I am curious. Since we are in Alabama, why would a deer not clearly prefer to browse on a properly limed and fertilzed food plot over native browse with no fertilizer and a ph from 4.6 to 5.2? It can't just be pressure, because no one is there at night.

They are goats. Goats eat anything and everything

Native browse is just that; a native plant adapted perfectly to the location where it’s growing wild. It’s been growing in the deer’s environment, and provided actual nutrition without man’s assistance for as long as there have been deer to make use of it. Natural browse also doesn’t come or go in availability the way food plots often do.

Well I sure wish I could figure out what they are eating besides green briar. I swear the doe I shot last week had a dead leaf in her mouth.....

deer will eat dead leaves

I think a lot of the natural browse help deer digest their food. Here's a good article to read from AON.


AON

Always wondered this myself.

Watched a spike last week feed in my green field , then spent some time eating soybeans from my vegetative variety soybeans , and finally before he left the field he fed on honeysuckle. Did someone mention buffet ?

There’s browse growing that is every bit as palatable as anything you can plant. Think about what happens when white Oaks start dropping acorns. Corn feeder use will almost stop. I big patch of fertilized honeysuckle is just about better than anything you can plant.

They prefer to eat whatever their body needs at the time they are feeding. Later in the year you’ll see more deer gravitate to food plots because there is less natural browse for them to feed on everywhere else. I had 250 lbs of corn on a half acre greenfield with wheat rye and oats, and you know what I witnessed the deer eat on? Some weeds that got fertilized and were green.

Ive watched a deer walk across a beautiful food plot to eat green briars or blackberry leaves. I find it offensive myself

Deer are browsers not grazes .

I’ve got 11 does that come every evening behind the house and gorge on honeysuckle.

5 does/ fawns came through a hardwood bottom Sunday morning and nipped on every green thing that was in there.

They are unappreciative of our hard work, time and money we put into green fields.

Kudzu (like it or not) is a huge summer forage around here. Lots of deer get spot lighted in kudzu patches early on.

Same reason you might eat a salad along with a ribeye even though the ribeye has 10x the flavor, calories, and nutrients of a pile of lettuce.