What is a good fall food plot for deer

Last updated 2026-07-26

what is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted patch of forage on hunting land, usually a mix of annual or perennial plants chosen to feed deer and hold them (or draw them) into range of a stand or blind. It's not the same as a wildlife opening left to native weeds, and it's not a corn pile. It's an agricultural planting, treated like a small farm field, with soil prep, seed, fertilizer, and a mowing or spraying plan. Most state wildlife agencies and land-grant extensions treat food plots as a habitat management tool, not a baiting shortcut. Extension deer nutrition programs generally describe food plots as a way to supplement native forage, not replace it. A well-managed plot network usually covers a small share of a property's total acreage, often cited in the single digits. That's a fine detail hunters miss: plots supplement, they don't sustain a deer herd on their own. There's a legal wrinkle too, and it's worth knowing before you plant anything. Some states draw a hard line between a food plot (a growing crop, legal to hunt over almost everywhere) and bait (piled or spread feed, illegal to hunt over in many states). Michigan's baiting and feeding order, issued under its Wildlife Conservation Order authority, defines bait as scattered or piled material used to attract deer, and a standing planted crop isn't treated the same way under that framework ^[1]. Check your own state agency's current regulations before season. Rules on baiting, and even food plot use near public land, change more often than people expect.

when to plant food plots for deer?

Timing depends entirely on what you're planting and where you live, but the short answer for fall plots is 60 to 90 days before your area's average first hard frost. That gives brassicas and cereal grains enough of a growing window to establish a root system and leaf canopy before cold slows growth. In the Upper Midwest and Northeast (roughly USDA cold hardiness zones 3-5), that usually lands in late July through August. In the transition zone and mid-South (zones 6-7), you've got until early September for most annuals. In the Deep South (zone 8 and warmer), you can push fall plantings into late September or even October since frost comes late or not at all. The smartest move is to work backward from your local first-frost date, which NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information publishes county by county through its climate normals data ^[2]. Extension guidance for brassicas generally recommends planting 65 to 90 days before the first killing frost, specifically so the plants reach maximum sugar conversion (the process that makes frost-bitten turnips and radishes taste sweet to deer) right as hunting season opens. Don't plant fall annuals too early either. Plant brassicas in July in a zone 6 summer and you'll fight weed pressure and drought stress before deer ever get a bite worth eating.

when to plant turnips for deer?

Plant turnips 60 to 90 days before your first expected hard frost, which for most of the whitetail range means late July to early September. Turnips need that long runway to bulb out and build the sugar content that makes them palatable after a frost or two. Here's the part a lot of new plotters get backwards: deer often ignore turnip tops and bulbs early in the season when soybeans, acorns, and other food is still abundant, then switch hard to turnips once a frost sweetens the plant and other food sources thin out. That means your turnip plot might look untouched in October and get hammered in December. Patience matters here. Seeding rate for turnips run alone is typically 2 to 5 lbs per acre, and they do best on soil with a pH between 5.5 and 6.8. Turnips are shallow-seeded, roughly 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, and a common mistake is burying them too deep with a drill set up for beans or corn. Most seed companies blend turnips with other brassicas (rape, radish) or a cereal grain to hedge against the "deer ignore it until frost" problem, giving you green growth deer will eat immediately while the turnips mature underground.

when to plant oats for deer?

Plant oats 6 to 8 weeks before your first fall frost, generally August through mid-September across most of the whitetail range, a bit earlier up north and later in the transition zone and South. Oats germinate fast, often within 5 to 7 days in warm soil, and put on grazable leaf growth quicker than almost anything else you'll plant. Oats are a cool-season annual grain, and deer tend to hit them hard right out of the gate, unlike brassicas that deer sometimes wait on. That makes oats a good "quick green-up" component in a fall blend, especially if you're trying to have something up and attractive by opening day of archery season. One tradeoff: straight oats winterkill in most of the northern half of the country once temperatures drop into the teens and lower for extended stretches, so in zones 3-5 they're really a fall-only forage, not a season-long plan. In the South, oats can persist through winter and into spring. Mixing oats with a hardier cereal grain like winter wheat or triticale, or with clover, extends the plot's usefulness past the first few hard freezes.

do deer eat sorghum?

