Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Winter food plots

We are looking for ideas on what to vegetation to plant next year that will last longer into winter as a foodsource for deer after hunting season.

This year we tried forage radishes in a couple spots and the deer loved the tops but once the snow came they were done and surprisingly the radishes fell apart. Soybeans seem to always be popular but the deer eat them too early in the season. Turnips were ok but were eaten until frozen like the radishes.

We have also planted a number of Sawtooth oak's but I think it might be too cold for them to produce in our area when they mature.

Any idea's?

I use a 60%/40% mix of Wheat/Rye, then overseed with annual clovers.... usually about the end of August.
In poor soil, dry areas, etc, i may go to 60%rye, and cut the wheat back, the rye seems to maintain better during dry spells or in lousy soil.

By doing so, it pretty much stays green through the winter, and at the spring green-up, it comes back strong and does well usually through March/April. After the winter grains die out in spring, i'll mow one time, and the clover pops; which then does pretty well through the next few months, depending on rainfall.

With this method, i only have to break ground and plant one time a year, but gets plots that will feed from germination in late August, until about June, and sometimes July depending on rainfall & temps. I dont maintain the clover by mowing in the summer, so weeds ten to move in when it gets hot.

These are my plots in late march and early april, during the spring green-up, 6 months after planting:



The wheat/rye/clover mix also works well for planting trails & paths, i seed trails using the same mix...they are access trails to areas that become shooting lanes for hunting, once the seed pops....one of the roads that is now a shooting lane....if you look close you might just be able to see one leg of the tower stand at the end, about 300 yards away...



this is a new area i cleared this fall, a couple weeks after germination of the seed mix...first time ever planted, so far the deer are liking it.



i have also planted various brassicas, but they are "feast & famine" plots...a few weeks after germination, the deer hammer them, and within a month they are wiped out, so we never get the tonnage of forage that we get from winter grains. That being said, i do also mix some rape & turnips in with the clover when i overseed my wheat/rye, but they are the "candy", and not a staple for sustained feeding.





Beans, cowpeas, etc are great...IF you have the acreage & the equipment. Smaller plots of forage beans, etc will likely get wiped out in a month or so, if you have many deer. For me, i dont bother with beans unless doing 5+ acre plots, the deer will eat 'em to the dirt, and unlike the winter grain mix, once nipped down, beans dont regrow....

I put in soybeans and the deer are hitting them hard now. When I planted them this spring I really didn't expect to have any beans because the deer were hammering the greens all summer. They still produced a pretty good crop of beans though. I really didn't expect them to hit the pods this early but the fields near us were too wet to get corn in this year, so my soybeans are about the only crop left in a mile+ radius. I over seeded one of my SB plots with clover in late august. I plan to use this as my new summer/early fall plot, and plant 3X the soybeans next year. My old clover plot has been going strong for 4 years so I'm guessing I won't need much Nitrogen. When the leaves start to yellow I think I'm going to over seed with wheat, rye or oats to give them something green to eat over the winter as well.



the old clover (crimson and mammoth) plot

One needs forage which will stand up to the weight of snow and not get covered up. Forage grasses, beans, and other such crops do not withstand snow very well which makes a very poor choice for winter food. This is especially true in much of Wisconsin as snow totals for the year can be several feet of heavy, crusted snow.

Another consideration against these types of foods is a deer's digestive enzymes change during the fall which makes these types of foods less nutritious. Deer change from grasses and forbes to woody browse in the fall resulting in the change in enzymes. Feeding hay and many other forage crops can actually harm deer when used in place of more natural foods. Corn fits into this group,too, every year there are reports of deer dying from "corn poisoning" when this food is introduced and removed periodically. If corn can be provided in quantity such as several acres of unharvested plants then it isn't a problem. This is a not uncommon in farm country where corn is common and widespread.

My preference is to provide young shrubs and bushes for food. I like this as it is little cost, light work, and all natural. I started by clear cutting an acre sized area of old aspen in the winter. The next spring bushes and aspen shoots sprang up and were about knee high that winter. Deer used the area very heavily that year as everything was young and tender.

The next year the aspen were head high but the shrubs were still shorter so there was still quite a bit of deer use. The following summer I took a brush cutter to the area to take down the big stuff. Cutting during the summer also kills out the aspen which allows the lower growing brush to take hold better.

I have a half dozen areas like this on my property. I cut them on a 5 year rotation which is possible due to aggressive aspen control. I cut in early December if the snow is not deep as that allows growth the next summer. If there is too much snow then, I'll get out as early Lin the spring as I can or as early in the summer as possible. I have cut in late September/early October after the leaves have turned as the bushes have stored enough energy for winter.

Ideally, one will get a lot of dogwood as that is a valuable winter deer food. I have supplanted natural production with planting saplings I bought from the DNR. I add in other shrubs like high bush cranberry, viburnums, and the like for variety. In addition to helping out the deer, these areas are gathering points for many other animals such as grouse, warblers, hares, and many others. These areas are also great spots to hunt as they are some of the best food sources during the firearms season.

Dogwood and other shrubs work best in the northern area.

I’m a fan of putting on a buffet in larger plots. Presently, we give them the choice of a corn/bean mix, a mix of rape, radish and turnips, a mix of rutabagas/Winfred brassicas/beets, oats/rye, and clover/chicory. The deer I’ll dig through a foot of snow for the grains, less for the clover/chicory. They’ll work the brassicas through feet of snow, and corn/beans if necessary. Deer will typically cycle through all of the plots in the evening. I’m not a fan of radish monocultures. While the tops are devoured, the tubers turn to mush far to early (usually by end of November with our cold weather) and many are not consumed. Just my .02.