As part of a continuing education course I recently attended there was a segment about wildlife foods and values. Something I had never thought much about was the protein value of plain old weeds, stuff that whitetails prefer to eat, keeping in mind that deer usually digest up to about 16% protiens. Here are just a few of the plants mentioned and their crude protein values:

Old-Field Aster 23%
Pokeweed 32%
Blackberry 19%
Ragweed 18%
3-Seeded Mercury 25%
Beggar's-Lice 28%

The seed companies and wildlife management specialist pour a lot of money into advertisements wanting you to buy everything from Lab-Lab to Biologic at high prices when you would be better off manageing plain old weeds. In other words, you are spendng a lot of money on planting stuff that is of equal value or less to wildlife than native plants. Look into some of the non-biased free information available in the form of seminars and information provided by your local state forestry offices and the NRCS offices. In Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi I receive a list of classes available about forestry and wildlife I will e-mail to you if you have an interest and will PM me you e-mail address. Some are free and some require a fee.