Yes, deer eat sorghum, primarily the seed heads (grain sorghum, sometimes called milo), and it works better as a standing grain crop and screening cover than as a primary attractant plot. Deer will browse young sorghum shoots too, though it's not a top preference forage the way soybeans or clover are during the growing season. Sorghum's real value in a deer plot system is dual purpose. It's drought tolerant, grows tall (often 4 to 7 feet), and gives you standing cover and a visual screen around a food plot or stand access trail, while also producing a grain head deer and turkey will feed on into winter once it dries down. Some hunters plant it in strips specifically to break sightlines rather than as the main forage crop. It's a warm-season crop, planted after soil temperatures hit around 60°F, similar timing to corn, so it fits a summer planting window rather than the fall plot conversation directly. If you're building a fall food plot, standing sorghum planted in spring or early summer can still be feeding deer into November and December as the heads mature and dry.

do deer eat clover, and do deer like clover?

Yes, deer eat clover readily, and most whitetail research and extension guidance rank clover among the most consistently preferred food plot forages available, largely because of its protein content and season-long availability. The USDA NRCS plant guide for white clover documents crude protein in vegetative growth commonly in the 25-30% range, well above most grasses and many other plot forages ^[3]. Deer like clover because it's palatable, digestible, and available for months, more than a single season. White clover (including Ladino types) and red clover are the two most commonly planted perennial clovers for deer plots. Both are cool-season legumes that green up in spring, hold through summer if managed, and put on a fall flush that makes them a strong perennial anchor for a food plot system, more than a fall-only planting. Clover isn't purely a fall food plot on its own. It's a perennial that a hunter plants in spring or late summer/early fall and then maintains for 3 to 5 years with mowing and periodic fertilization based on soil test results. If you're planting clover specifically for a fall plot, late summer (August) seeding works in cooler climates, giving the stand time to establish before frost, while spring seeding is preferred in the South and transition zone. Clover performs poorly below a soil pH of about 6.0, and lime takes months to fully react in the soil, so soil testing well ahead of planting matters more for clover than for almost any other plot species.

what are deer's favorite foods?

There's no single universal "favorite," because preference shifts by season, region, and what else is available, but research consistently points to a short list: soybeans and clover during the growing season, acorns and other hard mast in fall, and brassicas, cereal grains, and browse once frost hits and mast runs out. Whitetail deer diet and nutrition research out of the University of Georgia's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources has long documented that acorns, when available, are heavily preferred over almost any planted forage in fall, largely because of their high fat and carbohydrate content, which helps deer build fat reserves before winter ^[4]. That's a humbling fact for food plotters: in a heavy mast year, your turnip plot may take a back seat to a white oak flat. Soybeans rank at or near the top of preference studies during summer and early fall when the plant is still green, and the beans themselves become a preferred food once pods dry down, similar to standing corn or sorghum. Clover holds a top spot basically year-round where it's available. After a hard frost, sweetened brassicas (turnips, radishes) and cereal grains like oats and wheat move up the list as other options fade. Bottom line: "favorite" is really "whatever is most nutritious, most digestible, and least available elsewhere at that exact moment." That's why a diverse plot plan across a property beats one single acre of any one species.

do deer like honey?

Deer are not drawn to honey the way they are to a mineral or protein source, and there's no research or extension guidance supporting honey as a deer attractant or food plot additive. Deer are herbivores built to digest cellulose and forage through a four-chambered rumen system, and concentrated sugar sources like honey aren't part of their natural diet or a recommended plot ingredient. This question usually comes up because of confusion with commercial deer attractant sprays or granular products marketed with sweet scents, some of which use sugar, molasses, or apple flavoring, not honey specifically. Those products are scent and taste attractants, not food plot forage, and their effectiveness is debated even among hunters who use them regularly. If you're trying to add sweetness or palatability to a fall plot, that's really what brassicas already do naturally. A hard frost converts starches in turnip and radish plants into sugars, which is the same basic chemistry (not the same product) that makes a frosted turnip patch suddenly irresistible in December. That's a free, natural version of what a sugar-based attractant is trying to fake.

what's the best fall food plot mix for most hunters?

