Doe Shooter
Active Member
I planted cow peas the first time this year. They are now forming pods . I've read that turkey eat the peas, but do deer eat them as the do soybeans?
Do deer eat?
- Thread starter Doe Shooter
- Start date
j-bird
Well-Known Member
"Normally" you plant cowpeas for the forage - for the deer to eat the plant itself. If you have them growing pods I would assume the deer will eat them at some point. You could run a disc over them and they should germinate for an awesome archery plot - at least until the frost kills them. I am not sure what the nutritional value and the like of the cowpea - peas as a grain. I know in my area it's hard to get deer to eat anything other than corn and soybeans in the ag fields once late fall and winter get here......they just don;t seem interested in anything else.
Doe Shooter
Active Member
I have soybeans planted a few yards away, and the deer fed on the cowpeas most of the summer but now have moved to the soybeans foliage pretty much cleaning them bare. I see the same thing around here corn and beans are the big draw ,brassicas when they get less picky later on.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
I would assume that the deer will move to your cowpea pods once other preferred foods have dried up and are no longer available.....it's just a matter of when that will be. Between my low deer numbers and the shear amount of ag in my area and the resulting amount of food I simply don't see much deer use of things like brassica, cowpea, winter pea, sunflowers, sorghum, cereal grains and the like. I plant or have planted those things in the past, but in most cases I end up tilling it under come spring because of it's limited use by the deer. I like trying new things and I like some insurance thru the winter, but it sure can get frustrating. So I now focus on what the deer show me they want and for the most part that is corn and soybeans.
Doe Shooter
Active Member
I can relate Jbird. I have a property 100 miles north and one small acreage in the burbs of STL. My trail cams had 7 of them all summer long and Oct 1, gone.(no trail cam pics) We had a good acorn drop and suspect they are on them. Typically a few come back around Nov.1
