Do deer selectively graze one forage species over another?
Deer selectively grazed alfalfa out of the alfalfa-grass mixtures and fed more on plots which contained timothy than those which contained orchardgrass. Averaged across all mixtures, alfalfa made up 35% of the total yield in the protected but only 19% in the unprotected mixed plots. Average yield reductions, as a result of deer feeding, were 1507 and 1102 lb/acre (excluding weed yield in 1996) for treatments containing timothy and orchardgrass, respectively (Table 1). Consequently, the economic losses associated with deer feeding were greater for mixtures containing timothy than orchardgrass (Table 2). In a field where deer generally feed, are particular forage species or forage mixtures better than others? In areas unprotected from deer feeding, pure orchardgrass and alfalfa-orchardgrass mixtures had greater total yields than pure alfalfa (Table 2). Weed infestation in the second year of the study was greatest in pure alfalfa which had the greatest deer feeding and least in pure orcha
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