“Isn’t she just so cute,” is not the best statement when seeing a doe and twin fawns eating farm-stored feed on an early August morning. Deer movements studied by scientists with USDA National Wildlife Research Center and Michigan State University showed more visits by deer to farm-stored feed in December and January than in the fall or spring. But, what stood out in the data was that deer incursions to stored feed on monitored farms was more than twice as great in June and July than in the winter.
Source: Dairy Herd Management, July 28, 2017.
Why does that matter so much? It matters because TB infection of cattle herds is at stake. TB can be transmitted indirectly between infected members of the wild deer herd to cattle, or vice versa. Transmission of the disease occurs mostly likely when saliva is deposited on feed and then that feed is consumed by another while the bacteria is still alive.
Also see: Protecting farm feed from deer