Whitetail deer food plot seeds: what to plant and when

Last updated 2026-07-25

what is a food plot, exactly?

A food plot is a planted patch of forage on hunting land, built to feed deer and other wildlife and to give hunters a predictable spot to watch or hunt. That's the whole concept. It's not a garden and it's not a lawn. Most plots run from a quarter acre tucked in a timber opening up to several acres in an open field, planted with seed mixes chosen for tonnage, palatability, or attraction during hunting season. Plots generally fall into two working categories: food plots meant to feed deer through stress periods (late summer drought, winter) and food plots meant to pull deer into bow range during daylight in October and November. A lot of the best plots do both, but the seed choice and placement often differ. A five-acre soybean field feeds deer all summer. A half-acre brassica plot tucked against thick cover might do almost nothing until the first hard frost, then explode with deer activity. The USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and most land-grant extension programs treat food plots as a form of wildlife habitat management, similar in principle to prescribed burning or timber stand improvement: they're a tool to shift deer distribution and improve nutrition on a property, not a guarantee of more or bigger deer ^[1]. If you want a structured starting point instead of guessing at species and acreage, that's the exact gap a $99 Custom Food Plot Plan is built to fill, though you can absolutely build a good plot without one.

what do deer actually prefer to eat, and does that match what we plant?

Whitetail deer are browsers first, grazers second. Studies on deer diet composition consistently show forbs (broadleaf weeds and legumes), woody browse, and mast (acorns, soft mast) make up the bulk of a wild deer's diet across most of the year, with agricultural crops and food plots layered on top, especially in late summer and fall ^[2]. Deer don't have one single "favorite food." Preference shifts by season, by what's available, and by nutritional need (does nursing fawns in June want protein; bucks in October want carbohydrates to build fat). That said, certain planted forages get eaten hard, consistently, across most of the whitetail's range: clover, soybeans, cowpeas, chicory, and brassicas like forage turnips and radish. Acorns still beat almost anything planted, when they're falling. That's not a knock on food plots, it's just biology: a white oak acorn crop is free, high in fat, and deer evolved to seek it out. Ask ten experienced plotters what a deer's favorite food is and you'll get ten different answers, because it genuinely depends on region, season, and what else is on the landscape. Soybeans in Iowa corn country get walked past for the corn. The same beans in the Southeast pine belt might get hammered to nothing by August.

do deer eat clover, and is it worth planting?

Yes, unquestionably, and clover is the closest thing to a default answer in the food plot world. White clover (Ladino type) and red clover are perennial legumes that regrow after grazing, fix their own nitrogen in the soil, and stay palatable from spring green-up through fall, sometimes staying green under light snow. Extension forage specialists rate properly maintained white clover at 25-30% crude protein in vegetative growth, which is well above what most cereal grains offer. The tradeoff: clover needs decent soil pH (extension guidance generally targets 6.0-6.5 for clover establishment) and it needs mowing two or three times a season to keep it from getting shaded out by weeds and to keep regrowth tender ^[3]. It's also slower to establish than annuals, usually taking a full growing season to hit its stride. Do deer like clover more than everything else? In spring and summer, often yes, it's one of the most consistently grazed plantings across university trial plots and hunter reports alike. In hard fall, deer sometimes shift off clover toward more caloric options like standing corn, soybeans, or acorns. A blend that includes clover plus chicory plus a cereal grain nurse crop tends to outperform straight clover for season-long draw.

do deer eat sorghum, and where does it fit in a plot?

Deer do eat sorghum, both the leaves and the grain heads, but it's rarely the headline species in a plot. Grain sorghum (milo) works more like a cover crop and standing-grain option than a primary attractant. It's drought tolerant, which makes it useful in the Southern Plains and parts of the Southeast where summer annuals like soybeans can get burned up without irrigation. Where sorghum earns its keep is as a screening and late-winter food source. A strip of sorghum left standing through deer season provides both visual cover for a plot edge and a grain source that holds up better than corn against early frost and lodging in some regions. It's also a common component in wildlife blend bags sold for dove and deer combination plots, since dove hunters and deer hunters both like a standing grain field. If you're choosing between soybeans, corn, and sorghum for a fall grain plot, sorghum is usually the budget and drought-tolerance play, not the top attraction play. Most whitetail research and extension guidance rank soybeans higher for both tonnage and preference in normal rainfall years ^[2].

