What to plant for a deer food plot: species and timing

Last updated 2026-07-25

What is a food plot, exactly?

A food plot is a planted area of forage or grain on hunting land, meant to feed deer and other wildlife and, usually, to draw them into range of a stand or blind. It's not the same as scattering corn on the ground. A plot is a farmed patch, worked soil, seed, and often fertilizer and lime, planted on a schedule tied to your local frost dates. Most hunters run two kinds: annual plots you replant every year (oats, brassicas, soybeans) and perennial plots that come back for 3-5 years with mowing and light maintenance (clover, chicory, alfalfa). Size varies wildly. A quarter-acre kill plot tucked in timber does a different job than a 3-acre field plot meant to hold deer all season. Neither is wrong, they just serve different purposes on the property. State rules matter here. Baiting (piling loose grain or minerals) is illegal in many states even though a food plot is legal in the same state, because the forage is rooted and growing, not dumped. Michigan, for example, bans baiting for deer hunting statewide as of its current regulations, while food plots are explicitly treated as normal agricultural practice ^[1]. Always check your state wildlife agency's current baiting and feeding rules before you plant or hunt over anything, because the line between a legal plot and an illegal feeding site can hinge on details like plot size or standing crop versus piled grain.

What are deer's favorite foods, really?

Deer are opportunistic browsers, and their favorite food changes by season, region, and what's available. In spring and summer, they favor high-protein forbs, clover, soybean leaves, and native browse. In fall, they shift hard toward carbohydrates and fat, acorns, corn, soybeans left standing, and brassica tubers after a frost. Acorns are probably the single most preferred natural deer food across most of the whitetail's range in fall, and white oak acorns are typically favored over red oak because they're lower in tannins ^[2]. You can't plant a mature oak and get instant results, but it explains why deer often ignore a plot when a good acorn drop is happening nearby. That's normal, not a sign your plot failed. Among planted forages, deer consistently rank clover, soybeans, and cowpeas near the top for palatability and protein content, with whole soybean plants running roughly 15-30% crude protein depending on growth stage ^[3]. Brassicas like turnips and radish aren't favorites until a hard frost converts starches to sugars, at which point deer will often switch over almost entirely, sometimes overnight.

Do deer eat clover, and is it worth planting?

Yes, deer eat clover heavily, and it's one of the most reliable, lowest-maintenance plantings for a whitetail plot. Clover regrows after grazing, tolerates mowing, and provides forage from spring green-up through fall, sometimes through a mild winter in the South. White clover (Ladino types especially) and red clover are the two workhorses. Ladino white clover extension trials commonly show crude protein in the 25-31% range during active growth ^[4], which rivals or beats a lot of grain crops. It's also a nitrogen-fixer, so it needs less nitrogen fertilizer once established, which saves money over years two through four or five of a stand. The catch is establishment. Clover seed is tiny and needs good soil contact, a firm seedbed, and soil pH in the 6.0-7.0 range to really perform; below that, lime is the fix, and your soil test is the only way to know how much you need ^[5]. Clover also needs mowing two to four times a season to knock back weeds and keep it from getting rank and stemmy. If you want a plot that keeps producing for years without replanting every spring, clover is usually the answer. Check out deer food plot seed options if you're comparing blends versus straight clover.

Do deer like clover more than other forages?

In most head-to-head observations and grazing studies, clover ranks at or near the top of preferred forages, especially in spring and summer when deer need protein for antler growth and lactation. But "favorite" shifts with the calendar. In late fall, a deer that ignored a clover plot all August will often switch hard to acorns, standing corn, or frosted brassicas because its body is chasing fat and carbs, not protein, heading into winter. This is why a lot of experienced plot managers run more than one planting. Clover covers spring through early fall. A brassica or cereal grain plot covers the late season. Running both means you're never asking one plant to do a job it's not built for. If you can only manage one plot, clover is the safer year-round bet in most of the whitetail's range, but it will get less attention in November than a frosted turnip plot will.

Do deer eat sorghum?

