It's getting that time of the year to start thinking about fall/winter food plots. Although I dont hunt the plots, except for letting others kill there first deer, I still plant something to keep the does around. I'm a firm believer that if you keep the does around, you will have bucks.

Anyway, what do you like to plant in your food plots? Also,when do you like to plant your plots?

Got the bushhogging done, will spray in a couple weeks. Then break ground mid sept. Plant first of October.


Past few years I’ve planted wheat, oats. Usually bob. Not the expensive buck forage oats. And elbon rye.

Rye grass has gotten expensive in these parts.

I just planted a acre in oats turnips and sugar beets all we need is rain

I planted durana white clover in one and this weekend will plant patriot white clover/ brassica mix in another the third gets straight bob oats in another week or so. Each plot is about an acre, I archery hunt mainly an have found small secluded plots 30 yds x 30 yds work best for me. I have 2 ladder stands at each plot so I can deal with wind from different directions. The clover plots if fertilized in the fall with 15-15-15 last 3-5 years. Sometimes I frost seed clover in late January into existing plots.
Where I hunt the deer rarely use the brassicas mainly 'cause I think they do not know what it is and when to eat it, the 1 plot I mix it in the clover with is to get them on it and help produce nitrogen.

I plant winter wheat and then frost seed ladino clover on the wheat in late winter. The clover will last three years or so if you keep the weeds mowed down. During hunting season, some years the deer seem to prefer the wheat fields and some years it’s the clover fields. I always have a few fields of each every year. The clover fields are great for turkey hunting in the spring.

We are using mostly soybeans, forage radishes and turnips but the deer tend to only eat the tops. I have a friend who uses pumpkins and has had really good results.

pumpkins work but I've yet to see a deer eat the greens they are very good late fall when the deer will smash them and eat the inside pulp but rarely touch them when frozen. My father planted 200 acres of pumpkins a year for the markets and once they were picked those that did not make the grade were like candy to the deer for a few weeks fter the soybeans dried out.

Winter Wheat and oats

We plant corn, brassicas, clover/chicory and alfalfa and triticale. Corn goes in late May/early June. Depending on the variety, brassicas go in late June or early July. The clover/chicory and alfalfa are planted Labor Day weekend with triticale as a cover crop.

beans, brassicas, and late wheat in one and 3 or 4 micro clover kill plots

Corn,soybeans,peanuts,turnips,clover,and winter mix of wheat,oats,and rye

I plant clover, wheat and peanuts... PEANUTS are hands down the best... plus, if you ever get them established, they last forever...as in many years... I have some in my yard that have been coming back for 17 years.

If I had a dedicated food plot that I didn't have to use for anything else, I'd plant peanuts and soybeans. But, the only place I got to plant is the pipeline, where I raise peas. Right now, I've taken 1/2 the electric fence down and let the deer have the end of the pipeline that was planted in peas.. See 4-6 in there every evening. Got watermelons on the other half, so the fence has to stay up on that end.

Opened some new plots up this year since the BIL got a tractor. Those have turnips and radishes. Everything else will get a mix of oats/cereal rye/clovers.

i use a mix of wheat/rye, over-seeded with clovers & rape. We were supposed to be mowing & breaking ground this weekend, but rain all weekend. Had 13 plots last year ranging from an acre to about 6 acres...probably wont do as many this year.

on good soil, i'll usually do the wheat-to rye mix at 60-40%, broadcast at about 80# per acre...after discing & seeding, i'll drag a chain harrow to cover & then broadcast rapeseed & clovers. Soils that tend to run drier, more sandy, etc get the mix rate reversed to rye at 60-70%.

We try to have al that done by Mid-September. The deer browse them all winter, and in april or so i'll mow them once after the wheat/rye has died out....the clover pops, and we'll get another 3 months or so of good growth before summer toasts them, i dont maintain plots in the summer. On average, we'll have good green stuff growing well from Mid-September through the next June/July, with only a single planting.





a new plot we built last year, from start to end...my brother in law took a good buck on that plot in muzzleloader season:

tree removal:



trees gone, about to be scalped:


disced, seeded...we got lucky on timing, rain came that day:


some green popping:

Last time I put in a food plot I hired the lease tractor guy to do the work. I supplied the seed & sat in the shade to watch.......

Right about the last turn of the tractor, it caught fire & burned in place. It was brand new & had but a few hours on it. He jumped off, got far away from it & we stood there & watched it burn. He turned to me & said, “This is the second time.”