Brian,

It sounds like the deer in your neighborhood have plenty of quality warm season forage (local commercial soybeans).  If that is correct, then I assume the primary mission for your food plots is to serve as an attractant during the hunting season.  If that’s the case, standing corn is tough to beat in areas where deer are conditioned to eating corn and most of the local corn is harvested before you wish to hunt.  However, standing corn can be tough to hunt.  If the local corn won’t be harvested by the time you prefer to hunt, or you don’t like hunting standing corn, heavily fertilized wheat is both nutritious and readily used by deer.  The key is to ensure the wheat is well fed (heavily fertilized) and growing in soil with a pH between 6.5 and 7.0.  If you enjoy hunting turkeys, mix in some white clover as it will come on strong during the early spring providing quality forage for deer before the commercial beans are planted locally, in addition to becoming a feeding/strutting ground for turkeys that are readily attracted to clover and the associated insects.

Consider the food sources available in the likely home range of the deer using your farm and plan to plant accordingly.

Growing Deer together,

Grant