Axis Farming question

Posted a while back about raising some Axis on my place for personal consumption. I live in Blue Ridge Texas. Am planning on improving my pasture to grasses more suitable to Axis deer (which do well on many native Texas grasses). Wanted to ask if anyone has any idea what sorts of grasses they would thrive on? I will be doing plenty of supplemental feeding, but I'd like the natural fodder to be as plentiful as I can make for them. Looking at a seed mix of bluestem and some forbs. Any feedback would be appreciated. Plan on planting in the coming months. Anyone with solid experience that would be willing to talk, I'd appreciate the education a conversation would give me. Otherwise, any feedback here would be greatly appreciated.

H~

Around here they seem to like any of the grasses. Only advice I can give you is if there are any free range or if you cross fence and have Males on both sides of the fence you better have some really good fence wire.

I farm Red Deer, but also have a small herd of Axis on my place that we have just to look at and to eat. The axis will thrive on their own with the native grasses available. If you are wanting to plant some stuff, I recommend the legume called Sericea Lespedeza. It is very good for rumen function and the deer seem to love it! Something else that we have on our place is called World Feeder Bermuda grass, but I do not believe it is available to get anymore. It came from Okahoma and it has been growing on our ranch for 20 yrs, and my deer eat it up.

I'm kind of at a similar stage as you are will similar plans. I'm still working on clearing my land and creating pasture areas. What I'm discovering is that once you clear the land, and plant the grass, the native and invasive weeds like to take over, and they do this rather quickly. You really need to spray twice a year for a couple years to get it under control. And even then, it's a never ending battle. My local Ag Extension is in Tyler, just 15 miles away, and they have been great in helping me get started. They have the soil tests there that I send off for each area of my land. It's amazing how different the soil is from one end of my place to another. But then again, some areas are thick with pines, and in other areas, it's all hardwoods. A friend told me that his axis spend most of their time in the timber. I'm worried about the cold affecting them in winter, so I'm leaving areas of thick timber for them to have some natural protection, but I will also build a barn and hopefully get them to come into it for feeding them protein. Another friend has bongo and they have a heated barn that they keep them in all winter long.

Serengeti Grazing is a concept you may want to explore. A search should give you info and resources to consider.