Turnips	60-90 days pre-frost	60-90	Late-season, sweetens after frost	High
Oats	45-60 days pre-frost	50-60	Fast green-up, early-season draw	Low to moderate (winterkills in cold zones)
Winter wheat	45-75 days pre-frost	Overwinters	Late fall and spring forage, erosion control	Very high
White/Ladino clover	Spring or late summer	Perennial, 3-5 yr stand	Season-long protein source, anchor plot	Moderate (goes dormant, doesn't die)
Grain sorghum	Late spring (60°F soil)	90-120	Standing grain and screening cover into winter	Moderate	A simple, honest starting blend for a one-acre plot in most of the whitetail range: turnips at 3-4 lbs/acre, oats at 60-80 lbs/acre, mixed together and drilled or broadcast into a firm seedbed. That gives you the quick oat green-up hunters want to see by September, plus the frost-sweetened turnip bulbs that pull deer in during late season. If you've only got one plot and want it to last more than one season, plant clover instead and treat it as a perennial investment rather than a fall-only planting. It costs more upfront in soil prep (lime especially) but pays back over several years without a full reseed. This is genuinely a soil-test-first decision. If you already ran one and want help translating pH and nutrient numbers into an actual seed and fertilizer plan by planting zone, that's exactly what the Custom Food Plot Plan is built to do. It's a $99 one-time plan; your soil test lab is still the final word on lime and fertilizer rates.

For most hunters in most regions, a blend of a brassica (turnip or radish), a cereal grain (oats or winter wheat), and, where perennial ground is available, clover, covers the bases better than any single species planted alone. Each piece does a different job. Here's how the pieces typically stack up: | Species | Planting window | Days to maturity | Best role in a fall plot | Frost tolerance |

how much seed and fertilizer does a fall plot actually need?

Seeding rates vary by species and by whether you're drilling or broadcasting, but a few numbers hold across most extension guidance. Turnips run 2-5 lbs/acre alone, oats run 60-100 lbs/acre alone (lower end drilled, higher end broadcast), and clover runs 6-8 lbs/acre for white/Ladino types. Fertilizer needs come straight from a soil test, full stop. Guessing on lime and fertilizer wastes money and can actually hurt establishment if you overapply nitrogen on a legume like clover (which fixes its own nitrogen once nodulated) or underapply lime on acidic soil where nutrients simply won't be available to the plant no matter how much fertilizer you dump on. Lime takes time to work, and that's the part people rush. Agronomic guidance on ag lime consistently notes it can take 3 to 6 months (sometimes longer on heavy or highly acidic soils) to fully adjust soil pH, so testing in spring for a fall plot, or ideally a full season ahead, gives the lime time to react before you plant. A basic soil test through most land-grant university extension labs costs somewhere in the $10 to $20 range per sample, cheap insurance against buying the wrong (or wrong amount of) fertilizer for a plot that might run you $150-$400 an acre in seed, lime, and fertilizer combined depending on species and rates.

what equipment do you actually need to plant a fall plot?

At minimum: a way to kill or till existing vegetation, a way to get seed into the ground at the right depth, and a way to pack the seed in. That's it. Everything else is a convenience upgrade, not a requirement. For small plots (under an acre), a hand seeder, a rented or borrowed disc or tiller, and a lawn roller or ATV tires to pack seed can get the job done. For larger plots, a food plot drill (which places seed at a controlled depth and often includes a packing wheel) is the single best equipment upgrade available, because depth control is the number one reason plantings fail, especially with small-seeded species like clover and brassicas that only need 1/4 to 1/2 inch of coverage. Broadcasting works fine for many species if you follow it with a light drag or cultipacker to press seed into soil contact. Seed sitting on top of dry, loose dirt with no soil contact simply won't germinate reliably, frost or rain or not.

