Anybody notice a change in deer preference right after a rain?

[Turkey Creek]

I have seen this happen a few times this Summer. I will pay more attention as we go into Fall and my Fall plots come on line. However, everytime we get a decent rain I see an immediate jump in the number of deer in my white clover plot. As in the very next night. My clover has looked pretty good overall this Summer as we have had good rains. It always gets some visitors. However, the last several nights prior to tonight there is usually 2-3 different deer that visit it. Tonight we have only been dark for 90 minutes and I have already had 5 different deer on it and they have all stayed for an extended amount of time. Cuddelink is sending me the photos. We got 2.0" of rain last night and into early morning. I can't imagine that the clover has shot up any new sprouts in a few hours that are tall enough to eat.

 

[Feelslikefar.]

Eating worms?

 

[356]

You have picked up on something that the research supports. Palatability goes up after a rain event, likely due to new growth, which shows up almost immediately. This is especially true with clover (at least in my observations) and soybeans (also my observations). I didn’t see much change in activity going to and from the corn on years with corns rotations.

The following chart supports increased deer activity in soybeans after rain events.