Corn,Beans, or Winter Grass?

[the200club]

Is it true deer eat more corn this time of year to pack on Carbs? What do you guys thinks is best to set up over?

[dukemichaels]

While it is true that whitetails need to pack on carbs this time of year. You will see that deer are opportunists' first and foremost. They are browsers.

An example of this is happening right now where I live in northern Illinois. The deer are walking through the cut corn fields which are under 5"+ of snow and making their way towards hay fields where stalks protrude well above the snow line. As the snow melts I know (through past years) how quickly they will move back to corn.

So it may depend on where you are before you can make that call.

[ericstacy]

No doubt when the fruit is gone they will move to the acorns. When the acorns are gone they will move to the crops. Corn on the ground is just dried crop. When it starts to get cold they will brouse on any greens they can find. When that is gone, corn on the groundor winter crops Green feilds. When it snows corn. Corn, Corn! Seems to keep coming back to the corn. Hum!! Throw in a little persimmon scent or better flavor and??

[passthru79]

It all depends on whats available where you hunt. Like my farm for example we had winter wheat this spring and summer and due to the lack of rain the farmers didnt plant beans. So we had dirt. Fortunately our food plots werent a complete disaster so we hunt over those a fair amount with success. The neiboring farms have both corn and beens, although we cant hunt over those fields we can catch the deer coming back to bed on our ground. Id say usualy they key in on corn more in the winter but everywhere is different. Never stop scouting, keep your options open and hunt hard.

[wiscoshooter]

I don't think that deer are smart enough to know that they need carbs. I think they just go for the most available food source. A corn field is an easy target. I've been seeing lots of deer within 50 yards of a corn field. If you can, find a trail leading from bedding areas to fields. It should be easy if you have snow around you.