I’ve never been good at family menu planning. Other than suggesting grilling burgers or steaks, I leave that to my better half. So, when Becky whips up something fancy that doesn’t appeal to my meat-and-potatoes palate, I don’t believe I have the right to complain. I simply swallow hard and say, “It’s delicious.”
But there’s another kind of menu planning I love and to which I devote much of my free time: providing the most nutritious variety of food possible for the whitetails on our land. The aim is to meet all their food needs year-round, with as much variety as possible. The reasoning is twofold: to keep deer on our property as much as possible and help them reach their full potential, whether that means a heavy-racked buck or a doe that will raise healthy fawns. Writing such a menu or recipe for success isn’t difficult, thanks to the hard work of the people at the Whitetail Institute and the bounty of Mother Nature. And I’ve never had a deer dinner guest complain. Providing a year-round bounty of forage is a relatively new concept for some in the hunting and food plot community. In the not-too-distant past, food plot efforts were focused almost exclusively on fall and offering plants to attract deer during hunting season. But that leaves much of the year with sketchy or little food for the local herd. Imagine if you went three, four or even eight weeks with nothing to eat or only food with low nutritional value. The negative effects on your health would be substantial. The same principle applies to deer. How do you prevent that? By providing a menu that covers all seasons with varied food plots and as much native food as your land will support. We’ll lay out a recipe to do that, based on my 30-plus years of providing whitetails native forage and trying almost every new food plot product. On the food plot side, the menu for full coverage of the 365-day spectrum must include perennials and annuals. But that’s just one part of the equation. The recipe for success must also include enhancing and nurturing the natural foods growing on your property through habitat manipulation projects and managing native browse. Besides the advice here, planning your 365-day menu will benefit tremendously from using the Product Selector tool on the Whitetail Institute’s website. This interactive food plot planning app asks pertinent questions, including whether you can reach the site with cultivating equipment, the seasons during which you’re planting, annuals or perennials and a few other questions to help you decide on the best product for each location on your property. Here are some guidelines and some of my favorites for providing deer nutrition 365 days a year. Note that these food plot forages and natural foods will ideally be available at the listed time frames. The preparation of plots and manipulation of the natural forage should be done beforehand so they are there when deer need them.
January/February This is one of the toughest seasons for whitetails in most areas except the South. Perennials such as Imperial Whitetail Clover are dormant or covered with snow in the coldest regions and nipped low in others. A great way to combat this is to plant Pure Attraction, which has brassicas mixed with Whitetail Oats, which can produce quality forage through this harsh time. Another option is to plant fields or sections of fields in straight brassica mixtures, such as Winter-Greens, Tall Tine Tubers or Beets & Greens. These will stand tall even under the snow, offering food even when winter looks bleak and barely habitable. In more southern climates and even mid-country regions where winters are mild, Imperial Whitetail Clover can produce through those months. Whatever part of the country you live in, pure stands of Whitetail Oats Plus should be in the ground in some of your tillable land. Natural foods: Hinge-cut low-value trees such as red maple earlier in fall to have some twigs and buds down at deer level. They will also provide cover and wind protection to help deer, especially if you plant a few conifers or cut and drag in a few cedars for additional cover.
March/April In some areas, this period is even more challenging for whitetails than mid-winter. Natural green-up is starting in most areas but may not be far along in Northern regions. Those living in more moderate climates, like me, are fortunate. Imperial Whitetail Clover comes on like gangbusters during this time. Also, Alfa-Rack Plus is a fast-grower in spring. It’s great for more well-drained upland soils. For a third perennial choice, Fusion plots provide a blend of Imperial Whitetail Clover and the Whitetail Institute’s exclusive tender chicory, which will get taller and even more attractive as spring arrives in earnest. This time of year also makes me glad I still have Whitetail Oats Plus in the ground. Lengthening days and warming temperatures give these cereal grains a flush of new growth in March, and they offer a tremendous bridge from winter’s tough conditions to spring’s full green-up. To be available in early spring, of course, these plots must be put in the ground the previous fall. Natural foods: Fertilizing wild brambles, honeysuckle, greenbrier and other valuable edible shrubs and pruning back nearby trees that shade them in fall or winter will improve the output of these native plants as spring’s warmth arrives. At no other time do shrubs and forbs hold as much nutrition as spring. Enhancing them by pruning, fertilizing and daylighting adds to their protein and total forage production.
