In the south deer have plenty of food through out the hunting season. When acorns begin to drop the deer start to ignore corn piles. Soy beans are not harvested until late November or early december so that is another preferred food source. With all of the food around the larger bucks typically do not visit the bait piles(during daylight). As for a state further north where natural browse is gone and snow covered a corn field or pile may be more attractive. So to sum it up my corn piles in NC work well for trail cameras but do not work well for hunting over them.