Jared,

Waco’s a great guy and tremendous shot with a bow.  What crop to plant depends on when you wish to attract deer as different crops become palatable at different stages of maturity.  Soybeans planted during the early fall are a fabulous deer attractant until it frosts.  Deer readily consume young soybeans as much as any forage crop that I’ve tried.  If you wish to hunt the early and late season, mixing soybeans and wheat is a good blend.  That’s what I’m planting this fall.  Deer will consume the soybeans rapidly, and then move to the wheat later in the season.  Usually, soybeans can be purchased relatively inexpensively this time of year as seed dealers don’t wish to hold them through the winter.  Any variety of soybeans will work as they will be killed by the first frost.  If you plan to hunt turkeys the following spring, it’s a good idea to add some clover.  Clover won’t produce much tonnage the first fall it is planted, but if adequate moisture and fertilizer is available, it will come on strong the following spring and is usually a turkey magnet!

If you plant several weeks before you plan to hunt it may be necessary to use a Gallagher Food Plot Protection System to allow the soybeans to grow and not be totally consumed by deer as soon as they germinate.  The Gallagher system is also a great hunting tool as you can easily create a bottleneck for stand placement just like hunting holes in existing fences – a technique that’s been successfully used by generations of hunters.

Growing Deer together,

Grant