when to plant food plots for deer, in general terms

Upper Midwest / Northern tier (zones 3-4)	mid-May to early June	late July to mid-August
Mid-South / Transition zone (zones 5-6)	late April to mid-May	late August to mid-September
Deep South (zones 7-8)	March to April	mid-September to mid-October	These are starting points, not gospel. Cooperative extension offices publish frost date tables specific to your county, and that's a better source than any national chart, including this one [4]. For a planting calendar built around your actual zip code and target season, the Custom Food Plot Plan pulls frost data and matches it to species selection, which saves the back-and-forth of cross-referencing three different charts.

Timing comes down to your average first and last frost dates, which you can pull from your county extension office or the NOAA/USDA climate data for your zone. Spring plots (clover, chicory, soybeans, cowpeas) go in after your last frost date, once soil temps are reliably above 50-55°F. Fall plots (brassicas, cereal grains, annual clovers) go in 60 to 90 days before your average first frost date, so the plants have time to establish before growth slows. Here's a rough national framework, understanding that microclimates and elevation shift things by two to three weeks in either direction: | Region | Spring plot window | Fall plot window |

when to plant oats for deer

Oats are a fall-planted cereal grain in most whitetail country, going in the ground 60 to 75 days before your first expected frost, generally August through early September in the North, and September into early October in the South. Oats germinate fast (often visible in 5-7 days with decent moisture) and deer hit the tender young shoots hard, which is exactly why oats are a staple in fall blend bags alongside brassicas and winter wheat or rye. Oats aren't very winter hardy compared to winter wheat, cereal rye, or triticale. In most of the whitetail's range, a hard freeze knocks oats down for good, whereas winter wheat and rye will green back up in late winter and early spring. That makes oats better suited as an early-fall attraction plant than a season-long food source. If you want green forage into December and beyond, blend oats with winter rye or wheat so you get the fast fall growth from the oats and the winter survival from the rye. Soil test guidance still applies here: oats aren't picky, but they respond well to nitrogen, and most extension fertility guides recommend 40-60 lbs of actual nitrogen per acre for a fall cereal grain plot, split between planting and a follow-up application if growth is slow ^[3]. Your specific soil test result is the real authority here, not a generic number.

when to plant turnips for deer, and do deer actually eat them

Yes, deer eat turnips, both the leafy tops and, later in the season, the bulbs themselves after repeated frost sweetens the starches into sugars. Forage turnips (a brassica, same family as radish and rape) are one of the most reliable late-season draws in food plot planting, because deer often ignore the plant through October, then hammer it hard in December and January once a few hard frosts convert starch to sugar. Planting window: turnips need roughly 80-90 days to reach full maturity, so extension guidance generally points to planting 90 to 100 days before your first killing frost. That usually lands in the July to early August range across most of the Midwest and mid-South, with the Deep South planting into late August or September. Plant too late and you get small bulbs and thin leaf tonnage right when you want maximum food on the ground. One real limitation: turnips alone don't feed deer much in September and early October, since that's exactly the period deer tend to walk past them for acorns, ag crops, and other food plot options. A lot of experienced plotters treat brassica plots as a late-season insurance plot, not the plot they hunt opening week.

do deer like clover more than other legumes, and how do soybeans and cowpeas compare?

Clover, soybeans, and cowpeas all get eaten readily, but they serve slightly different roles. Clover is a perennial that comes back every spring for three to five years with decent maintenance, gives up mowing labor for that longevity, and holds steady moderate tonnage per acre. Soybeans are an annual, need replanting every year, but produce far more total forage tonnage per acre when they escape early browse pressure, and the standing bean pods left after leaf drop become a fall and winter food source in their own right. Cowpeas (also called iron-clay peas in the seed trade) are an annual legume that some Southern and mid-South plotters prefer over soybeans because they tolerate poorer, sandier soil and hold up better under sustained deer pressure while young, since the vining growth habit lets a few plants survive being repeatedly browsed down where soybeans might get wiped out entirely at the seedling stage. A blunt honest answer on preference: in side-by-side plots, deer will often eat all three down to nothing given the chance, particularly on properties with a high deer density and limited other food. The deciding factor for a hunter is usually less "which does a deer like better" and more "which one can survive on my soil, at my deer density, in my rainfall pattern." That's a soil test and local deer density question, not a species popularity contest.

do deer like honey, and does that matter for food plots?

