Game crops that don’t appeal to cattle?

Are there any crops that can be planted in areas where cattle roam that won’t appeal (or will have less appeal) to cattle, but will attract deer?

Adjacent to my hunting land is a section of cattle ranch where we have permission to hunt. The fenceline the boarders my property has several PERFECT places for plots. But they are on the cattle side of the fence, so having cattle wander through and feed will be inevitable.

Is there anything like radishes, turnips, etc where the foliage will grown and won’t appeal to the cattle? Or at least not until the sugar content starts to rise?

Or am I better off just seeding high quality clover and letting the cattle and deer share the plot?

We’re going to have plots on our side of the fence as well, but those are some time off because I need to get the land cleared.

Grouse

Not that I know of. My experience is that cattle will eat just about anything that grows except thistle.

I think your best bet is get a good stand of clover going and let them share it like you said.

Its a tough place to be in because cattle will mow down pretty much anything you plant in terms of food plots! The best option would be to fence off a smaller area which would allow deer to access the plot but not for cattle. Even a 1/4 acre would be huge. Fences for deer should be at least 18 inches from the ground and top and second wire should be at least 12 inches apart. All hog wire should be removed. It’s going to allow deer in and out but not cattle.

Not much help in terms of finding a species palatable to deer but not cattle….they pretty much are the same beast!

Pretty much what I suspected, but thanks for confirming.

I think we’re just going to plant clover, mostly as a science experiment to start to get up to speed on using our equipment and to see how things grow in our area.

I think I’ll couple this with getting some soil tests done from this area and from the areas where our future plots will be. I know the soil in this area, generally speaking, is acidic, so lime will almost certainly be required.

Grouse