When managing for game on your property it's important to know the preferred food sources. On my property I am mainly managing for White-tailed deer. Because of this I need to continually observe and determine which food sources the deer on my property are using. In this post I will show you how to figure out what game are eating on your property using my property as an example.
The main thing I am looking for when trying to determine what deer are eating is plants that have been browsed on. I will walk my property and look for the signs of browsing on certain plants as well as look at other general signs of deer such as beds, trails and droppings.
Browsed plants will look like normal plants except the ends of the plant will be broken off abruptly. If it is fairly fresh the browsed tip will still be green and could be releasing sap, which can sometimes look milky such as with prickly lettuce and salsify. If it is not fresh then the tip will tend to be more brown and dried out while the rest of the plant will still be green. Once you have identified plants that have been browsed it becomes easier to spot them because you are training your eyes to pick them out. Once you have learned to identify some plants that are known to be preferred browse species then you can more closely inspect them when you find them on your property and get a good idea of how much they are preferred compared to other plants on your property. Here are some plants that I've noticed are preferred browse plants by deer on my property.
This is Red Clover. It is a herbaceous cool-season perennial that is found throughout most of the country. This is a highly preferred species in most areas and on my property the majority of the red clover I find has been browsed on, however it is somewhat uncommon on my property so it is probably not a staple in my area.
This plant is Yellow Salsify. It is a herbaceous cool-season biennial that is common in drier meadows, especially in the west. This is also a highly preferred food source for deer. It is very common on my property and in some areas it is almost the dominant forb. Probably about 30% of the individual plants of this species I find on my property have been browsed and because it is so common I believe it makes up a large bulk of the deer's diet during spring and summer.
This next plant is Prickly Lettuce. It is warm season annual that is common throughout most of America. It is a highly preferred food plant for deer and most individual plants I find have been browsed, however it is somewhat uncommon on my property so it likely is not a large percentage of the deer's diet.
This plant is called Campion. There are several varieties including White and Bladder Campion which I believe are herbaceous annuals. This species is fairly common on my property and seem to get a moderate amount of browsing from deer. It does not seem to be a highly preferred food source though.
This plant is Sulfer Cinquefoil. It is a herbaceous cool-season perennial. It is extremely common on my property and is the dominant forb on the majority of it. This species is known to have a high amount of tannin in it's leaves which make it mostly unpalatable to deer. However, I have noticed that when it is growing in mostly shaded areas that it receives a lot more browsing from the deer. It is likely that the shaded conditions makes the plants produce less tannins and this makes them more palatable to deer. In general though this is not a preferred food source and likely is browsed mostly because of it's sheer abundance.
This plant is known as Heal-All and is a herbaceous perennial forb. It is common across most of the US and is somewhat uncommon on my property. It seems to receive a moderate amount of browsing from deer on my property and likely has a moderate preference.
This last plant is a species of Dock which is in the Rumex genus and which I believe is a biennial. It is somewhat uncommon on my property and does not seem to be a preferred browse, however I was able to find a few that had been browsed on especially in shaded conditions similar to the Cinquefoil. It likely is a low food preference for deer.
As you can see there is quite a large variety of plants that deer will eat and I focused only on herbaceous species during late spring and early summer. During other times of the year and in other areas there are many many more plant species that deer will eat. But these are some good examples and can help you determine what deer are eating on your property.
Once you determine what the deer are already eating on your property then you can use this information to help determine how you will manage your property. If you are planning on making a "Wild Game Meadow" like I talk about in my previous posts then this information will help you determine which plants you will want to allow and which ones you will want to get rid of. When you allow these preferred food sources to grow on your property as well as add seeds of other preferred foods then you will be able to make your property that much more attractive to the wild game on your property.
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