The most asked question people have regarding food plots is, “what should I plant?” Most folks don’t give enough information to answer it properly without a few follow-ups, but an easy way to view it is – should you plant for nutrition and antler growth, or strive to attract and hold?
That question really needs to be answered based upon the management goals of the property owner. Do you want to enhance the health of your whitetail herd and grow big antlers? Alternatively, do you want to simply attract deer during the hunting season? Because, how you go about implementing a plan and the plants that you choose to plant would vary depending on the goal.
Location, Conditions and Food Plot Size
What you should select to plant may also depend upon your existing conditions, the location of your property and how much available acreage you have to plant. For instance, have you been experiencing a drought? Geographically, what you plant in Minnesota will often be different from the food plot menu in Texas. In addition to those details, small acreage situations cannot support a multitude of goals. With small acreage, you have to be specific with your goals and your plantings.
Maybe you see several mature bucks during the summer months but they all seem to disappear when the season rolls around. If that’s the case, my main goal would be for attraction during the hunting season. Maybe last season you harvested a 120 inch 5×5 and had it aged only to find out it was a five years old. Some of that could be due to genetics, but in this case, my main goal would likely be geared towards antler growth and nutrition.
Property location and how much acreage you’re devoting to food plots must also be considered. In agricultural areas where there is a lot of cash-crop farming of things like corn, soybeans or alfalfa, it may be wise to concentrate on attraction if farming is already supplying a good portion of their yearly diet. Likewise, if you only have a couple acres or less to devote to planting, let’s face it – most managers want to use it for attraction during the hunting season.
What you plant in each plot should vary for each end goal. More than likely the size, location and design of your plots would also be different for attraction as opposed to nutrition. Typically, the larger plots further away from the bedding areas are designated as “feeding plots,” where the smaller plots closer to the bedding areas are used for “hunting plots.” It’s simply common sense at work here – your chances for a shot during legal hunting hours are better at a smaller plot closer to their bedding area. Since your chance of killing a deer further away from the bedding areas is less, that acreage is usually designated for “feeding as many mouths as possible.”
You have to consider in what part of the country you reside. For instance, for a nutrition plot in the north it’s hard to beat a perennial clover plot like Clover Plus or Non-Typical. However, in the south, some areas have a tough time getting perennials to come back because of the dry, hot summertime conditions so they have to rely on annuals like lablab or deep rooted perennials like alfalfa or chicory.
Can you Plant for nutrition and attraction?
It is possible to do both, supply nutrition to help with overall health and antler growth, and have attraction in other areas to help with your harvest goals, viewing opportunities and holding them in the area. In fact, with every property that I oversee I will try to “do it all.” Granted, I have enough acreage to play with so I’m not “handcuffed” by limited acreage, but I feel that a versatile, all-around approach will show the biggest pay-out.
Planting for Attraction
If your goal is attraction, you want to have a nutritious, palatable food choice for your herd for the entire period that you wish to draw them. No one planting will attract whitetails all the way through the season. Variety is necessary for that. Actually, I would suggest that you provide good choices that will start attracting before you want to hunt the location so that you get the animals conditioned to showing up to the areas.
Planting for Nutrition
If your goal is nutrition, in that case, you want to have a nutritious, palatable food choice for them ALL YEAR LONG. Here again, available acreage must be considered. Do you have enough ground to provide food all year long with your density? If you don’t, it doesn’t mean you can’t strive towards antler growth and nutrition, it just means you have to make the best out of what you have and plant wisely.
Planting for Antler Growth
For antler growth, so many managers feel that it is the most important to have the best food source available for the early stages of antler genesis during spring and summer. Although this is an important time, for a buck to really show you what he is capable of producing, good nutrition must be made available all year long. For instance, if during the fall or winter their diet is lacking, when ample nutritious forage does become available during the spring and summer months, they end up playing “catch-up” rather than reaping the rewards.
One of the most overlooked times to provide food to your herd is the winter. Hunting season is over and many people forget about whitetails until the following summer. I feel that providing ample food throughout the winter is a key to maximizing antler growth, especially in northern latitudes.
Many whitetail biologists agree that for a buck to really show you their maximum set of antlers they will need a consistent food source of at least 16% protein. In fact, I would argue that if you want to see a noticeable difference in antler growth, during the stress periods are one of the most important periods on which to concentrate. Don’t forget the stress of the late summer months. In the south, summertime is likely the most restrictive stretch, especially in the South, so emphasis should be put there.
What to Plant
Certain plants do a good job at both attraction and nutrition. Brassicas, clover, various beans and peas all do a good job at both attraction and nutrition. Timing and placement would dictate how the cultivars would be used.
Good examples of the types of plants that you would find in a typical nutrition plot are; red and white clovers, chicory, alfalfa, lablab, soybeans and cowpeas.
Good cool season choices are brassicas like rape, radishes, kale and turnips, which produce both good energy and protein. Corn, sorghum and milo are not good protein sources, but they will provide needed carbohydrates (energy) and fat. Whitetails are good at breaking down protein and turning it into energy, so many of the same warm season choices will remain beneficial most of the year.
Timing for Maximum Attraction
Many of the same plants will work well for attraction. Timing is everything when it comes to attraction. Certain annual plants like cereal grains and annual legumes are the most palatable during certain stages of their growth. Therefore, you want to time the planting to reach its peak of attraction when you want to hunt over it. Good early season choices are perennials like clovers, alfalfa and chicory switching slowly over to midseason attraction basics like oats, wheat, triticale, rye and certain brassicas. Throughout the season, you’ll see a switch over to later season magnets like brassicas, corn and the dried soybeans that may be left.
Regardless of your goals, variety is a definite key. During the year the climate is changing, plants are changing and a whitetail’s needs are changing. You want to make sure that you have a food to supply them what they need regardless of the conditions or time of year. You can put equal emphasis on both attraction and nutrition. A good management program probably will stress the importance of both good nutrition to help grow big, healthy whitetails, and attraction to help with animal sightings and your harvest goals.
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