I am new to this forum, but we have high fenced our 800 acres that is located in central Texas and 2 years ago we added some black buck, axis and oryx. The business plan was to raise trophy white tail and exotics for hunting. I have always worried about the impact the exotics have on whitetails, but have received some assurance that there is not a direct conflict for the forage. I was told that the black buck, axis and oryx will primarily eat the grass, which is in abundance on our place. However, this winter, based upon what we are observing from our game cameras, the oryx and axis are dominating the protein feeders and costing us a lot of money. Natural deer forage is getting in short supply. I suggested fencing the protein feeders with a low fence so that we can at least stop the oryx and black buck from eating the protein that the deer need. I was then told by someone that though the oryx and black buck eat grass, the dead grass does not provide them with the nutrients they need to get through the cold part of winter. Is there truth to that? Does the dead grass provide no nutritional value to the oryx and black buck?
Thanks for any help.