So I'm hunting East Texas this evening and thousands of acorns are falling throughout the bottom. I also notice bright green grasses and vines all around. Food for a deer galore.
But, when I hunt West Texas and South Texas, all I see is cactus and mesquite and dirt (of course the occasional deer feeder that sprays a few lbs twice a day.
So my question is this. What in the world do deer out west and south eat to make them have such big horns. What am I missing here, I know an occasional corn feeder isn't keeping horns that big.
We see shows that push food plots to grow big horns, I know for a fact this isn't true from what I have seen.

Deer eat browse which means the eat twigs, new growth and shutes (sp)off of various brush. I watch what and where deer are eating and then I'll go check it out myself.

The deer on my lease on S. Tx. aren't really eating much corn and they're plenty fat so they're getting plenty to eat off of that thorny brush.

Just because it is green does not mean it is good for deer. But in South Texas brush and forbs average 19% annually for the deer's diet. That is why the deer grow big there.

In addition the brush and forbs both South and West have more protein and mineral content. As a rule of thumb, the higher the avg rainfall in a region the less nutrition is in that food source.

Light Foot check this link out. If you keep scrolling down it just keeps the info coming.
http://www.whitetailstewards.com/articlesonsite/mainarticlepages/listofallarticles.htm

My buddy's place out near Enchanted Rock seems like it's basically light brush and rocks, but the deer grow awesome antlers and the population is through the roof. It's weird.

It's the minerals out west that east Texas does not have. East Texas has plenty of huge racks.

historiclly places that get more rain have less protien rich browse.

Some of the best cattle country in TX is very far west, unfortantly the grass is very stout but not plenitful.. So you have lower CC

Yep, we have a book with all the trees shrubs and bushes in it, look at what the deer eat, then go look at it and find it in the book. Many of them are very high in protein, some areound and over 20% from what I remember.

In the words of HWY_MAN there are no deer in west texas...

Our lease in the panhandle has peanut fields which are harvested in early fall and then planted in winter wheat. Lots of natural browse as well. They can eat as much of whatever they want. There are big deer in East Texas but I think the hunting pressure and size of leases has something to do with it. I can't speak for South Texas but land in the Panhandle and West Texas is generally broke in to sections (640 acres...one square mile). Most leases are at least one section and usually have two to five sections. I have friends who hunt in East Texas and it seems like there is always 4 or 5 spots on a smaller lease...say 600 acres or so. Whereas, most leases out in West Texas or the Panhandle may have 4 or 5 spots on 1,200 acres.

Cotton and lots of it out west.

The way it was explained to me, which I finally understood, was that for every bite a deer takes in S. Texas, he would have to take 5-10 bites in E. Texas