My next door neighbor is a cattle rancher. He loves fescue. He has 1200 acres. He lets a couple relatives and me hunt his place. Bow only, kill what you want, but you have to mount it. But, I digress.
I have lush green food plots of wheat, rye, and various clovers. He has fescue. I have worked professionally in the natural resource field for 34 years, and have managed my own land for 20 years, and his deer herd in both quantity and quality is eye opening. His deer have no aversion to eating fescue. They will eat fescue right across the fence from my wheat, rye, and clover.
Fescue was once planted as deer food, but the wildlife managers coming on proclaimed it bad, bad - more as a result of poor habitat for small game - especially quail - than being a poor choice for deer food. Now I am not advocating planting fescue for deer - one of the first things I did when I bought my place was try to rid my 20 acre pasture of fescue. I still have some fescue after 20 years. But, in my area, deer will eat fescue - positively.
I have lush green food plots of wheat, rye, and various clovers. He has fescue. I have worked professionally in the natural resource field for 34 years, and have managed my own land for 20 years, and his deer herd in both quantity and quality is eye opening. His deer have no aversion to eating fescue. They will eat fescue right across the fence from my wheat, rye, and clover.
Fescue was once planted as deer food, but the wildlife managers coming on proclaimed it bad, bad - more as a result of poor habitat for small game - especially quail - than being a poor choice for deer food. Now I am not advocating planting fescue for deer - one of the first things I did when I bought my place was try to rid my 20 acre pasture of fescue. I still have some fescue after 20 years. But, in my area, deer will eat fescue - positively.
