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I just saw an advertisement for a product called sugar beet Juiced, and it nudged my memory a little. I have always wondered it sugar beets would be a good food plot substance, and then if so, can I grow them in Arkansas by planting them in the fall like turnips. Any ideas? miles

So glad to see you post, Miles. I have a pal that did pretty good hunting the same areas I hunt for whitetail in east-central Arizona. He's originally from Michigan. He told me that deer loved sugar beets and they grew them and hunted over them. The fellow is a big talker, but a good hunter, and I think the beet bit is true. Especially if they are green in winter.

Talus,
He wasn't pulling your leg. That's a very popular bait used in Michigan's upper peninsula. Except, most guys don't actually grown them - they pick them up by the truckload and dump in a pile in the woods.

Miles,
I can't help you with the growing season but I can tell you the gents in the U.P. use the heck out of them and they report that deer love them.

It isn't legal to bait in Montana, but sugar beet fields draw deer as well as any crop, especially late in the fall in cold weather.

Guys on a place next to where I used to hunt planted sugar beets. I would pass by the planting and the Deer hardly touched them. However, like JB said when the first cold stretch came they hit them hard.

I really don't care what time of the year that they eat them, if they do eat them and they get good protein. I just try to improve my habitat and better my deer the best that I can, on small acreage. My neighbors will benefit as much or more than I do. miles

I read that cold weather triggers a release of sugars into the tops of the beets and that is the time deer really like beet tops. Another crop we experienced the best results with is a stand of buck wheat . That plot looked like it literally had been mowed with a lawn mower.. They loved the stuff.

Like sugar beets, I have never seen buckwheat growing. Can it be a fall/winter crop like wheat and oats? I am looking for something to supplement the deer when Acorn crops are short. Spring and summer, they have plenty of browse here and their main concern is mosquitoes, ticks and horse flies. I put sulfur salt blocks out to combat this a little, but I am not sure how much good it does. They do eat the salt or at least the ground where it melted into. miles

I have used sugar beets to add variety to fall plots...deer here seem to like the addition, and one of our more heavily used plots is a wheat/rye mix into which i broadcast assorted brassicas...the sugarbeets & turnips never get very far here, once the deer find they are up, they come mow them down. They never made it to frost; and seldom got more than 6" above ground before they scarfed 'em down.

i planted buckwheat in a couple of plots first for the few years i had our farm....deer mostly seemed kind of indifferent to it, we'd see a few signs in it, & a few on camera, but it was far less of a draw than the various wheat/rye/brassica plots we put in, so i quit planting it.

They will probably not hit them until after a good frost like turnips. I used to plant turnips, but they wouldn't touch them until late season.

I don't know what Mulies and Whitetail like but Blacktails go crazy for flax.

We have a sugar plant nearby that processes the beets into sugar. Anyway the leftover beet pulp is a pretty good cattle feed.

So we'll have a bunch of pulp around and the deer mob it. I mean climbing all over it like a bunch of rats. We've even found shed horns right on the pile of pulp.

Sorry I don't have any idea about how they'd grow in Arkansas. Doesn't everything just grow on its own there where you actually have soil and rain?

Pretty much. I live in East Arkansas on the flat land, so we have pretty good soil. Heat and summer drought are our biggest problems with growing things. We have a lot of annual rainfall, but June through October is sometimes very dry and the soil does not hold moisture very well. In fact farming without irrigation is pretty much left to winter wheat and oats. My place where it is not cultivated is pretty much a battle with sweet gum bushes. In three years they will be so big that I can barely get my bush hog over them. miles

Definitely a different world here compared to there when it comes to growing things. I got over 13" of rain at my house...in July alone! Lots of 30+" thick soil profiles without rocks as well. Not better, just different. I'd rather be where you are.

To the OP, I think sugar beets would do what you are wanting them to. That said, I think there are cheaper ways to get there as well. IIRC, sugar beet seed isn't all that cheap.

It is interesting to see how deer react to sugar beets, carrots, and turnips. In southern Michigan, where we have an abundance of corn and soy beans, deer are slow to hit them (when dumped in a pile). I have seen all three of these rot through the winter in an area with deer.

In the areas of the state with little agriculture and more cedar swamps, they will eat anything they can. These hard, frozen roots cannot be eaten as fast as corn and require less frequent replenishing of the bait station.

Another factor is familiarity. Deer that are well fed seem to be slow to learn to eat something new. I had a friend that had a small pumpkin growing operation in southern MI. The first year or two, he had little crop damage. After four years, they had leaned to like pumpkins and really hammered them. I suspect in areas where sugar beets are a crop (like the thumb of MI) deer probably have learned to really like them.

I have grown both turnips and rape in my food plots, and the deer did not eat the tops until December (after freezing weather sets in).

405wcf

This (I hunt the UP)

That said the best I've seen is broccoli. Had some in the back of the truck one year, cap on the truck. Woke up and the snow was beat down all around the truck. They could smell them and were trying to get in - this 10 feet from the shack with us playing cards and running the radio.

Put them out and they were demolished in one evening.

Many of my customers grow sugar beets here in Western Nebraska/Eastern Wyoming. Deer do love them, but tend not to bother them until it's cold. Which most of the time here they are at the processing facility. Those that were lost due to hail previous to harvest got hit hard by the deer. I think you would do well with them planted late, they are very hardy and will also help with soil compaction for other plantings down the road

We will used both sugar beets and turnips as food plots

My last food plot was Turnips. The deer ate them down to the ground. They could not have been mowed any lower. If Beets are near the same I don't see why not.

I have have great luck planting turnips along with Sugar beets. They will start on the turnips and later devore the sugar beets. I put wire cages over the crops near my tree stands to leave some turnips and beets available to draw in the big bucks. The colder the weather the better. Consider a black plastic over the cage to keep the frost off and warm up the plants growning. This will extend the crop some. Best to plant before fall rain come in early September.

When you get your buck send me a picture.

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