Taking up the cotton seed

[Archery1st]

Cottonseed can make a buck sterile but the deer has to eat it 24x7 - like in a breeder pen. Our ranch has cottonseed out year round for sheep and the deer eat a bunch of it. We have not seen any negative side effects.

[TexasTK]

I have been feeding cottonseed for 5 years. I usually let the deer eat it until 30 days before rut just to be safe. I start it in late January. Not sure what area you are feeding it but in Uvalde your rut is at least 3 months away so I would leave it out until it's gone.

[Jason S]

I'm going to try feeding cotton seed next year on a couple of places. We tried on one this year and it took about a month before they would touch it but once they started they didn't stop until the Misquite beans started falling, after that feeder activity stopped on cotton seed, protein, and corn.

[Jaspro]

Just does not make sense to me. What is it the cotton seed that would cause them to be sterile? Why is it ok to feed it some of the year and not the rest? Someone enlighten me please.

It's not the time of year it's the amount. A wild free ranging buck will never eat enough cottonseed to negatively effect his virility. Most of the studies on this began because of cattle raisers.

[Mike Murphey]

Our biologist, (Macy Ledbetter) tells us to also remove it in August....

[SanAngeloBowman]

Wrong ! Leave it out

DITTO, think about all the cotton fields all over the country (and tons here) and there are always deer in them....hence theyare still reproducing.

[txtimetravler]

I doubt leaving the cages until they run dry will really affect anything.

[Jason S]

I have also heard that hogs won't eat the cotton seed. I got several pics to prove that wrong.

[bowmanranch]

Cotton seed ? How do you go about getting it? I'm in east Texas will deer eat it in my neck of the woods? Always in to giving my herd something different at different mineral sites...

[txarcher]

I have also heard that hogs won't eat the cotton seed. I got several pics to prove that wrong.

Cottonseed has a substance in it called gossypol. Gossypol will kill horses and domestic hogs, but I would bet that feral hogs have adapted to be able to eat it.

[diamond10x]

i have heard both that it wont hurt and that it will make deer sterile. my best friends dad is a ranch manager in west texas that is 370,000 continuos acres and they have free range elk, mule deer, and whitetail. they have been feeding cottonseed for quite a number of years. they are pulling it out and only feeding protein for now on because they have noticed numbers declining for a number of years. and they do game counts multiple times a year.

[wtx223]

i have heard both that it wont hurt and that it will make deer sterile. my best friends dad is a ranch manager in west texas that is 370,000 continuos acres and they have free range elk, mule deer, and whitetail. they have been feeding cottonseed for quite a number of years. they are pulling it out and only feeding protein for now on because they have noticed numbers declining for a number of years. and they do game counts multiple times a year.

You would be hard pressed to find any ranch with significant mule deer population with increased numbers up over last couple of years. Majority of ranches do not feed cottonseed and numbers are down. Ranches that do not feed at all are way down. Drought.

[KRF]

Just does not make sense to me. What is it the cotton seed that would cause them to be sterile? Why is it ok to feed it some of the year and not the rest? Someone enlighten me please.

Gossypol is in cotton seed. It is acutally being tested for an oral male contraceptive. It is suppose to cause deer and similar rumenant animals to become sterile if too much is consumed.

[Big_gun]

https://www.buckmanager.com/2009/02/...led-deer-food/ Fortunately, recent research in Texas has found that white-tailed deer are not negatively effected by whole cottonseed, even when it makes up a high percentage of a deer’s diet.

[txdukklr]

Gossypol is in cotton seed. It is acutally being tested for an oral male contraceptive. It is suppose to cause deer and similar rumenant animals to become sterile if too much is consumed.

how much do I have to eat?