably isn't forcing them to bed with the cattle, but I wouldn't over look it either. It may be worth some observation sits in areas you suspect may hold deer.

For those of you hunting public areas with cattle, you may want to rethink things or at least consider this...
For every hunter that enters that browsed out cattle pasture and has the typical idea to totally discounts it, there may be one guy who thinks I'm going to do the opposite of everyone else and check this out. Why? Cause you're going to have it all to yourself!

Deer in farm country deal with cattle every day ,they may not like them but they tolerated them.
Big bucks and hunters... not so much.

I guess I look at it this way...
You think you have mature bucks all figured out and they all bed where there supposed to, and a lot do.
Then there's the bucks that didn't get the memo.
Bedding right next to a public land parking lot...
Bedding right next to a busy road...
Or maybe figure out why some 5yo urban buck likes to bed 30 yds off of someones back yard lawn and watch and listen to kids squealing on a swing set all day????

[Oneknocked1]

... the farmer jumped a tight and tall 9 out of the pasture yesterday. They actually spotted him tucked into a dead blowdown at 20 yards while looking for a calf. He sat tight for 2 minutes before busting out when they started pointing at him. I bet they watch them all the time...

[hunter10]

I used to hunt a farm where cattle were aloud to roam in approx 50 % of the land. I stopped hunting there as about 10 others also had permission but like others have said, the understory or ground cover took a pounding

[Bonehead]

Has anyone else noticed that there are fewer scrapes on land that run cattle?

[Boogieman1]

I used to flat out hate cattle on any land I hunted, now depending on the property I don't really mind and use it to my advantage. The cattle often create a funnel due to u know where the deer aren't gonna go. Deer usually stay pretty close to cattle due to ample supply of food in my area. When delt lemons make lemonade!

[SplitG2]

I used to flat out hate cattle on any land I hunted, now depending on the property I don't really mind and use it to my advantage. The cattle often create a funnel due to u know where the deer aren't gonna go. Deer usually stay pretty close to cattle due to ample supply of food in my area. When delt lemons make lemonade!

Agree 100% with this. Ialso belueve it depends on the amount of accessible/huntable acres to cattle ratio. There are places on a piece of land that cattle won't venture too or just simply do not frequent, albeit small places but still small places they won't go. Deer know these spots and if it's a ripe spot for bedding or travel you better have a stand in it or darn close to it. I've even seen deer move with cattle and travel from point A to point B by using the herd to cover movement.

With that said tho, when there's a lot of cattle on a piece of land that's just not quite big enough to support the number of cattle on it combined with the local deer herd, the cattle will win that piece of property just about everytime from my experience