This one comes up in searches but it's not really a food plot question. Deer aren't drawn to honey specifically in any meaningful field sense, and there's no established use of honey as a whitetail attractant in wildlife management literature or extension guidance. What people are usually asking about, whether they realize it or not, is honeysuckle (a browse plant deer do eat heavily) or sweet-smelling mineral and attractant products marketed with names that reference sweetness. If you're seeing deer around honeysuckle, that's the plant, not bee honey, and it's one of the more heavily browsed native and invasive shrubs across the whitetail's range; wildlife agencies in several states actually flag it as a browse indicator species precisely because deer hit it so consistently ^[5]. Honey itself isn't a food plot input, isn't in agricultural blend bags, and isn't something extension programs recommend or study as deer forage. If it shows up in a commercial attractant, it's a molasses or sugar-based scent additive, which is a different product category from a planted food plot altogether, and worth checking against your state's baiting and feeding regulations before you use it, since bait laws vary widely by state and by season ^[6].

how do you actually pick the right seed mix for your property?

Start with a soil test, not a seed catalog. A basic soil test (available through most land-grant university extension offices for $10-20) tells you pH, and pH governs almost everything else, since nutrients lock up and become unavailable to plants in soil that's too acidic, no matter how much fertilizer you dump on it . Extension programs generally recommend targeting pH 6.0-7.0 for most food plot species, with clover and alfalfa on the higher end of that range and brassicas somewhat more tolerant of lower pH. Your soil test report is the actual authority on lime and fertilizer rates for your specific ground; nothing in this article, or in any general planting guide, replaces that lab result. Two fields a mile apart can need completely different lime rates. After soil, think about sunlight, drainage, and deer pressure. A shaded plot in mature timber won't grow clover or beans well no matter what the bag says; brassicas and cereal grains tolerate partial shade better. High deer density areas often need larger plot acreage or a sacrifice plot strategy, since a half-acre of beans can get grazed to bare dirt by August in areas running more than 25-30 deer per square mile. If you want help translating a soil test and property description into an actual species and acreage plan, that's the specific problem the Custom Food Plot Plan solves for $99, built around your zip code, soil result, and acreage rather than a one-size-fits-all bag mix.

spring plot vs fall plot seed: how do the choices differ?

Season-long perennial forage	white/red clover, alfalfa, chicory	(same clover carries into fall)
High-tonnage annual	soybeans, cowpeas, lab-lab	soybeans (planted spring, hunted fall)
Fast establishment	forage sorghum, buckwheat	oats, winter wheat, cereal rye
Cold-sweetened attraction	not applicable	forage turnips, radish, rape (brassicas)
Standing grain / cover	grain sorghum, corn	corn, grain sorghum left standing	Most experienced plotters run a two-plot system where soil and acreage allow: a perennial clover plot for spring and summer nutrition, plus a fall annual plot (brassica/cereal grain blend) planted in the same August-September window specifically to peak during firearm and late bow season. If you can only manage one plot, a clover and chicory blend gives you the widest usable season, roughly April through November in most of the whitetail range, with a fall boost if you interseed a cereal grain in late summer.

Spring plots are built around growing season length and deer nutrition needs during antler growth and fawn rearing; fall plots are built around frost tolerance and hunting-season attraction. The seed choices genuinely don't overlap that much. | Goal | Spring plot species | Fall plot species |

how big should a food plot be, and does seed choice change with size?

Extension and state wildlife agency guidance generally suggests food plots work best somewhere between a quarter acre and five acres, with smaller "kill plots" tucked in cover for hunting access and larger "feeding" fields placed for nutrition and deer holding ^[3]. Species choice does shift with size and location. Small, secluded plots surrounded by thick cover favor brassicas, clover, and cereal grains, since deer feel comfortable feeding in daylight in a tight, screened plot. Large open fields favor soybeans, corn, and sorghum, which can absorb more browse pressure across more acreage and still leave standing food into winter. A quarter-acre plot of soybeans in a high deer density area often gets grazed to nubs before it ever produces a bean, which is a common early mistake. If you're plot size is small and deer density is high, brassicas, cereal grains, and clover generally hold up better under sustained pressure than tender annual legumes.

