So I thought I would post one of these questions and my response on my blog. This one is from Sonny in IN.

Good Morning Randy,
My name is Sonny and I live about 20 miles south of Indianapolis, In.  I do a lot of whitetail hunting south of Trafalgar, IN.   I am investigating using deer food plots for the first time.  I saw your YouTube video on how you made a small 8×10 plot.  Do the the deer pretty much devastate that area before you can even hunt it?  I have about an 1/8 of an acre that is open for planting.  What would you recommend planting.  It is in a heavy soil.  I am in the process of getting a soil sample.
Thanks,
Sonny

Hi Sonny,

My best deer food plots are 1/8 acre. I plant a lot of different seed varieties to grow a lot of different things. However, the best food plot seed I have ever used is “Infinity” made by http://WhitetailSelect.com It will grow great in your heavy soil.

I plant it the first week of August and it’s 1 foot tall by Oct 1. The deer hit it really hard, but it lastswell into December, and greens up fast in the spring. I get about 5 years out of that plot before I have to replant.

The really small deer food plots I have, 8×10, do get annihilated by the middle of October. I know that will happen before I plant them, but the idea in those plots is to steer the deer traffic where I want it and stop them for a shot for my daughters during the first 2 weeks of the bow season.

A mature buck will hit those little plots the first 2 days of the bow season, but will then go nocturnal due to heavy hunting pressure around our area. Then it’s primarily a doe harvest plot for me and my kids until the food and plants are gone.
This also keeps us out of our bigger plots, 1/8 to 1/4 acre, so we don’t burn them out like many guys do early in the season.

When the pre-rut and rut starts, I hunt thick bedding areas with my treesaddle in smaller trees where no other type of treestand will work, which keeps all the other hunters out of there during October.

I hope this helps. For more how-to videos on what to do each month of the year leading up to hunting season so you can get a leg up on a shooter buck next fall, check out this site about deer food plots.

If you have any other questions before you get started, feel free to contact me anytime.

Have a great weekend,
Randy VanderVeen

Clover is great, however there is a much bigger picture than just picking the forage with great nutrition levels and planting it in your food plots for deer. There is a balance that varies greatly from region to region, and property to property. There are a lot of people in the spring planting food plots for deer with clover, although I have found that it is better to step back, look at the entire picture of nutrition throughout all 12 months, and specifically offer forage to targeted periods of the year based on your overall strategy and habitat goals for your food plots for deer.

Here are a few examples why you may want to rethink your decision to plant clover in your food plots for deer.

1. In a typical spring, the deer will hammer my winter rye while the clover  in my food plots for deer is just starting to be used because it wakes up about 3-6 weeks later than forages like rye or wheat. At the same time there is a literal explosion of forage in the woods to the point the deer have everything they need and more from the natural habitat instead of my food plots for deer. So while clover is coming into its time of the year, the deer herd’s actual level of need for it is at its lowest point of the year relative to the condition of most northern habitats.

2. When our northern late June and July drought hits, the clover turns “stemmy”, dormant, and the nutrition levels decrease. This is at a time when the natural habitat is doing extremely well. Chicory is a GREAT forage to add into the mix for this time of the year, in fact, during some summers you can’t have enough of it in your food plots for deer.

3. Clover wakes up again with the August thunderstorms, stops growing with our typical early October frosts and freezes, and in most years is eaten down to the dirt by the end of October so there is nothing left for the rest of hunting season in those food plots for deer.

4. Clover is great from early May to late June, and again from late August through mid-October, but that’s it. Think of clover as 24% protein (very high) at a time the habitat in the whitetail woods is in high gear. It’s basically a great crop when times are very good. But it is much better to have good forage available in the deer food plots when the deer need it most.

5. Then there is the less glamorous forage of rye or wheat. Only 17% protein, but it has a window of utilization from Labor Day to early December, (longer in southern portions of the Midwest), and then again for the month of April. Basically a good crop when there is literally nothing in the whitetail woods. Add in appreciable brassica growth in adjacent fields and you’ve got more bang the food plots for deer in the cool season forages for a very critical time of the year than the clover does for the entire year. Also, when do you as a land owner have the biggest opportunity to shape your deer herd? During hunting season right? If your food plots for deer are not in high gear during the hunting season, you will lose deer to your neighbors.

So What Will You Plant in Your Food Plots for Deer?

It’s not that clover is a terrible choice, but in wilderness settings of northern regions, 40-50% of the plantings should have a base of clover and chicory. Even then I avoid most “all-clover” plots unless I just don’t want those plots to be used during hunting season by deer due to hunting access issues. Basically, if I don’t want to bump into deer on a plot during and after late October, I plant it in all clover. Instead, I split up the deer food plot so that you have better overall utilization and efficiency which helps separate the deer herd and allow for more room on your property to attract and hold more deer. This will help you grow a quality deer herd while allowing for segregation of the sexes.

Feel Free to Comment Below or Ask Questions about Food Plots for Deer.