Alfalfa hay

Anyone put alfalfa hay out for deer? I would think that sweet smell would bring them in.

Try it in the past .. not much interest

My brother in-law has a ranch near Grand Junction, CO. When they bring in bales of alfalfa, they can't hardly keep the mule deer out of it. I've offered several times to help him out with that, but his wife won't have it. They are her pets.

i tried it on 2 places up here and they liked it at one and didn't touch it at the other.

Good chance it will get any cattle in the pasture to come and investigate it also. We tried and ended up with cows in the feed pen. Not a good deal.

I feed alfalfa December- February. They clean it up as soon as I put it out.

I just put out a bail opening weekend of dove season. I will check the game camera October 1 and will let you know!

I put a bale out for them in the spring and it rotted away before anything touched it. My deer sure like the protein pellets though.

a few years back there was a 18 wheeler on the side of the road selling Alfalfa, so WTHeck, I bought a few bails. I put one out close to a spin feeder at three different locations at my leases in Central Texas (Burnet, Lampasas & Llano counties).

The one in Burnet county looked almost exactly the same 2-3 months later untouched, I rolled it over to find it was now a full size habitat fire ant mound. I burst the bail open and it turned back into dirt over the next several months without anything (except fire ants) going to it. The one in Lampasas county went untouched from Oct. thru mid January before the hogs rolled it around enough to bust it open and it turned into compost. The one in Llano the cows got to it and it was gone within a few days.

My BIL hunts in the panhandle around Clarendon and has pretty good success with putting up a feed pen with a bail of Alfalfa that seems to draw in the mule deer but not so much with the WT.

Tried it in Mills County a few times with no success, even in hard times.

I have deer eat the heck out of it in Edwards county.

We used it Pecos county and both the WT and MD would hammer it and actually bed down in it or very close bye. Full bales gone is about 3-4 days. 1 ton bales would have deer standing on top and yes bucks in eating and checking does. We placed bales in very feed pen. Tried it last year north of Abilene area and not an attractant, just wasted away. Depends on your area but I would give it a try if you can get real fresh alfalfa.

Never had any luck with on LF ranches in South Texas. I know it works well in the Trans-Pecos region for Mule Deer. WT and exotics will hit is also out there in that area. It works well for axis anywhere from what I have seen. I have fed it to WT on larger HF ranches and lactating doe will hit it really hard in the summer time. The rest of year deer used more or less depending on how dry or wet it was. It has never been a good buy for the money when you factor in the cost per bale with the amount of waste left over. Was just not cost effective since they pick out the leaves and the leave the stalks/stems.

Anyone in North East Texas? There seems to be a lot of haying in our area.

Works great for whitetail and exotics at our place near Junction. Put a bale out to test!

WT and Mullies hammer it in Terrell County and WT fight over it and bed down in it in Val Verde. Have seen lots of bucks piss on the bales over the years too

Had good luck in Palo Duro canyon area with it for mule deer.

hit and miss with us - first time they hit it hard and next time not so much - put corn on it and that helped - not sure it is worth the effort on LF in south tex

I've been considering it as well. found a guy in pilot point who sells it for 15-17$ a bale. not exactly sure what the difference in 2 and three string is though. is that just a reference to the actual amounts of sting/wire used to bale it? or does it refer to the grade of alfalfa? sounds simple enough for me to overthink and screw it up.

for that cheap i won't go broke buying a couple bales to set out at my place in North TX.

I'm sticking to my program. It is awesome.

pd 14. for 1 bale, should have bought beer

Of the ones I've seen, three string bales are larger than two string by about 30-40%. Two string 70-80lbs, Three string 100-110.

anyone from north east Texas care to chime in.

My Cuz in Llano co feeds it outta hay bags. His deer love it. But he been feeding it for years. They're used to it.

Has anyone planted alfalfa for axis or otherwise?

Mine love it

Alfalfa works great for us in Schleicher County. I put it out pre and post season and when it dries up.