Dillan Drabek
Texas A&M University - Kingsville
Graduate Assistantship/Range and Wildlife Management/ Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
Cattle Grazing Effects on Whitetail Deer Forb Productions on the East Foundation Ranches
I am from Schulenburg, Texas and have received my Bachelor’s degree and currently working
on a Master’s from Texas A&M University – Kingsville. I am passionate for the outdoors and my hobbies
include hunting and fishing.
The graduate research project is determining Cattle (Bos indicus) and White-tailed Deer
(Odocoileus virginianus) interactions on East Foundation ranches in south Texas. The development of
this study derived from the ideas of how incoherent results are between white-tailed deer and cattle. With
forbs being the most important part of a deer diet, cattle can either promote or make it detrimental to the
production of forbs. To help give a better understanding of interactions between white-tailed deer and
cattle we formed objectives which are to 1) determine different intensities of grazing during various times
of a plants growth stage and how they affect the forb standing crop production (kg/ha) for white-tailed
deer; 2) determine the species richness when plant productivity is high from abiotic factors. We selected
six 2,500 hectare study sites including fifty 1.5m 2 grazing exclosures. By determining how cattle
utilization can increase white-tailed forb productions, managers will then be able to understand a
foundation and threshold in which both can coexist from one another.
