What's best to plant for deer food plots this year

Last updated 2026-07-26

What is a food plot, exactly?

A food plot is a planted area, usually somewhere between a quarter acre and several acres, established specifically to grow forage that attracts and feeds deer (and often turkey, rabbits, and other wildlife along with them). It's different from a garden or a crop field in purpose: the goal isn't yield for market, it's nutrition and, for a lot of hunters, a place to set a stand. State wildlife agencies and land-grant universities treat food plots as a wildlife habitat management tool, not agriculture in the commercial sense. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and university extension programs both publish food plot guidance under wildlife habitat management, not row-crop production ^[1]. That distinction matters because the agronomy is similar to farming (you still need a soil test, lime, fertilizer, and a planting window) but the goals are different: you're optimizing for attraction, tonnage of browse, and season-long availability, not bushels per acre. Most food plots fall into two rough categories: annuals you replant every year (brassicas, cereal grains, soybeans) and perennials that persist for two to five years with maintenance (clover, chicory, alfalfa). A lot of serious plotters run both, a perennial clover field for spring and summer and an annual brassica or grain plot for fall and winter.

What are deer's favorite foods, really?

Deer are opportunistic browsers, and their preferences shift by season, region, and whatever's available naturally that year. That said, food plot species that consistently draw heavy use include soybeans and clover in spring and summer, and brassicas (turnips, radishes, rape) and cereal grains in late fall and winter once a hard frost sweetens them up. Acorns and native browse still make up the bulk of a whitetail's diet in most of the country, and food plots supplement that rather than replace it. Research out of Mississippi State University's Deer Lab notes that food plots typically make up a small percentage of a deer's overall diet across the year, even on well-managed properties, because deer range over hundreds of acres and eat what's convenient and nutritious as it becomes available. Soybeans deserve a mention here because deer often hit them so hard as seedlings that a small plot gets wiped out before it produces anything. That's not a knock on soybeans, it's a sign you need more acreage (extension guidance generally suggests several contiguous acres of soybeans to survive early browse pressure) or a repellent/exclusion strategy while plants establish ^[2].

Do deer like clover?

Yes. Clover is one of the most reliable food plot plantings for whitetail deer, and it's a mainstay for a reason: it's high in protein (often 20-25% crude protein in good stands), it regrows after grazing, and it comes back year after year with minimal replanting. White clover (including Ladino types) and red clover are the two most common choices. White clover tends to be more shade-tolerant and persistent under grazing pressure, while red clover grows a bit taller and handles drier soils and lower-fertility ground a little better, according to Penn State Extension's forage guidance. Both fix nitrogen from the air, which means you can cut back on nitrogen fertilizer in future years once a stand is established, a real cost savings compared to annual grain plots. Clover's downside is establishment. It needs decent seed-to-soil contact, a pH in the 6.0-7.0 range for best performance, and it's slow the first few months. Deer will hit new clover seedlings hard, which can set back establishment on small plots. Give it a full growing season before you judge it.

Do deer eat sorghum?

Deer will eat grain sorghum (milo), but it's not a top-tier food plot choice on its own for most whitetail programs. Sorghum is more commonly planted as a screening or bedding cover crop, or as a component in a wildlife blend for its seed head that browsing animals and birds use in late fall and winter. Extension trial data comparing forage preference generally ranks sorghum below soybeans, brassicas, and clover for deer attraction, though deer will browse young sorghum leaves and eat the grain once it matures and dries down ^[3]. Where sorghum earns its keep is as cover: tall stands (often 6-10 feet) create screening between a food source and a road, or bedding structure adjacent to a plot, which can matter as much as the forage itself for keeping deer comfortable moving in daylight. If your main goal is deer nutrition, spend your seed budget on clover, brassicas, or beans first. If you want a visual screen or some grain for turkey and dove alongside your deer program, sorghum has a place.

Do deer like honey?

This one gets asked a lot, and the short answer is deer aren't drawn to honey the way they are to salt, sugar in plants, or fermented fruit. There's no meaningful body of wildlife research supporting honey as a deer attractant, and it's not a component of any established food plot seed blend. What may be causing confusion is honeysuckle (a browse plant deer genuinely favor in many regions) or commercial "honey hole" branded attractant products that use sugar or molasses scent, not real honey, as an ingredient. If you're trying to boost attraction to a plot, you're much better off investing in a mineral/salt station where legal, or in brassicas, which taste sweeter to deer after a frost converts starches to sugars. Check your state wildlife agency's baiting and feeding regulations before setting out any mineral, salt, or supplemental feed, because rules vary widely by state and some prohibit it entirely, especially in CWD management zones.

When should you plant food plots for deer?

Deep South (Zone 8-9)	March-April	Late Aug-Sept
Mid-South/Transition (Zone 7)	April-May	Late Aug-Sept
Midwest/Northeast (Zone 5-6)	May-June	Late July-Aug
Upper Midwest/North (Zone 3-4)	Late May-June	Mid-late July	These are starting points, not gospel. A late frost or a wet spring shifts everything by two or three weeks in a given year, so watch your local conditions and soil temperature, more than the calendar.

