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We have some heavy snows and cold so we leave 5 acres or so of corn standing for the deer and turkeys, not much luck with turnips, the deer wipe out sunflowers before they get to bloom, I'm thinking of putting in some oats, and back seeding them with clover.
What do you guys plant.

Soy beans, closest thing to a year round plot there is

Are these going to be a spring/summer plot or a fall/winter plot?

Deer and Turkeys both like clover..

I would need to plant 10 acres or more to get them past blossoming, my fields are surrounded by wood lands, and the deer don't know enough to leave stuff grow!

I'm planting now for fall/winter feed .

Clover won't do any good after first frost as it goes bitter but will be there for next spring. We plant fall plots in August/September.

Wheat and or Oats. Then we go back in March and frost seed with clover for spring/summer

in southwest alabama, we plant a mix of wheat, oats, cereal rye (not ryegrass), sodbuster radish, rape, purple-top turnips, austrian winter peas and clover for fall plots.


summer plots - sunn hemp, iron and clay peas (or whatever cowpeas we can obtain), sunflowers, buckwheat, sorghum, velvet beans, indian corn or teosinte, tyrone forage soybeans and millet. this gives you food for quail, turkey, dove and deer. and bunny rabbits .

We plant in late Sept. early Oct. for that here.

Oats or wheat planted too early will mature and die before fall/winter here. May be different where you're from though.

no extra irrigation water available this year......meager snow pack

last year water was aplenty...

planted 2 acres or so of sorghum & sunflowers

Peas and soybeans

You mention heavy snow which would make oats, wheat, clover, soy beans, and any other short, weak stalked forage a very poor choice as snow packs it down and covers it up. Corn is often left standing but it has relatively little nutritional value (kind of like relying on candy bars for your primary source of nutrition) these days and has several downsides.

I find the best winter food is shrubs, brush, and saplings as they are not covered by snow and deer have adapted to them for winter food many millennia ago. You mention woods close by and a small clear cut or two of 5-10 acres in size every couple of years would provide a good amount of winter browse as well as habitat for deer and other creatures year round. We have done this at our cabin for the last 15 years as well on family property for several decades with great success. Get in touch with a forester through your state Extension Services or Game Dept for assistance as time of year for the cutting and where can have a significant impact on the effects of the cuts as some trees/shrubs regenerate better with winter cutting and some with summer. They will also be able to assist with planning a system of continual regeneration as well as put you in to contact with loggers to do the cutting. Best part of this method is you may be paid for your lumber rather than paying out for the material and equipment.

If you don't have control of the woods, then planting a couple acres of brush could be the ticket. Your game dept or Extension Service likely sells tree and shrub saplings each spring for individuals to use. I've gone this route at my home by buying and planting a couple hundred trees and shrubs each year to convert over part of my pasture. Prices are now up to $22/25 saplings from the county but larger numbers from the state are less per unit.

I do no site prep as this parcel is in the midst of a wet area that I can't get machinery into so the saplings are on their own to compete against grasses. I lose a good half my plantings but the results are becoming more noticeable now. In other areas I killed off the pasture grasses, planted the sapling, and moved on. In a couple of years I had a pretty thick woodsy patch that has all sorts of critters using it.

It takes about one minute to plant a sapling with a planting bar so the work is not all that much. I limit myself to 300 plants due to time and up front cost. I should have gone a bit larger as it would have been worthwhile to look into cost sharing programs as one can get up to 80% of costs back depending on size of project and qualifications.

we don't get much water from the sky..........

I plant a mixture of clovers,chicory,alfalfa now.End of August I put in rape,deer radish and winter wheat.By far clover and chicory are the deers favorite food.They stay on the winter wheat through the whole winter.The deer do not let cow peas and soybeans mature so they are a waste of time.

jimy: Where is your food plot located? What works in Alabama is of no use to someone establishing a food plot in Minnesota. Because of the huge difference in growing season due to the vast difference in latitude, fall plantings as used south of the Mason-Dixon line are not practicable up north. I suggest you get a copy of "Ultimate Deer Food Plots" by Ed Spinazzola ISBN 0-977710409. I also suggest you go to https://www.whitetailinstitute.com. Their planting schedule map is very revealing. While their seeds are expensive there is a wealth of knowledge about food plots on the website. QDMA also has a lot of good info.

I did oats and wheat one year together and the deer loved it. I think it had some red clover too.

trying small plot of sweetcorn and pumpkins this year. Just planted it this morning.

We will put in about 600 acres of a full season cover crop.

Probably be like 8 or 10 species of plants. Radishes, turnips, collards, vetch, sunflower, several grains, and some pollinators.

Big diverse mixes is where it's at.

Two tons of shelled corn in early Sept.bring in every deer in the county.

Let's see. The farm I'm helping on is just finishing up 1500 acres of corn and 2000 acres of soybeans. 800 acres of alfalfa and 320 acres of spring wheat is already growing.

Mixed with grasslands, ditches, sloughs, wetholes, potholes, and tree rows, I think the deer will survive just fine without a "food plot."