Rotational grazing in the western states works very well at maintaining the type of understory/plant diversity many game species thrive in.
It will work in the southeast too. I’ve never seen a correlation between cattle and deer body weights. Deer weigh more where they have an abundance of resources and age. Do deer weigh more in the areas he’s checked due to more fertile ground(hence the pasture/cattle/ag), or perhaps the deer are killed on larger cattle ranges where hunters control more of what gets killed? Lot of factors to consider other than cows equal bigger deer. The highest body weights we record, on average, come from areas either very active understory management, regardless of soil type. You can grow very large bodied deer in the south in upland, sandy loams and shallow soils with the right herbaceous management and age.
Thanks Matt. This is on sandy loam soil in SE Alabama. 50/50 mix of pastures and swampy woods. I’m sure there’s ways in a perfect world where the land could be improved more without the cows than with them, but it would take a lot of money to replicate or exceed what a working cattle operation already provides. I think of it like getting 75% of the max habitat it could be with cows vs the average unmanaged Alabama timber property operating at probably 25% of its habitat potential.
