I am with most of these guys.

Stay away from the high priced Biologic and lab-lab, blah-blah, etc, etc.. Lab-lab is a glorified cow pea, lots of protein, but I am not sure the deer care for it much. I have tried it and have different results than what others have reported. Save some dough and plant a normal old cow pea if that is what you want.

Purina deer chow is not the best attractant. Yes the deer will eat it, but they do not much care for the taste. There are better alternitaves. I fed it for a while. I am sure the deers antlers would benefit, but I doubt there is much difference between it and others on the market as for quality of minerals. If there is a difference, it is marginal and surely outweighed by the fact that they do not take to it as fast as they would a different brand of feed.

Just my experience, your milage may vary.

I have fed a 22% Hi-Pro pellet, and the deer love it. Now the mix I feed is a specially milled mixture including black-eyes and a protein pellet.

I have tried all sorts of food plots, winter and summer plots.

For a winter crop, try any of the clovers. Alfalfa, red clover white clover. Talk to your local feed store. That guy should know what to plant and what will grow in your area. That is what has worked the best for me in Texas.

Get a soil sample. Find out if there is any ph adjustment to be made.

Feel free to send me an e-mail and I will share some of my results with you on food plots and feed.

Just reread your post.

Get a tine harrow that you can pull behind your 4-wheeler. It is not ideal, but it will break up some ground. You might consider doubling your seed, just in hopes that some of it would sprout.

The clovers are broadcast on top, not tilled in.

This might work.

Also, try alfalfa hay.

Whatever you use, it might take a while for them to get used to coming to it. Keep it up and you will see results.

Try planting flowers. The deer here are always eating the flowers in the garden.

Sevens

What I did on my Connecticut Property, was to plant alfa and put out a number of meneral licks. I put 10 % of my land into alfa. It keeps the Deer fat and happy. It dose not take much work on my part, I'm 6500 miles west of of CT above the Artic Circle. The hardest part was where to put the plot. I thought about digging a small pond, so there will be water, but the State and the wack jobs from Nature Conservancy has made it to expensive to do. They were not happy about planting alfa in the middle of the woods even when its my land. I would have liked to have been able to build a pond as a watering place for the deer turkey and ducks that are in the area. One of the things I use to have was Ruff Grouse, now there are turkeys deer and squirrels to beat the band but I have not seen a Grouse on my land for a good 15 or 20 years now. The Place was always good for a dozen grouse during the season in the 1960's and the first half of the 1970's. I really learned to love a good shotgun back then. Now with turkeys you shoot one of those colored plastic fantastics rather than a Beretta 28 ga SxS. Well at least the grouse were I am, are plentful and what really strange is nobody hunts them. I been saving money for a 16 ga. SxS. What I want is a Boss, but like a lot of things I can get one if I give up something like a New truck. Or I suppose that I could marry a lady that has a pair of Purdy Game Guns. Fat chance of that. I make do with an Model 37 16 ga. Pump.

During the summer months I plant iron clay peas for the deer. It is a high protien food source for them while the does are lactating and the bucks are growing their antlers. I also plant my corn patches in March so that they will be ready for the next hunting season.
In September I harrow under my peas and plant crimson clover in some areas and oats in adjacent strips.
And if you want any of the above to work, you have to prepare the soil by adding nitrogen based upon the results of your annual soil tests.
The benefits of a quality year-round feeding program are tremendous. You'll help your deer herd during the difficult winter months, you'll be able to maintain a larger number of healthy deer on your property, and you'll certainly grow bigger trophy animals.

Spring,

Those clay peas are a hit here too. The deer will mow them down as if you took a weed eater after them. I quit planting them because they never got a chance to grow.

Reloader

Although directly feeding big game animals in CO is illegal....many farmers can tell you exactly what they prefer. I hunt the eastern plains and for the most part here they are particularly attracted to alphalfa, milo, winter wheat and corn.
I personally feed them an exclusive offering from Hornady or possibly Barnes just to balance their diet.

Wendell and Reloader,

From what I've seen, as soon as we have the first frost (usually for us in late Oct or early Nov) the peas are history. The deer just aren't interested in them anymore. When you have the clover or other grains planted nearby (oats, wheat, or rye), the deer just love them so much more. In order to get a good stand of clover you need to have it planted and established before things get too cold. In order to reach that point early enough, as well get the rain on it that is necessary considering that October is generally a dry month, I've found that rotating some plots over to clover as soon as September is necessary. Some of the peas are still being used by the deer in Sept, and considering that's when bow season opens, makes it tough to go in and cut under those patches. But for the overall benefit of our long 4 month deer season, converting to winter forage in time to make sure it is healthy in Nov, Dec, and Jan seems to be my best bet.

The biggest issue to make sure you get your iron clays peas doing what you want them to do is to have your plot big enough. If it's too small, the deer will absolutely wear it out in 3-4 days and the stand will never get established. This problem can be accentuated if you're not getting rain when the peas are trying to get started. As a result, on many occasions thru the years, I've had to replant peas during the summer in order to get a solid stand that will last a while.

