![]() Some clips from the Food & Feeding chapter read "on frost killed and cured, or "ensilaged," vegitation." And "Its all due to the natural "silage" that begins to form soon after the first heavy frosts. Not to nick-pick this thing to death, but I did say "I guess I should have used the word "Ensilage", but it is the same."įor a good reference on the "Ensilage" of Natural plants look in Dr Valerius Geist's book 'Mule Deer Country'. Freezing breaking down plant cells? Alfalfa lives through the winter. It's a process of anaerobic and microbial breakdown of the plant material. Gotta be some reason they don't use it (takes more volume?).Įnsilage and silage are synonyms. Why wouldn't grass hay work? I know it doesn't have the protein level of alfalfa but that might solve some of the digestibility issues. I'm not saying it couldn't be done it is just harder to do than agronomic forages like alfalfa. If you planted some as a crop it would take years to reach a large enough amount to harvest. Most of the native plant complex grows real slow. Bushy wood like material is very hard on the swather to cut it and even harder on the baler to bale it. ![]() Most of the native plant material is somewhat woody like winterfat, bitterbrush, sages, etc. There are a couple of problems, from an agronomic point of view with adding native material to alfalfa. I see no problem in feeding a deer herd that has had its winter range wiped out by human encroachment IF the feed does no harm to the animals. OnTarget, find out what that ranch is using and let us know. Grass hay, it seems, does not have the same effect on deer, but the grass hay holds little nutritional value for the deer. We have had many deer survive the winter in our stacks, only to die once spring shoots appear. BUT if the deer are fed hay at once during the winter, chances are they will survive the winter only to die once spring grasses come and the hay os stopped. Many times if deer are feeding on Alfalfa hay stacks before the winter starts they seem to be ok. This is known as "Turning to Silage".Īlafalfa hay has not been broken down by any freezing activity. Alfalfa still in the field during the winter is digestable because the plant has frozen and the cells have burst. I believe that the deer can eat in hay fields and have no ill effect during both summer and winter. It is tough to quickly transition from brush to these high quality diets, but those feeds work well here. Come to eastern Wyoming and eastern Colorado and I'll show you all kinds of big, healthy deer feeding in corn and hay stacks. I'm not sure how to answer your question other than to say, don't belive what you hear. ![]() Fat and sassy.Īnother concern in this area is CWD, since congregating the wildlife tends, at least in theory, to advance the spread of CWD. They literally stand on corn piles and eat hay stacks to the ground. Don't believe it!! The deer here at my house, and I just looked at about 60-70 this morning, eat primarily alfalfa and corn for months in the winter. We learned that deer can not eat alfalfa or supplements because the microorganisms in their rumens can not adapt from the native dietto the new feeds. When I wa in college back in the 70's, we learned that feeding deer would kill them. This is an old and controversial question. USU has tried for years and MDF is trying to find a winter supplement that will not cause the aformentioned problem. I wish we could find some kind of way to help the animals by supplementing their food sources. If a feed program is started early enough (when?) it is believed that the deer survive at a higher rate once spring comes. The deer starved to death after the winter, because they couldn't digest the natural Spring forage. Then in May the DWR found 1,000s of dead deer that had died since the spring grasses came. For example, in 1983 the deer were fed and many appeared to have survived the winter. It is believed that the deer, once fed on Alfalfa or other high protien feeds used for livestock, can not make the transition to natural spring feeds. The deer, it seems, has microorganisms in their digestive tract which aid in breaking down forage. We have tried to feed deer before on our ranch, but the problem is the deer can't come off the winter feed and start onto the Spring forage.
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