Timing splits into two windows: spring/summer plantings for warm-season forage (clover, soybeans, cowpeas) and late summer/early fall plantings for cool-season forage (brassicas, cereal grains, more clover). Your exact dates depend heavily on your USDA plant hardiness zone and your area's first frost date. As a rough national guide: spring plots go in after your last frost date, typically April through June depending on latitude, and fall plots go in 60-90 days before your average first fall frost so brassicas and grains have time to bulk up before hunting season. Your state extension office publishes frost date tables and can pin this down for your county far better than any national article can. Here's a simplified planting window by region and species type: | Region | Spring plot window | Fall plot window |

When should you plant oats for deer?

Oats are a cool-season annual, and you plant them in late summer to early fall so they're actively growing and putting on tender leaf tissue right when bow season opens. Most extension guidance puts oat planting 6-8 weeks before your first expected frost, which lands in the August to mid-September range across most of the whitetail's range ^[4]. Oats germinate fast (often within 5-10 days in warm soil) and deer hit young oat shoots hard, sometimes browsing them down before they get much height. That's normal and it's actually the point: oats are meant to be a grazed forage plot, not a grain-to-maturity crop, in most whitetail programs. Oats winterkill in a lot of northern climates once temperatures drop into the low teens or below for extended periods, so in the Upper Midwest and points north, expect an oat plot to fade by mid-winter. Farther south, oats can stay green and grazeable well into winter. Pairing oats with a brassica like turnips or a cereal rye that survives harder freezes is a common way to extend a plot's usable window past the point oats alone would carry it.

When should you plant turnips for deer?

Turnips go in the ground roughly 90-100 days before your first hard frost, since they need that long to bulk up both the leafy top growth and the root bulb. For most of the whitetail range, that means late July through August, with northern growers planting earlier in that window and southern growers later ^[5]. Here's the key thing about turnips: deer often ignore the plant almost entirely for the first month or two, then switch on hard once a few frosts hit and convert starches in the leaves and bulbs to sugar. That's why so many hunters plant turnips in July and get frustrated when deer aren't touching them in September, only to find the plot getting hammered in November and December. Patience is part of the strategy with brassicas. Plant turnips too late and you get small bulbs and thin leaf mass; too early in southern climates and they can bolt or get overtaken by summer weeds before fall growth kicks in. A 90-day rule of thumb from your first frost date, checked against your state extension frost map, is the most reliable starting point ^[5].

How do you choose the right species for your ground?

Start with a soil test, not a seed bag. Soil pH drives almost everything: clover and alfalfa want pH near 6.5-7.0, brassicas tolerate a bit more acidity, and if your test comes back at 5.2, no seed selection fixes that until you add the lime your lab recommends. Your soil test lab is the authority on lime and fertilizer rates for your specific field; treat any general planting guide, including this one, as a starting point rather than a substitute for your actual results. After soil chemistry, match species to what you actually need the plot to do. Want summer nutrition for antler growth and lactating does? Clover or soybeans. Want a magnet for late season hunts? Brassicas or a cereal grain blend. Want low-maintenance and low-cost? A cereal rye and clover combo often out-performs fussier warm-season mixes for a first-time plotter. Soil type matters too: heavy clay holds moisture and favors clover and brassicas, while sandy, well-drained ground handles cereal grains and soybeans better and drains fast enough to avoid rot in wet years. If you're not sure where to start, a food plot whitetail guide or a species-specific breakdown like deer food plot seed can help narrow the list before you buy anything.

What's the difference between annual and perennial plots, and do you need both?

Annual plots (brassicas, oats, soybeans, sorghum, buckwheat) get replanted every year and typically cost more in labor and seed over time, but they let you rotate species, chase specific hunting-season timing, and recover fast from a bad year. Perennial plots (clover, alfalfa, chicory) go in once and produce for two to five seasons with mowing, spot-spraying, and periodic fertilizer. Most experienced plotters run both if they have more than an acre or two to work with. A common setup: a perennial clover field for spring/summer nutrition and turkey season, paired with an annual brassica or cereal grain plot planted in late summer specifically to be hunted in November and December. That split spreads your risk (a drought or flood that wrecks one planting type won't wreck both) and covers more of the calendar with something green and attractive. Cost-wise, perennial clover generally runs cheaper per year averaged over its stand life, since you skip replanting costs for two to four seasons, but it costs more up front for seed and lime to get pH corrected. Annuals cost less to establish but you pay that cost every single year.

What equipment do you actually need to plant a food plot?

At minimum: something to kill or clear existing vegetation (a mower, herbicide and sprayer, or a disc), something to work the soil (disc, tiller, or a no-till drill), a way to spread seed (broadcast spreader, hand-crank spreader, or a drill), and a way to firm the soil after seeding (cultipacker, roller, or even ATV tires). Small plots (a quarter acre to an acre) are very doable with an ATV or UTV, a pull-behind disc, a tow-behind spreader, and a cultipacker, and that setup runs most hunters somewhere in the low thousands of dollars if bought new, less if you rent or borrow. Larger acreage starts to justify a tractor and dedicated implements. No-till drills are worth mentioning separately: they cut a slot, drop seed at a controlled depth, and close the slot in one pass, which saves a step and improves germination consistency, especially for small-seeded species like clover that get planted too deep with a broadcast-and-drag method. If you're outfitting a property from scratch, a resource like deer food plots walks through the gear side in more depth.

