If you look close in the second pic you can see the small spines on it. I trimmed some of that back inside the feed pen under the feeder on the right. If it isn’t cactus idk what the heck it is then.

It's eating Sotol.

It's eating Sotol.

We hunted Ft Stockton, Bakersfield, in 60s n 70s and used to break em up at bases to attract deer. I was young and can’t remember exactly what we did but it worked.

It's eating Sotol.

Back years ago when I hunted Mule Deer with some friends on a lease north of Sanderson, they would take a machete and cut down Sotol and the mule deer were on it within hours. It was a great attractant for mule deer and whitetails out there. My first mule deer buck I killed was bedded with a doe in a spot were they had cut/chopped up the sotol. The lease I am on now has very little sotol but you can see where it has been eaten on in the past by either livestock or mule deer during the drier times.
CKWRI has done studies in South Texas on just how much cactus plays a role in a deer diet. In some areas it can 45% of a post rut bucks diet or all deer in late summer. Those two periods were key no matter how wet or dry it was. I have watched buck eating cactus pads during a month long rainy spell were we had 9" of rain. Also watched them eat it during Jan/Feb in a drier time. They really like the fruit or tunas also. Even seen a buck eating Tasajillo fruits last fall.

Tasajillo is a cool plant. It's also called Christmas cactus. What's cool is that the spines have a very fine sheath on them that when one gets into you the sheath comes off and frequently gets into the wound.

That is a well watered Tosajillo plant. The ones in western Val Verde county take a long time to get that tall and full.

Thank you. Beat me to it. Sotol has a bulb under it that can be cooked. Native Americans used to eat it.