May to August Imperial Whitetail Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus and Fusion are all-important perennial food sources from late spring through summer and should anchor any food plot program. It might also be worth putting in a separate plot of Chic Magnet. Alfalfa and clover might slow a bit during the hottest days of summer if rain is lacking, but I’ve never had deer avoid these foods during summer, especially when chicory is mixed in, as with Fusion. For difficult soil conditions and especially dry areas, two standouts I turn to are Extreme and Edge, both of which have the Persist forb. Edge also has a sainfoin deer love, plus the Institute’s WINA-100 forage chicory. For landowners who can devote at least an acre or more to a plot, no forage that the Whitetail Institute has ever tested can compare with PowerPlant for this period when it comes to producing tons of high-protein forage. It complements perennial legumes such as clover and alfalfa during the frequent drought conditions encountered at this time. With its carefully formulated mixture of peas, sunflowers, forage soybeans and sunn hemp, PowerPlant is the gold standard of warm-season planting. PowerPlant produces a massive amount of tonnage and high protein and can even continue providing nutrition into September or October. Natural foods: Planting native edible shrubs and brambles when time allows will enhance your property and provide more food variety for whitetails. Deer will never feed exclusively in food plots. Like all animals, they need a mix of plants in their diet. Good shrubs for a property include chinquapin, beautyberry, chickasaw plum, strawberry bush, American honeysuckle and red osier or gray dogwood. Strip mowing sections of fallow fields alternated with un-mowed sections between is a good enhancement, as is disking strips of unused fields to allow native forbs, wildflowers and weeds to flourish.
September/October This period is the one most food plotters pay the most attention to. After all, one of the major reasons for growing food for wildlife is to have that wildlife on your land during hunting seasons. Whitetail Institute products for accomplishing that include perennials and annu als. After the heat of summer, clover, chicory, and alfalfa products will come back strong as nights cool, stimulating new growth. Pure Attraction is a great combination of Whitetail Oats and WINA forage brassicas to plant in early fall. Whitetail Oats Plus will also be at its most tender stage during this period and will attract deer like a magnet. For areas with poor soil, low pH or dry conditions, several alternatives will produce well during this time. One of these is Extreme, with the proprietary Persist forb and WINA-100 forage chicory, which will hold up despite low rainfall while offering up to 44 percent protein. Edge is another good perennial choice for these conditions. It contains several of the plants in Extreme, plus tender X-9 grazing alfalfas and a sainfoin deer can’t get enough of. Winter Peas Plus is hard to beat for creating a hunting plot for early bow season. If you can’t get tractor or ATV access, try No-Plow, Secret Spot or Bow Stand. In some areas, deer will feed on brassicas during this time, but with other options available, some deer might hold off until frost sweetens brassicas by turning their starches into sugars. Natural foods: Hinge-cut trees provide deer easy access to the leaves and the tender tips of branches to help sustain them through winter. This is also a great time to plant extra fruit trees, such as persimmons, mulberries, apples and pears, or add a few mast-bearing oaks or chestnuts.
November/December In most regions, Imperial Whitetail Clover is thriving and will be used regularly by deer up to Christmas. Yes, the deer will dig through the snow to get to it. This time of year is also when brassica mixtures including Winter-Greens, Tall Tine Tubers and Beets & Greens become especially appealing as the starches in the plants convert to sugars, providing a sweet taste deer can’t resist. Whitetail Oats Plus will be flourishing during this period and attracting bucks and also does, which will entice rutting bucks to follow. For areas that are difficult to reach with equipment, No-Plow, Secret Spot and Bow Stand will produce into cold weather because of the cereal grains and brassicas in those mixtures. For larger fields, go with the unbeatable appeal of Pure Attraction, which features Whitetail Oats to attract deer early in this period, and Whitetail Institute brassicas that skyrocket in attractiveness and sustain deer through winter. Natural foods: Completely felled or hinge-cut low-value trees provide food and extra cover, as do stands of young conifers, which also offer thermal protection during this time. Also keep natural foods such as honeysuckle and grapes daylighted and in a few select locations near your stands. Fertilize them for extra production. Thin competition around persimmon trees.
Conclusion There’s the nutrition formula I’ve used for success on my Virginia land: Provide a wide variety of the best Whitetail Institute perennial and annual forages and as much native food as your property will sustain. Do that, and the deer will do the rest.