How does a Custom Food Plot Plan help with all this?

If you've got a soil test back and a rough idea of your acreage but you're not sure how to turn that into an actual seed order and calendar, that's exactly the gap a Custom Food Plot Plan is built to close. For a $99 one-time fee, you get a plan built around your soil test results, your region, and your goals (early season, late season, or season-long), rather than a generic bag-of-seed recommendation. It's general guidance based on your inputs, not a site visit or a substitute for what your soil test lab tells you about lime and fertilizer rates, and nobody can promise deer will show up on a schedule. But if you want a starting point that's more specific than "plant clover," the plot-plan-builder is where that conversation starts.

Frequently asked questions

Do deer eat sorghum?

Yes, deer browse young sorghum leaves and will eat the grain once it dries, but sorghum ranks below clover, soybeans, and brassicas for deer attraction in most extension forage trials. It's more valuable as a screening or cover crop planted alongside a primary food plot than as a standalone deer food source.

Do deer like clover?

Yes, clover is one of the most consistently preferred food plot forages for whitetail deer, offering 20-25% crude protein in well-managed stands. White and red clover both work well; white clover handles grazing pressure better while red clover tolerates drier, lower-fertility soil, per Penn State Extension forage guidance.

When is the best time to plant food plots for deer?

Spring plots (clover, soybeans) go in after your last frost date, roughly April through June depending on latitude. Fall plots (brassicas, cereal grains) go in 60-100 days before your first fall frost. Check your state extension office's frost date tables for your specific county rather than relying on a national average.

When should you plant oats for deer?

Plant oats 6-8 weeks before your area's first expected fall frost, typically August to mid-September across most whitetail range. Oats germinate within 5-10 days and provide tender fall browse, but they often winterkill in northern climates once sustained hard freezes hit.

When should you plant turnips for deer?

Turnips need roughly 90-100 days before your first hard frost, generally late July through August depending on region. Deer often ignore turnip plots until after a few frosts convert the plant's starches to sugar, so don't judge a turnip plot's success until November or December.

What is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted area, often a quarter acre to several acres, established to grow forage that feeds and attracts deer and other wildlife. It's managed under wildlife habitat guidance from agencies like USDA NRCS and university extension programs rather than as a commercial crop.

What are deer's favorite foods?

Preferences shift seasonally: soybeans and clover draw heavy use in spring and summer, while brassicas and cereal grains peak in late fall and winter after frost sweetens them. Acorns and native browse still make up most of a whitetail's annual diet even where food plots are well managed.

Do deer like honey?

No, there's no real evidence deer are attracted to honey specifically. Confusion likely comes from honeysuckle, a browse plant deer do favor, or branded attractant products using sugar or molasses scent rather than actual honey. Neither is a standard food plot ingredient.

What's the best all-around food plot seed for beginners?

Clover is usually the best starting point: it's forgiving, comes back for two to five years, fixes its own nitrogen, and feeds deer spring through fall. Pair it with a fall brassica or cereal grain plot if you want late-season hunting coverage too.

How big should a deer food plot be?

There's no single right size; a quarter acre can work in thick cover as a bedding-adjacent kill plot, while destination feeding plots often run one to five acres or more. Soybeans in particular need several contiguous acres to survive early browse pressure before establishing.

Can you plant a food plot without a tractor?

Yes. Many small plots (under an acre) get planted with an ATV or UTV, a pull-behind disc or harrow, a broadcast spreader, and a cultipacker or roller. That setup handles clover, brassicas, and cereal grains fine on modest acreage.

Do I need to soil test before planting a food plot?

Yes, strongly recommended. Soil pH drives forage performance more than seed choice does; clover and alfalfa want pH near 6.5-7.0, and no amount of good seed fixes acidic soil without the lime your soil test lab recommends for your field.

Is it legal to use mineral or salt with a food plot?

It depends entirely on your state. Baiting and supplemental feeding rules vary widely, and some states restrict or ban it outright, especially in Chronic Wasting Disease management zones. Check your state wildlife agency's current regulations before setting out minerals, salt, or feed.

Sources

1. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Wildlife Habitat Management: Food plots are classified as wildlife habitat management practice, not commercial agriculture
2. University of Tennessee Extension, Soybeans for Wildlife: Soybean food plots generally need several contiguous acres to survive early browse pressure
3. Oklahoma State University Extension, Wildlife Food Plots: Grain sorghum ranks below soybeans, brassicas, and clover in deer forage preference trials and is more valuable as cover
4. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension, Establishing Wildlife Food Plots: Oats are typically planted 6 to 8 weeks before the first expected fall frost for wildlife food plots
5. Mississippi State University Extension, Brassica Food Plots: Turnips require roughly 90 to 100 days of growth before first frost to bulk up leaf and root mass