I do not agree with this at all. I have some pretty good experience from last year and learned a lot. The best info I have seen on stuff is the qdmaforums.com. Most of those folks have some really good info, the best I have seen online.

I did quite a bit of work this year, I have an entire journal of the project in the wildlife management forum describing what I did. I spent approx. $750 last year total (already had tractor) and managed to buy the disc, a ton of lime, herbicide, and all seed. I rented the spreader for I think $30 total for a day and got the lime spread with that, then spread the seed by hand with a hand crank unit. The plot last year was about 1.3 acres, and I plan to add 2x other plots this year that should be around 3/4 acre each. Since I don't have to buy a disc again, I plan to spend about $500 total on seed and lime and herbicide this year and really think the process of spraying herbicide, allowing it to rot down, discing, liming, seeding, and then lightly covering works well.

Also, for winter plots I highly recommend a brassica mix. Last year I used MO Biologic Maximum, and MO Biologic Full Draw for my winter food source. The Maximum works just as you start getting frost and will last for about 2 months. They will eat this first until it is gone. The Full Draw though will get eaten in different stages, it's mostly turnips. The tops will go in the december timeframe, and then in January they will start to eat the actual turnips themselves. I still have a field full of turnips and the deer are still in it every night eating the actual turnip root. It seems every deer for a square mile is wintering on our property this year just next to this plot, this patch in previous years never had predictable deer movement and now you can see them during daylight hours every day and at night the plot will have well over a dozen pairs of eyes in it.

I have done about a half dozen plots in the past years by only mowing and throwing seed, and I never got anything really that was substantial enough to make a difference, and it certainly didn't affect deer movement. We don't really hunt this plot at all (1x time this year) because the wind is rarely right, but man does it draw the deer and keep them located on our property and it produces enough forage on 1.3 acres to keep the deer coming to it from the 2nd week of October until well into March I expect. For the last 3 months this is the greenest patch of anything for miles literally and it easily has the densest deer density of anywhere for miles I bet.