Got a place with in 20 miles of Del Rio that has access to a pivot for irrigation on a 20 acre section of ground. What crops would you plant for your spring summer plot? Plan to grow oats and chicory for the fall plot,

Alfalfa

cowpeas and forage soybeans mixed in?

If you can water then nothing but alfalfa would be my choice. If not alfalfa then Red Ripper cowpeas would be my next choice.

Have the deer ever seen alfalfa? If so plant it, if not introduce it by the bale, and plant it next year while doing cowpeas this year. Next year I’d do a mix of alfalfa and peas.
Add forage oats, Austrian winter peas or wheat into your winter mix, depending on when you plant.

I've never seen deer not eat alfalfa that was planted in Texas. I've planted it in the Hill Country and seen it planted in Frio County, Webb County, Tom Green County, Concho County and McCulloch county. Deer hit it as soon as it got tall enough. Planting alfalfa and peas is not a good mix due to seed size and planting depths of each. I might plant one part of the field in alfalfa and one part in peas but not mix it. Dr. Kroll told me one time if he could only plant one thing for deer it would be alfalfa.

I agree with not mixing the seed together in one batch, but I see the benefit in planting 9 acres of each with and open strip down the middle. Broadcast oats and/or clover on the lane down the middle, and around the edges.

Oats will not grow in the summer when he is planting this plot this spring. Alfalfa will go dormant in the winter months. Most people that plant alfalfa in the late winter will plow it up in the fall and plant a mixture of oats, wheat and or rye for fall and winter. If you can over-seed the winter oats with alfalfa in early spring that is what I would do. I planted turnips and madrid clover in my fall plots then no-tilled in beans and alfalfa in April in the Hill Country. I had a green crop till August. My no-till had a large seed box and small seed box. It was a perfect combo except it was all dryland. Madrid will grow almost a full year. The beans and alfalfa filled in for the oats when it made seed.

X2 especially if irrigated. One cutting pays all your cost . Over seed oats in winter

Most of my friends in Tom Green, Concho and McCulloch planted the older Ladak Alfalfa. I planted VNS/common alfalfa in the Hill Country. One spring I planted 20lbs of alfalfa and 4 lbs of pigweed per acre but a really bad drought killed it after a .50" shower early in May. The pigweed lived longer than the alfalfa though. Got some forage for deer.