Frequently asked questions

What is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted patch of forage, usually a quarter acre to several acres, established on hunting land to feed deer and other wildlife and to give hunters a spot to observe or hunt. Plots use annual or perennial seed mixes chosen for tonnage, palatability, or fall attraction, and are treated by wildlife agencies as a habitat management tool, not a guarantee of more deer.

Do deer eat sorghum?

Yes. Deer eat both the leaves and grain heads of sorghum, though it's usually planted as a drought-tolerant cover and standing-grain option rather than a top attractant. Soybeans and corn generally outperform sorghum for preference and tonnage in normal rainfall years, per most extension forage comparisons.

Do deer eat clover?

Yes, consistently and heavily. White and red clover are among the most reliably grazed food plot plantings across the whitetail's range, offering 25-30% crude protein in vegetative growth according to extension forage data. Clover needs pH 6.0-6.5 and regular mowing to stay productive across a three-to-five-year stand life.

When should I plant deer food plots?

Spring plots (clover, soybeans, chicory) go in after your area's last frost date once soil hits 50-55°F. Fall plots (brassicas, oats, cereal grains) go in 60-90 days before your first fall frost. Exact dates vary by region; your county extension office publishes local frost date data that beats any national chart.

Do deer like clover better than other food plot options?

Often yes in spring and summer, since clover regrows quickly after grazing and stays tender. In hard fall, deer sometimes shift toward higher-calorie options like corn, soybeans, or acorns. A blend of clover, chicory, and a cereal grain generally holds deer interest longer than clover alone.

When do you plant oats for deer plots?

Plant oats 60-75 days before your first fall frost, which is roughly August through early September in the North and September into early October in the South. Oats germinate fast, often within a week, but aren't winter hardy; blend with winter wheat or rye if you want green forage into late winter.

When do you plant turnips for deer?

Plant forage turnips 90-100 days before your first killing frost, generally July through early August in the Midwest and mid-South, later in the Deep South. Turnips need that lead time to bulb up before repeated frost converts starches to sugars, which is what triggers heavy deer browsing in December and January.

What is a deer's favorite food?

There isn't one universal answer. Wild deer diets are dominated by forbs, woody browse, and mast like acorns, with preference shifting by season and region. Among planted forages, clover, soybeans, and brassicas get consistently high use, but acorns typically beat any planted crop when they're actively falling.

Do deer like honey?

Not in any documented wildlife management sense. There's no research or extension guidance treating honey as a deer attractant. People usually mean honeysuckle, a shrub deer browse heavily, or sweet commercial attractant products, which are a different category from planted food plot seed and subject to state baiting rules.

How much does a basic soil test cost before planting a plot?

Most land-grant university extension soil testing labs charge roughly $10 to $20 per sample for a basic pH and nutrient test, though exact pricing varies by state lab. This is the cheapest, highest-value step before buying any seed, since it tells you the lime and fertilizer your specific ground needs.

Can I plant a food plot without a soil test?

You can, but you're guessing at lime and fertilizer needs, and low pH locks up nutrients regardless of how much fertilizer you apply. Extension programs generally recommend targeting pH 6.0-7.0 for most plot species. A $10-20 soil test removes most of that guesswork for very little cost.

Is it legal to use bait piles alongside a food plot?

It depends entirely on your state. Standing food plots are legal for hunting nearly everywhere, but supplemental bait piles (corn piles, mineral licks used during season) are restricted or banned in a number of states and sometimes only in certain zones for disease control reasons. Check your state wildlife agency's current regulations before adding any bait to a plot.

Sources

1. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Wildlife Habitat Management: Food plots are treated as a wildlife habitat management tool by federal conservation guidance
2. University of Tennessee Extension, Establishing Wildlife Food Plots: Clover establishment guidance targets soil pH 6.0-6.5 with regular mowing to maintain stand quality
3. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Frost/Freeze Data: County-level average frost dates are published and vary regionally, informing local plot planting windows
4. Missouri Department of Conservation, Deer Browse and Habitat: Honeysuckle is heavily browsed by deer and used by wildlife managers as a browse pressure indicator
5. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Baiting and Feeding Regulations: States regulate or restrict supplemental baiting and feeding for deer, with rules varying by state and zone
6. Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory, Soil Testing: Basic soil test services through university labs are available for a modest per-sample fee