Joe,

Unfortunately, there is not an easy answer to your question because there are so many variables.  For example, a good crop for your area would be something deer like to eat.  There are no soybeans grown in my area for agriculture or any other reason.  The first few years I planted soybeans, I couldn’t find where the deer had consumed any of the forage.  However, deer do learn and after a few years, now deer over browse the soybeans in my smaller plots.  I’ve found the same to be true for several other forage crops.

As for what to plant, deer consume wheat about everywhere it’s planted from Florida and Texas to Canada.  Wheat is a fine attractant and can provide qualify forage if fertilized appropriately.  If I had to pick one cool season crop it would be wheat.

I strongly suggest you collect a soil sample and have it analyzed before planting the food plot.  All crops, including wheat, are more productive and more attractive to deer if they have all the nutrients they need.  Even agricultural fields require being fertilized annually to produce a maximum yield.  Food plots are rarely established on soil as good as production agriculture fields so adding the appropriate fertilizer is even more important.  To make sure your food plot is as productive and as attractive to deer as it can be is only accomplished by collecting a soil sample and submitting it to a quality soil lab for analyses.  Make sure you tell the lab what crops you are planting and that you want a maximum yield (this is very important to the success of the plot).  Sadly, many soil labs treat soil samples from food plots very generically and give the customer a generic recommendation.  It’s critical that the lab recommends a fertilizer rate specific for the crops to be planted and to allow a maximum yield.  Using this system to establish a plot versus throwing out some seed and the “standard” 300 pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer will help produce forage that is much more attractive to deer.

Growing Deer together,

Grant