Yes. Deer eat grain sorghum (milo), both the leaves during the growing season and the grain head once it matures, and it's a common component in fall/winter blends because it stands up well to weather and holds grain into winter better than corn does in a lot of climates. It's also more drought-tolerant than corn, which matters in the southern Plains and parts of the Southeast. Sorghum isn't usually a deer's first choice next to soybeans or standing corn, but it's a workhorse for winter cover and a late-season carb source, and turkeys and other wildlife use it too. Extension guidance from grain sorghum-heavy states like Kansas treats it as a legitimate wildlife planting, particularly where corn struggles with drought or where you want taller standing cover into deer season ^[6]. If you're in a dry region or you've had corn fail on you before, sorghum is worth a look as part of a blend rather than a monoculture.

Do deer like honey (or sweet feed / molasses attractants)?

Deer don't seek out honey the way people assume from marketing copy on some attractant products. Deer aren't drawn to honey as a food source in the wild, and there's no meaningful science showing honey itself is a preferred deer food. What's actually happening with a lot of "honey" or molasses-scented attractants is deer responding to sugar and scent, not honey specifically, similar to how they're drawn to fruit sugars in apples or persimmons. If you're looking at a bagged attractant with honey or molasses in the name, treat it as a supplement to a real plot, not a substitute for one. It also may cross into baiting rules in your state depending on how it's used (piled versus applied to standing forage), so check your state wildlife agency's regulations before using any scent or feed product near a stand ^[1]. A planted, growing food source will do more for consistent deer use over a season than any bagged attractant will.

When to plant food plots for deer?

Deep South (Zone 8-9)	March-April	Late Aug-Sept
Mid-South / Transition (Zone 7)	April-May	Aug-early Sept
Midwest / Mid-Atlantic (Zone 6)	May	Late July-Aug
Upper Midwest / Northeast (Zone 4-5)	Late May-June	Mid-late July	If you want a plan built around your specific zip code and soil test rather than a rough regional table, that's exactly the gap a service like PlotSeason's $99 Custom Food Plot Plan is meant to fill. It's general planning guidance based on your inputs, not site-specific agronomy, so your soil test lab is still the final word on lime and fertilizer rates.

Timing splits into two windows: spring planting for warm-season annuals and perennials, and late summer planting for cool-season annuals timed to peak in fall hunting season. Your local frost dates drive both windows, and they shift by roughly 4-6 weeks from the Deep South to the upper Midwest and Northeast. Spring plots (clover, soybeans, cowpeas, corn) generally go in after your last frost date, once soil temps are reliably above 50-55°F for germination. Fall plots (brassicas, oats, wheat, cereal rye) are planted 60-90 days before your first fall frost, so the plants have time to establish and mature (or in the case of brassicas, form bulbs) before cold weather arrives. Cooperative extension frost date tools and NOAA climate normals are the best starting point for exact windows, because "early May" in Alabama and "early May" in Minnesota are two completely different calendars . A rough national framework: | Region | Spring/summer planting | Fall planting |

When to plant oats for deer?

Plant oats for a fall food plot 60-90 days before your area's average first frost date, which lands most oat plantings somewhere between mid-August (northern states) and mid-September (transition zone states). Oats germinate fast, often in 5-7 days with adequate moisture, and deer will hit young oat shoots almost immediately. Oats are a cool-season annual and they die back with hard freezes, unlike wheat or cereal rye which can overwinter, so oats are best thought of as an early-to-mid fall attraction crop rather than a winter-long food source in colder zones. In the Deep South, oats can persist and produce forage most of the winter. Land-grant extension wildlife plot guides commonly recommend oats in mixes with brassicas or clover because oats germinate and green up fast, giving deer something to eat while slower brassicas are still bulking up . Seeding rate for a straight oat plot generally runs 100-120 lbs/acre broadcast, a bit less if drilled, though your seed tag and local extension office are the final word for your specific variety and soil.

When to plant turnips for deer?

Plant turnips for deer 60-90 days before your first expected fall frost, similar timing to other brassicas. That usually means late July through mid-August in northern states, and mid-August through early September in the transition zone and parts of the South. Turnips need that runway to grow both leafy top growth and the bulb, and they need a hard frost or two to convert starches to sugars before deer really key in on them. This frost-triggered sugar conversion is the single most misunderstood part of brassica plots. A lot of hunters plant turnips, see deer ignore the plot in October, and assume the plot failed. In most cases, it just hasn't frosted enough yet. Once night temps drop into the 25-28°F range a few times, both the leaves and the bulbs get noticeably sweeter and deer use jumps hard, often becoming a late-season magnet in November and December when other food is scarce . Turnip seeding rate alone runs about 4-6 lbs/acre; most plot managers blend turnips with radish and a cereal grain rather than planting a monoculture, since a blend spreads out the germination timing and gives deer variety.

