Southern Research Station

Title: Grazing and Burning Impacts on Deer Diets on Lousiana Pine-Bluestem Range

Author: Thill, Ronald E.; Martin, Alton, Jr.; Morris, Hershel F., Jr.; McCune, E. Donice

Date: 1987

Source: J. Wild. Manage. 51(4):873-880

Description: Diets of 3-5 tame white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on adjacent ungrazed and continuously grazed (35% herbage removal by late CM) forested pastures were compared for forage-class use, botanical similarities, foraging selectivity and efficiency, and diet quality. Both pastures were divided into 3 burning subunits and burned in late February on a 3-year rotation. Botanical composition of diets differed between and within pastures, but forage-class use was similar except during winter, when deer selected more browse on ungrazed subunits. Grazing had no effect on dietary protein, phosphorus (P), or calcium (Ca) levels, but diets from ungrazed subunits were higher in digestibility (except during summer) and contained more uncommon plant taxa. Deer foraged more efficiently on grazed than on ungrazed subunits but were less efhcient on recent than on older burns. Diets from lst-year burns were higher in protein during spring and summer and higher in P during spring.

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Citation

Thill, Ronald E.; Martin, Alton, Jr.; Morris, Hershel F., Jr.; McCune, E. Donice  1987.  Grazing and Burning Impacts on Deer Diets on Lousiana Pine-Bluestem Range.   J. Wild. Manage. 51(4):873-880