Question from a reader: Mike: My brother and I hunt 40 acres, mostly timber. The old farmer has a lot of pasture land surrounding the property with cows grazing year-round. It seems that every year we run into the issue of him opening the gates and letting his cattle into the woods where we hunt. This is always a discouraging time for us, especially with the rut quickly approaching. I’m a little optimistic that the noise and movement of the cows allow for a little more cover, but it is a heartbreaker when you sit down for a morning hunt and have 10 cows walk under
your stand at first light. The confidence that this is going to be a good day disappears a little. Any suggestions or words of reassurance regarding hunting w/cattle? Will it kill a hunt? Will the deer still roll through during the rut? Thanks, Dan H.

Dan, I have never had much luck in the woods with cows. But my buddy John Miller, who raises cattle and bowhunts on his ranch in Montana, offers some of that reassurance you need.

John says, “I raise cattle and bowhunt every day of the season on our Montana ranch. My family has operated here for generations, and the cows have always been here. I remember back in the 1980s and 90s, we had some of the best whitetail hunting I’ve ever seen here on the Milk River, and we had 4 to 5 times more cows grazing in the cottonwoods than we do now.

“I have had cows trail by my stand one minute and whitetails come by from the opposite direction the next. Out here, deer will sometimes feed right amongst the cow herd. But I have also had deer shy away from my setup as cows wandered in. Deer like it quiet, and cattle are noisy as hell.

“In the rut and late in the season with pressure on neighboring lands, cows do not exist to crazed bucks. Whitetails will hop a fence and come into the timber with our cows without giving it a thought.

“The short of it: I’d tell Dan and every hunter in this situation to hunt those woods and your best stands, cows or not.”