Best plants for a fall/late-season plot

For late season, the goal is standing food when everything else in the woods is picked clean or buried in snow. Brassicas (turnips, radish, kale), cereal grains that overwinter (wheat, cereal rye), and standing soybeans or corn left unharvested are the main tools. Brassicas bring tonnage per acre and that frost-sweetened sugar spike that draws deer hard in November and December. Cereal rye is the most cold-tolerant of the small grains and will green up again in late winter and very early spring, giving you a second window of use before spring plots go in. Standing soybeans, if you can keep deer from mowing them flat in August, hold pods full of protein and fat well into winter and are a favorite in the Midwest for exactly that reason. A lot of successful late-season plots aren't one species, they're a blend: brassica plus oats plus cereal rye in the same field, planted the same day. That gives you fast germination and early browsing from the oats, tonnage and sugar from the brassica, and a crop that's still standing in February from the rye. If you want ready-made blends built for this rather than mixing your own, food plot seed blends marketed for late season usually combine exactly these three.

Best plants for a spring/summer plot

Spring and summer plots are about protein for antler growth and lactating does, so clover, soybeans, and cowpeas do the heavy lifting. These are also the plots that take the most grazing pressure, since deer hit them hard through the growing season, so acreage matters more here than in a small fall kill plot. Clover, as covered above, is the low-maintenance perennial choice and will produce for 3-5 years with mowing and periodic fertilizer touch-ups based on your soil test. Soybeans planted in a large enough block (an acre or more, ideally fenced or in a low-pressure area while young) can survive early grazing and produce a high-protein forage crop through summer and pods into fall. Cowpeas (iron-clay types especially) are more heat and drought-tolerant than soybeans and hold up in the Deep South better through August dry spells. Corn is also an option for summer but it's expensive per acre, needs real fertility, and mostly earns its keep as a fall/winter grain source and screening cover rather than a summer forage, since deer eat corn leaves some but really want the grain later. If you're weighing clover against soybeans for a single plot, food plot whitetail planning guides usually frame it as a soil-and-acreage decision as much as a preference decision.

How soil and fertility decide what you can plant

Your soil test result matters more than any species list, full stop. Clover needs pH 6.0-7.0 to really perform and fix nitrogen well; plant it on 5.2 soil and you'll get a thin, weedy stand no matter how good the seed was ^[5]. Brassicas tolerate a slightly wider pH range but still perform best above 6.0. Soybeans want fertile, well-drained ground and real phosphorus and potassium if your test shows a deficiency. Lime takes time to work, often 3-6 months to fully react and move soil pH, so if your test says you need 2 tons/acre of lime, that application ideally happens the season before you plant, not the same week . This is the single biggest scheduling mistake first-time plot planters make: they get a soil test in August, realize they need lime, and try to plant clover into unlimed dirt two weeks later. Your soil test lab, whether that's a university extension lab or a private ag lab, is the actual authority on how much lime and fertilizer your specific ground needs. A general article like this one can tell you what plants want in broad terms; it can't tell you what your particular field has right now. If you haven't pulled a soil sample yet, that's the first move before buying a single bag of seed, regardless of which species you land on.

Perennial vs annual: which should you plant first?

If you're planting your first plot ever, a lot of experienced plot managers would tell you to start with a perennial clover plot in a spot with decent drainage and full or near-full sun, because it forgives some mistakes and gives you multiple seasons to learn mowing and maintenance before you're back to bare dirt. Annuals (brassicas, oats, soybeans) require you to get the timing right every single year, and a missed planting window means a wasted season on that plot. Perennials front-load the work (seedbed prep, lime, initial fertility) and then coast for a few years with mowing and a maintenance fertilizer application guided by a fresh soil test every year or two. The honest tradeoff: annuals often produce more tonnage and more targeted late-season attraction, especially brassicas after a frost. Perennials produce less dramatic peaks but steadier, lower-effort forage across more of the year. A lot of properties end up running both, a clover perennial plot for spring/summer and general holding, and one or two annual plots timed for the rut and late season. For a broader look at how plot type interacts with property layout, deer food plots covers plot placement and sizing alongside species choice.

