I have a lot of cotton field around my house.....seen a decent buck in one today when I was driving up the path to my house. Do deer eat cotton? Or is it just the cottonseed? or do they eat neither? thanks guys!
I'm not familiar with the growing cotton plant as we don't have any production in this area but I do know that cotton seed and seed meal is highly nutritious so I'd imagine they'd eat the seeds like candy.
Yeah they'll eat it the plants, but mostly when it's young and tender. This time of year you'll mainly catch them cruising through a field or working an edge.
One other thought. I know some of the fields in central NC rotate their crops year over year...perhaps there are some volunteers or other plants comingled that he may be eating.
Being in Alabama, farmers around here rotate their crops from cotton, soy beans, & corn. There's a couple fields I drive daily that I have been watching for the past few years. When they are planted in soy beans, I can almost drive by there any evening and see a few deer out there. This year it was planted in cotton. I only saw deer out there twice and it was when the cotton was maybe 6" tall and still had a lot of growing to do. I'm guessing the buck you saw was just passing through the field heading some place else to eat.
