Do deer eat "hay" forage?

We all know they eat alfalfa , but will they eat in pastures of just costal,sudan, Bermuda etc? I've only seen trails through pastures but none grazing in them like they do in oat and wheat fields.

We tried putting bales of sorghum hay in Terrell county years ago, they walked over it and around it, never ate it. Your mileage may vary. However....If you can find peanut hay or "trash" game on. Good luck!

I don't know about coastal, but they like the small whatever it is burmuda that grows wild around here.

Seen em eat coastal but only when it is fresh growth and tender. Never got em to eat baled coastal.

Gay deer eat HAAAAAA-AAAAAAY!!!

+1 I've tried baled alfalfa as well...those particular deer didnt care for it.

x3. as mentioned, only when green and tender. I do not believe they will eat in hay form.

The will mow down some peasnut hay.

I've always been told if you high fenced a pure coastal field and stuck a deer in it they would starve to death. And that if I ever saw one grazing in a coastal field they were eating the weeds. Don't know how true that it, but that's what I've been told.

Remember many years ago in Colorado there was rough season and deer were starving, coming into towns. Some people arranged for hay (don't know what type but believe a coastal bermuda) to be brought in and placed on the outskirt of town. The deer ate the hay but later deer were found dead with full stomachs, and upon autopsy apparently their system could not digest the grass.

Probably eating the small native forbes that eventually get chocked out by the coastal not the coastal

Deer are browsers like goats. Alfalfa they will eat and hays that are producers of some type of fruit or legume they will eat, but will starve on coastal. Goats will not survive on a completly coastal diet either. The fact that axis deer prefer browse, but can switch to grass when browse is limited is another strike against the whitetail deer when they are in competition with an axis deer. Whitetails can survive on weeds and browse, just like goats.

They can't really digest hay very well.

Thanks for the info , I have a bunch of oats going right now and they are hammering it. But we are planting bermuda on about 20 acres for hay.

They will probably eat some of the new shoots as the Bermuda is coming up. But once it's up I'd venture to say they will stay away from it for the most part.

Coastal (several varieties), is the only thing I have planted that I didn't worry about deer damage. I think they'd eat cactus before coastal.

3 years ago I planted a short, soft Bermuda hybrid on a new pond dam beside my oat plot, next to the hybrid I planted about a 50'x50' piece of coastal "hay grazer". Deer never touched it other than to walk through it, even when the oats finally browned.

I haven't seen them directly browse Sudan either, the tops anyway, maybe they sense the possible prussic acid?

I refuse to plant Coastal on any of our properties. I'm not so worried about cows. I'm trying to increase Deer and Turkey numbers , Native pasture is where it's at.