Frequently asked questions

Do deer eat sorghum in food plots?

Yes, deer eat both the leaves and mature grain of sorghum, and it's a common fall/winter blend ingredient because it's drought-tolerant and stands up in the field better than corn in dry regions. It's not usually a deer's top preference next to soybeans, but it works well as winter cover and a carb source in blends.

Do deer eat clover, and how much protein does it have?

Yes, clover is one of deer's most preferred forages. Ladino white clover trials commonly show crude protein around 25-31% during active growth, per extension forage data, which rivals many grain crops and makes it a strong spring-through-fall choice for antler and lactation nutrition.

When is the best time to plant deer food plots?

It depends on species. Spring/summer annuals and perennials (clover, soybeans) go in after your last frost when soil hits 50-55°F. Fall annuals (brassicas, oats, wheat) go in 60-90 days before your first fall frost so they mature before cold weather. Check your local extension frost date tool for exact windows.

Do deer like clover better than other food plot plants?

Clover ranks near the top for most of the year, especially spring and summer for protein. But by late fall, deer often shift preference toward acorns, standing grain, and frosted brassicas for carbs and fat. Clover is the safer year-round bet; brassicas or grain win specifically in the late season.

When should you plant oats for a deer plot?

Plant oats 60-90 days before your area's average first fall frost, typically mid-August in northern states and into September in the transition zone. Oats germinate in about 5-7 days with moisture and green up fast, often getting hit by deer within a couple weeks of emergence.

When do you plant turnips for deer food plots?

Plant turnips 60-90 days before your first fall frost, generally late July to mid-August up north and mid-August to early September farther south. Turnips need one or two hard frosts (roughly 25-28°F) to convert starches to sugar before deer really start keying in on the bulbs and leaves.

What exactly is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted patch of forage or grain on hunting or wildlife land, meant to feed deer and draw them into range of a stand. It's distinct from baiting, which is dumping loose feed. Plots are worked, planted, and often fertilized according to a soil test and a planting calendar.

What are deer's favorite foods overall?

Acorns, especially white oak acorns, are typically the top natural preference in fall due to lower tannin content. Among planted crops, clover and soybeans rank highest for palatability and protein, while frosted brassicas and standing corn become favorites specifically in late fall and winter.

Do deer actually like honey or molasses-based attractants?

Not really, no. Deer aren't naturally drawn to honey as a wild food source; the appeal of honey- or molasses-scented attractant products comes from sugar content and scent, similar to fruit sugar attraction. Check state baiting rules before using scent or feed products near a stand.

Can you plant a food plot without a soil test?

You can, but you're guessing at lime and fertilizer needs, and clover especially will underperform badly on acidic soil without lime correction. A soil test costs relatively little through most university extension offices and tells you exactly what your field needs before you spend money on seed.

How big should a deer food plot be?

There's no single right size. Small kill plots (quarter-acre to half-acre) tucked in timber work for bowhunting a specific stand. Larger field plots (1-5 acres) hold more deer and survive heavier grazing pressure, especially for annuals like soybeans that deer can mow down if the plot is too small.

Is baiting deer legal in most states, and how is that different from a food plot?

It varies by state; many states ban baiting (piled loose feed or minerals) for deer hunting while treating food plots as normal agriculture. Michigan, for example, prohibits baiting statewide but allows food plots. Always confirm current rules with your state wildlife agency before hunting over any planted or placed food source.

Sources

1. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report NRS-P-1, Proceedings of Oak Regeneration Workshop: White oak acorns are generally preferred by deer over red oak acorns due to lower tannin content
2. Oklahoma State University Extension PSS-2586, Soybeans for Deer Food Plots: Whole soybean plants provide roughly 15-30% crude protein depending on growth stage
3. University of Georgia Extension Circular 1160, Establishing and Managing Wildlife Food Plots: Ladino white clover commonly tests in the 25-31% crude protein range during active growth
4. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020: First and last frost dates vary by roughly 4-6 weeks across whitetail range from South to North
5. Oklahoma State University Extension PSS-2135, Brassicas for Deer Food Plots: A hard frost converts starches to sugars in brassicas, increasing deer preference in late season
6. University of Georgia Extension Circular 896, Soil Testing for Home Lawns, Gardens and Wildlife Food Plots: Lime typically takes 3-6 months to fully react and raise soil pH after application