Please Help
 

My family owns a 14 acre piece of property that is completely surrounded by deer. It is and old cow grazing hillside. The deer dont come here for any reason really, they just use it as a traveling point. I want to plat a food plot to get the deer to come to my property more often. I want a food source that will produce a lot of protein for deer growth during the summer, and something that they will still come to in the winter. Please Help!

RE: Please Help
 

what state are you in?

RE: Please Help
 

Depends on your climate. But deer love rape, turnups, winter wheat, clover, brasica, chickery etc. etc.. Find out what will grow in your area, and put that in. I wish my climate was better. Not much to plant as far as food plots in West Texas. That is, unless you irrigate, or grow wheat. And since everyone grows wheat here in texas, there is no real attraction as a food plot.

RE: Please Help
 

Would recommend something perineal. We use a lot of ladino and red clovers. I prefer clovers to grasses for several reasons.

Low nitrogen costs, clover produces its own nitrogen, saving you up to probably $100/acre in nitrogen costs.
Higher forage quality, more proteins, vitamins, and minerals than grasses.
Better growth distribution than grasses allowing for more/longer grazing periods.
Forage yield is also greater than grasses.
And, it will grow just about anywhere that gets rain.

We havealso mixed some w/ grasses for even higher forage yields.

RE: Please Help
 

Assuming you're in the right climate... I like Beans better than any crop. They eat the leaves early and then late season, they gobble up the pods and they will come for miles to eat them.Since you can't plant beans but every other year, I'd put in corn on the alternating years as corn is bothfood and cover and it sounds like that cow pasture you own could use the cover too.

RE: Please Help
 

turnips, chickory, clover, wheats, soy, corn, sugar..?, etc