But when the peas are there in sufficient number, the stuff is like cocaine and deer just love it!

Here's a pic of a deer on my farm enjoying an afternoon snack in a pea patch:

That is a nice looking food plot! I am always jealous when I see how much you guys can grow in areas where it actually rains.

It amazes me that you have trouble getting the peas up. On average, we only get about 22" or so, of rain per year, and I have never had any trouble getting any of my spring crops up.

That is a nice stand of peas. That deer will be nice as well.

That is a beautiful patch.

I would plant for year round natural supply like a mix of Soya bean, apples, corn and acorn. They are readily available during the fall and early winter. Deer in out part of the country like them.

Danny Boy

"Normal" rainfall patterns have been rare over the past 6 years. 4 of those were drought conditions where rain in April, May and June was hard to come by. As a result, this year, while not a drought, had little spring rain until June came along. If you have to make a living when you're at the mercy of weather patterns, it can be tough! Year to date we've had about 21 inches and that's 8 1/2 below normal. It's those unexpected periods of prolonged blue sky that can make otherwise moist areas like here have a tough time.

When I lived in Connecticut, I fed them tomatoes, corn, green beans, sweet peas, and just about anything else that would sprout in bony ground. My wife fed them about a hundred different kinds of flowers, as well. Mostly they came while we were sleeping, never did figure out where they bedded down, and it probably wouldn't have done any good if I had; the place was a patchwork of 1-acre places and getting written permission to hunt was a hell of a mess.

What is interesting is that what works in one place, will not in another.

Some deer in East Texas will not eat corn. Go figure.

The Whitetail and Mule Deer in my area absolutely love to eat cotton. Go figure.

Best advice, try everything and see what works.

Cotton? Really? They like the leaves on peanuts here, but I've never seen any eating in my cotton fields... I suppose if you're hungry enough, you'll eat anything! That said, I have friends in north Georgia that say the favorite of their deer is kudzoo!

I have seen deer graze cotton over alfalfa and wheat. All three crops planted right together. They will graze the cotton, move to the alfalfa for a few minutes, then back to the cotton.

They eat the leaves, bowl .. everything. They start soon after they sprout and keep eating it even after they strip the cotton.

In one of my friends cotton fields, he has had problems with morning glory. The Mule Deer eat it like it was candy! It is a sure thing to see a dozen or so Mulies in this field until the first frost that kills the cotton and morning glory.

NBH

I have started several small food plots in the spring by just spraying the area with RoundUp with a tank sprayer, wait two weeks, cut the dead grass with a lawnmower set as high as it will go, and let the cuttings there for a mulch. I broadcast a locally blended Ladino Clover mix and let it grow. I usually use a hand pushed drop spreader to put some lime on also. A partially shaded area with damp soil works best.

If you don't have the equipment to breakup the ground, this works fairly well.

Hope this helps.

WN

I plant lots of deer patches around my farm and find them invaluable. Here's one that I took a picture of a few days ago:

I live on and own a farm. The deer eat my soybeans to the extent that I get extra doe tags to help in the control of these animals. My family and I love the deer meat, and enjoy watching them as they grow throughout the year, BUT, a group of 30-40 can ruin 5 acres in just a few days. Hard to pay for farm equipment and land when the deer are eating so well. A farmer-friend down the road counted 73 in one of his fields a few days ago. TOO much of a good thing!

Too many deer is a problem that is getting quite common. On a plantation near me, about one month ago they got a permit to take some this summer. They killed 100 in 3 days.

Whelan Nut,
Thanks for the advice. I should have thought of that after watching them plant the fields next to me. The place I have to plant is not acsessable by vehicle, if it was I'd be planting it for every hunter in the county to use. The best part about it is the fact it requires walking (something most around here are not interested in) My push mower will fit on my pack frame. The spots are in fact partialy shaded but the soil is a bit more than damp most of the time. Any seed best suited for damp humid conditions.

NBH

I've found the clover mixes with a lot of Ladino Clover in makes a good plot in damp ground. I have a local feed mill that has their own mix and use it. Much cheaper than the name brand stuff on the market.

I've already tried 100% Ladino and while it sure attracted the deer, the plot didn't seem to be as hearty as with a mix of Ladino and other small clovers.

One other thing I forgot to mention earlier is the need to clip the clover at least twice during the summer. This helps keep the grasses down, provides fertilizer for the clover, and keeps the plants young and tender--which the deer prefer.

WN

If you have any open sunny areas, you might try a stand of Sawtooth Oak, they produce sweet acorns, and average production in just five years from planting. You have to protect the young trees, the deer will eat them up, but five years is not that long, and a good stand of oaks is a big draw.

I feed them lead ! :smirk My best food plots are from the whitatil Institute. I think it's called "no plow". Supplemental feedings with shelled corn. We also rotate with field rye and have small plots of perennial clover.