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Aldo Leopold suggested in his book Game Management that cattle (Bos spp.) could be used as a habitat management tool. Our objective was to determine if cattle grazing increased forbs preferred by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in south Texas. Every autumn for 3 yr, we collected standing crop of 1) grasses, 2) nonpreferred deer forbs, and 3) preferred deer forbs at 300 paired ungrazed and grazed sampling plots located on East Foundation ranches, spanning from the Gulf Coast to western south Texas. Prior to the formation of the East Foundation, the ranches had a long history of overgrazing; cattle utilization ranged from 45-95% during this study. We report the effect on the median standing crop of forbs (grazed compared to paired ungrazed) for every 1% increase in cattle grazing utilization. During 2012 there was ~ 1.4% increase (P = 0.039) in nonpreferred forbs with increasing utilization; in 2013 nonpreferred forbs decreased (P = 0.079) ~ 1.2% with increasing utilization. There was no relationship (P = 0.767) between grazing utilization and nonpreferred forbs during 2014. There was no relationship (P = 0.430) between preferred forbs and grazing utilization during 2012, but there was ~ 1.4% and 2.0% increase (P ? 0.030) in preferred forbs during 2013 and 2014, respectively. Even though the effect of cattle grazing on preferred deer forbs was not biologically significant, < 3.5 kg � ha-1, no negative impacts of cattle grazing were detected. Cattle grazing has little effect on forbs in south Texas whether they are preferred by deer or not; its use as a habitat manipulation tool to increase food for deer is not substantiated for areas with a long history of overgrazing.