Frequently asked questions

Do deer eat sorghum?

Yes. Deer browse young sorghum shoots and eat the mature grain heads, especially once the crop dries down in fall. It's more valuable as standing cover and a late-season grain source than as a primary attractant, and it's planted in spring/early summer, not as a true fall-planted crop.

Do deer eat clover?

Yes, and extension research ranks clover among the most consistently preferred deer forages available, largely due to its high crude protein content (often 25-30%) and season-long availability. White/Ladino and red clover are the two most commonly planted types for whitetail food plots.

When should I plant deer food plots?

For fall plots, plant 60 to 90 days before your area's first hard frost, adjusting for species: oats need only 45-60 days, turnips need closer to 60-90, and clover is best seeded in late summer or spring depending on region. Check your county's average frost date through NOAA's climate normals data.

Do deer like clover?

Yes, strongly and consistently. Clover is a top-preference forage across most whitetail diet studies because of its protein content and availability across multiple seasons, more than fall. It requires a soil pH near 6.0 or higher to establish well, so a soil test before planting matters.

When should I plant oats for deer?

Plant oats 6 to 8 weeks before your first expected fall frost, typically August through mid-September depending on region. Oats germinate fast (5-7 days) and give quick green growth, but they winterkill in most northern climates once hard freezes set in.

When should I plant turnips for deer?

Plant turnips 60 to 90 days before your area's first hard frost, generally late July through early September. Turnips need that time to bulb out, and deer often don't hit them hard until after a frost sweetens the plant's sugars.

What is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted patch of forage on hunting land, prepared and managed like a small farm field with soil testing, fertilizer, and specific seed species chosen to feed and hold deer. It supplements native browse; it doesn't replace it, and it's legally distinct from baiting in most states.

What are deer's favorite foods?

It varies by season: soybeans and clover during the growing season, acorns and hard mast in early fall when available, and frost-sweetened brassicas and cereal grains once mast runs out. Acorns are typically preferred over planted forage in a heavy mast year, per University of Georgia research.

Do deer like honey?

No good evidence supports honey as a deer attractant, and it's not part of a deer's natural forage as a rumen-digesting herbivore. The sweetness that draws deer to frosted turnips or radishes comes from natural starch-to-sugar conversion after a freeze, not from any added sugar source.

Can I plant a fall food plot without a soil test?

You can, but you're guessing on lime and fertilizer rates, which risks poor establishment, especially on acidic soil where nutrients aren't available to plants regardless of fertilizer applied. A basic extension soil test costs roughly $10-$20 and takes the guesswork out.

What's the difference between a fall plot and a spring/summer plot?

Fall plots emphasize brassicas, cereal grains, and clover chosen for cold tolerance and late-season attraction through hunting season. Spring/summer plots (soybeans, cowpeas, corn) focus on high-protein growing-season nutrition for antler growth and lactation, and generally can't survive a hard frost.

How big should a fall food plot be?

There's no fixed rule; extension guidance generally frames plots as a small supplement, often just a few percent of total property acreage, rather than a primary food source. A quarter-acre to one-acre plot is a common, manageable size for most private landowners with hand or small-tractor equipment.

Is it legal to hunt over a food plot?

In most states, yes, a growing food plot is legally distinct from bait (piled or spread feed), but rules vary significantly by state and can change. Always check your state wildlife agency's current baiting and feeding regulations before hunting over any planted plot.

Sources

1. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Baiting and Feeding Order (Wildlife Conservation Order): Food plots are treated as distinct from bait under Michigan's baiting and feeding regulations
2. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals: County-level average first fall frost dates used to time fall plot planting windows
3. USDA NRCS Plant Guide, White Clover (Trifolium repens): Clover crude protein content and characteristics as a forage legume
4. USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet, Ladino Clover: Clover establishment requirements including soil pH tolerance for white/Ladino clover
5. University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Deer Research: Acorns are heavily preferred by deer over planted forage in years of high mast availability