Building The Ultimate Food Plot:
A Year-Round Deer Buffet

How do we know what the perfect combination of food sources are to plant in our food plots to keep our deer herd healthy the entire year? We first need to better understand the white-tailed deer diet.

White-tailed deer are a ruminant, meaning they have a unique digestive system and will graze on a diversity of plants, nuts, fruit, and other native browse to get the most possible energy for their bodies. We need to ensure we are providing our deer population with enough energy to survive all of the seasons throughout the year.

Deer need four main food sources to keep a healthy diet and that consists of:

• Fiber, better known as "browse"
• Greens, essentially leafy vegetation such as forbs, clover and other greens
• Mast such as acorns, nuts, fruit or seed
• Fungi such as mushrooms, lichens, dirt etc.

A white-tailed deer's diet on average, across all seasons, would break down to something like 46% browse, 24% forbs, 11% mast, and 19% crops, fungi, and other available food sources according to Dr. Dave Hewitt from the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M - Kingsville.

Their diet will shift depending on the weather and what is available in different regions. This is what we will explore further in this article.

What Deer Eat by Season

Fiber makes up the highest percentage of white-tailed deer diet year round and your woodland should be managed in such a way to maximize the quality of the browse for your deer herd.

There are two critical stress months for deer, where getting the right nutrients from their diet is crucial to survival and expressing more of its genetic potential. Those are March and July and should be focal points as a deer manager to provide food in these critical periods.. Chicory and Alfalfa can fill the void in the sometime dry summer month of July and should be in the program.

March: When new antlers are growing and does are carrying fawns you can help by planting cereal grains like gunner triticale in late summer that green up early the following spring. This is also where supplemental feeding can have a big impact on herd health. Using a complete feed that has a good source of fiber and good fat content this time of year is important.

July: Important for fawn development and antler growth completion. Due to hot weather in July, protein is hard to come by, so chicory and alfalfa are more drought tolerant and great forages to help in this critical stress period. Chicory is also a great mineral mining plant to help with antler growth. Supplemental feeding of a good protein feed and free choice mineral supplements where they are legal are also ways to help to enhance a white tail's diet.

Always check with your state laws before using supplemental feeding

What Deer Eat in the Spring

Spring begins to green up, and deer love early greens coming out of winter. These months, especially March, we as food plotters can play a large role in helping provide the appropriate nutrients for a healthy buck.

Remember, antlers start in the soil, so having healthy, living soil will help our herd develop nice, trophy-worthy racks. Start with a soil test in the fall so you have time to put together a plan as to what fertilizer and seed blends you will use for the following year.

Some must-haves in your food plot in the Spring are:

• Cereal grains like rye, wheat, barley, and oats
• Alfalfa
• Native forbs
• Buckwheat

Buckwheat is a great addition for the doe because it is high in selenium which is a good supplement for reproduction and will benefit the entire herd. However, the most important thing to remember is diversity is the best thing we can give our white-tailed deer herd.

What Deer Eat in the Summer

In the summer months, deer will transition to a more protein-rich diet, such as acorns, nuts, and seeds, but it is still important for our deer to have a variety to choose from for a balanced diet.

Many deer herds are contracting diseases due to monoculture, where farmers are planting acres and acres of the same crops, forcing the herd to eat the same thing day after day. This lack of variety in the diet is likely the cause of many diseases.

Summer annuals like sunn hemp, buckwheat, soybeans, peas, and sunflower are all highly preferred and each supply its own unique benefits to their diet. Example: Sunn hemp has all 20 amino acids that a plant can have, making a great protein and antler building source.

I cannot stress it enough, DIVERSITY!

Make sure you have these options available for deer to graze on in the summer to promote happy, healthy deer:

• Clover
• Alfalfa
• Oats
• Peas
• Buckwheat
• Sunn Hemp
• Soybeans
• Sunflower
• Forage Brassicas

What Deer Eat in the Fall

When summer winds down and temperatures begin to drop, deer love a variety of corn, soybeans, cereal grains, brassicas, winter peas, turnips, radishes, and clover during hunting season.

Mushrooms for food plots is a new concept, but not a new food source for deer. Fall is peak time for deer eating fungi (mushrooms) and should be a part of your wildlife program.

Important tip if you are growing brassicas: Make sure you are applying adequate levels of sulfur so your brassicas sweeten up. You need sulfur, magnesium, and molybdenum to convert nitrates to sugars. Brassicas are also heavy nitrogen feeders so using 100 lbs of ammonium sulfate can be a way to get them nitrogen and sulfur.

Deer will always find the sweetest or best tasting food in the area (much like us!).

Along with the sweets, it is important to have greens and grains available in case the weather shifts. Deer also love fruits and other mast during this time of year, so don't skimp on the buffet!

Rather than listing a huge bullet point list of crops to plant. Keep the theme in mind here, "DIVERSITY!"

What Deer Eat in the Winter

Deer will eat up to 60% fiber as their pattern changes and stomach shrinks in the winter months. Deer are also traveling less during the winter, and will hang around and load up on carbs from browse in the area.

Deer love to eat in clear cuts or select cuts that have high quality browse as well as acorns in winter months. However, if the weather shifts to warmer temperatures then deer will seek out winter greens like cereal grains, peas etc.

Here is a more comprehensive list of what deer like to eat in the winter, so take note if your food plot is missing a large chunk of these:

• Soybeans
• Turnips
• Forage Brassicas
• Radish
• Sugar Beets
• Triticale
• Rye
• Wheat
• Barley
• Winter Peas
• Corn
• Milo-grain sorghum
• Chestnuts
• Acorns
• Apples
• Pears
• Persimmons

You will notice deer love to eat sweet foods, so mixing in some apple trees will give deer a nice treat in the winter months.

What is a Deer's Favorite Food?

This is a bit of a trick question, since deer love diversity and their dietary needs change throughout the year and in different regions. However, we can narrow it down to a few options that almost always draw a crowd:

1. Stump sprouts are extremely nutrient dense plants and a great fiber source for over the winter.
2. Gunner triticale is an attractive early forage and great palatability.
3. Soybeans/Sunn hemp/Sunflower are great for antler growth and building healthy soil.
4. Buckwheat has the highest amount of selenium which is a great reproduction mineral to help build your herd.
5. Alfalfa/Clover is high in protein and a good fiber source to grow antlers to provide good tonnage and palatability.
6. Chestnuts/Acorns are great carbohydrates sources.
7. Chicory is a great mineral mining plant and has deep tap roots making it an attraction in July if it is dry.
8. Mushrooms are high in phosphorus and protein and contain specific amino acids.
9. Corn/Soybeans for late season carbohydrates.
10. A fall blend of winter peas, cereal grains, radish, turnip, and forage brassicas are highly preferred during the hunting season.

How Thunder Ridge Outdoors Can Help You Optimize Your Food Plot

At Thunder Ridge Outdoors, we will always look to work with nature for what it was created for and look for ways to leave it better for the next generation of nature lovers and hunters alike.

If you are looking to develop the best food plot possible, and maybe even attract a trophy buck this season, we are here to help you accomplish that goal. Contact us today and check out our seed and fertilization products to help with your food plot diversity.