Diversify your food plots

Hunters are on the brink of the fall hunting season. It’s nearly time to start planting fall food plots.

Hunters and land managers are always trying to find the right combination of food plot varieties to feed animals, and to serve as the prime attractant for the fall hunting season. But what is the best crop to plant? If five people are asked what they think is the best to plant, most people will swear by their own planting option, and it usually carries five different responses. But the right answer may be different from one farm to another. Forage diversity is key though. For best results, deer hunters should provide food sources that allow a variety of nutrition sources.

It may seem crazy to plant anything for deer in the south, where massive fields of soybeans, corn, and peanuts persist on every part of the county. But food plots can always provide deer with supplemental foods which benefit them, and benefit hunters too.

So, why would deer even mess with a 1-acre food plot filled with greens when they have 78 acres of soybean forage all around their home?

Desire

The massive fields of agriculture crops provide a wide-open opportunity for foraging, and most Carolina row crops offer deer high-quality forage too. Soybeans are one of the biggest crop coverages in the Carolinas. Both the tasty green foliage and the beans themselves provide excellent nutrition for deer and other wildlife.

So, again, why would they even pay attention to anything else in a food plot or even in the woods?

From soft and hard mast to all types of tasty browse, deer have plenty of native food options. But why would the deer eat muscadines, persimmons, or the massive hauls of white and red oak acorns in the fall when the farmer has laid out thousands of pounds of agriculture crops?

Truthfully, deer and other wildlife will spend many days in the soybean, peanut, and corn fields gorging themselves on these delights. But they also eat their weight in soft and hard mast when they are available. And they will not let a tasty fern frond, clover leaf, or a chewy twig go uneaten when it is in their foraging path.

Basically, deer aren’t too different from humans in some sense. They crave diversity in their diets. While soybeans are loaded with protein and carbohydrates, deer also require other nutrients that may be attributed to the variety in their diet. But truthfully, deer are similar to other creatures. They like to eat other foods when they can.

Keep food plots simple

Fall food plots typically consist of everything from soybeans, peas, and brassicas to wheat, rye, and clover. For the best results, hunters and landowners should choose something that is characteristically different than what deer already have access to in the area, in order to encourage deer to flock to their small plots for a special treat.

In agriculture country, most farmers will have full fields of soybeans, corn, and peanuts. So a fantastic choice for fall plots, that are also great cool season choices, can be white clover, peas, oats, rye, wheat, and any of the selections in the brassica family, such as rape, turnips, and radishes.

While seemingly somewhat counterproductive to the theme in this article, fall plots should be mostly either single crop plantings or small mixes as opposed to mixing five different food plot seed types in the same plot. Most hunters plant small food plots that are usually less than two acres in size, and it is typically more efficient to grow single crops or just small pairings in these reduced areas.

Variety is the answer. Deer are vegetarians and they eat a wide variety of foods to get all of the nutrients they need. And even a small plot can be super productive when planted in something different than what deer are accustomed to in the surrounding forests, meadows, and crop fields.

Give ‘em choices:

Small food plots can be highly productive for deer, even in areas that feature hundreds of acres of agriculture crops. The key is offering something that’s different than what deer can find in the immediate area.