TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
My cool season Oregon grass pastures are just warmed up enough to start coming on. My cows and horses let me know when it's good because they stop eating that $378.00 a ton alfalfa hay. The stockers grow like mad and the cows come fresh and make a ton of milk at no cost to me. It's just now starting to get good. I go out one beautiful morning and what do I see out in pasture #1 my dairy cow pasture? 25 deer nipping the grass off at the ground
These are Fallow deer brought in by the ranch across the road in old Ted's exotic livestock days. He also imported Nilgai antelope but the 800'b bulls chased people and punctured their truck doors and tires when they were trying to get away. He got rid of those but the Fallows crawled the fence now cover a portion of the valley of the South Coquille. They are pretty, this is what they look like.
The come in white, black and spot but most are two tone brown. The bucks lie low but the does gather and live in large bands. I went out the other morning and saw 25 does in my cow pasture. An animal unit equals one cow or one horse or 5 sheep or goats. 25 deer is like 5 extra cows or horses eating my dairy cow pasture
This whole place is fenced in cattle panels. They can't crawl or go under those fences and Fallows Like Axis deer do not jump fences so they were getting in someplace. Pastures 2 and 3 are completely fenced off so they did not come from there. I followed their tracks and found a section of barb wire with white deer hair was hung on the barbs. But I had to push them out of pasture 1 to fix the fence so spent the morning sneaking and running around the woods and pasture until they all went back out the way they came. Then I tightened the barb wire and put spacers so they could not step through and reinforced the fence. In one popular place I entirely blocked it with a scary old tarp I strung up.
The next morning what do I see? 30 multicolored does nipping the grass off at the ground and looking at me like they owned the place. That equals six animal units. I tied up the Jersey and opened the front gate up by the road. Sure enough I has able to push them running along the road fence and they were all headed for the gate. Halfway there some idiot pulls over next to the deer, gets out taking pictures. They scattered every where. I circled most of them back through the woods and back to the back of pasture 1 under some trees. They were pretty nervous. Then their leader bunches herself up and jumps the 5' fence where there is a dip. Then they all started jumping the fence. Some didn't make it and ran off. I tracked those back down the hill into the woods and sure enough they were going back toward where the others went. I think they went back and jumped that same fence.
Folks may wonder why I don't just shoot them. Not interested. I like them, they're pretty. I just don't want all these hooved locusts eating my grass right now. I went back to the house and dragged out the other part of that 20' blue tarp and strung it tight and higher across their jumping place, too tired to roll out mesh and stretch wire. The next morning ---- not a deer to be seen. And ever since, no deer, knock on wood.
These are Fallow deer brought in by the ranch across the road in old Ted's exotic livestock days. He also imported Nilgai antelope but the 800'b bulls chased people and punctured their truck doors and tires when they were trying to get away. He got rid of those but the Fallows crawled the fence now cover a portion of the valley of the South Coquille. They are pretty, this is what they look like.
The come in white, black and spot but most are two tone brown. The bucks lie low but the does gather and live in large bands. I went out the other morning and saw 25 does in my cow pasture. An animal unit equals one cow or one horse or 5 sheep or goats. 25 deer is like 5 extra cows or horses eating my dairy cow pasture
This whole place is fenced in cattle panels. They can't crawl or go under those fences and Fallows Like Axis deer do not jump fences so they were getting in someplace. Pastures 2 and 3 are completely fenced off so they did not come from there. I followed their tracks and found a section of barb wire with white deer hair was hung on the barbs. But I had to push them out of pasture 1 to fix the fence so spent the morning sneaking and running around the woods and pasture until they all went back out the way they came. Then I tightened the barb wire and put spacers so they could not step through and reinforced the fence. In one popular place I entirely blocked it with a scary old tarp I strung up.
The next morning what do I see? 30 multicolored does nipping the grass off at the ground and looking at me like they owned the place. That equals six animal units. I tied up the Jersey and opened the front gate up by the road. Sure enough I has able to push them running along the road fence and they were all headed for the gate. Halfway there some idiot pulls over next to the deer, gets out taking pictures. They scattered every where. I circled most of them back through the woods and back to the back of pasture 1 under some trees. They were pretty nervous. Then their leader bunches herself up and jumps the 5' fence where there is a dip. Then they all started jumping the fence. Some didn't make it and ran off. I tracked those back down the hill into the woods and sure enough they were going back toward where the others went. I think they went back and jumped that same fence.
Folks may wonder why I don't just shoot them. Not interested. I like them, they're pretty. I just don't want all these hooved locusts eating my grass right now. I went back to the house and dragged out the other part of that 20' blue tarp and strung it tight and higher across their jumping place, too tired to roll out mesh and stretch wire. The next morning ---- not a deer to be seen. And ever since, no deer, knock on wood.
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Ted is our friend he's in his late 80's. He loves his Fallow deer and doesn't want them shot. In his youth he was a dairyman and he advises me on my cattle. Ted's big ranch is across the road and fences to not adjoin. His grandson runs the place and is also our friend. He has a continuous war on coyotes with game cameras and traps. Coyote bodies festoon the fence in the traditional way. Fallow deer have spread all over the countryside for miles around. People do eat them but that's their own business. Seems like they always shoot the whites and spots instead of leaving them to breed. If they want meat heck , why don't they just shoot a brown one.
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