All food plot crops

Ladino white clover is the workhorse perennial of deer food plots, capable of persisting four to five years under proper management.

Red clover is a short-lived perennial legume (typically 2–3 productive years) that establishes faster than ladino white clover and is more tolerant of poorly drained soils and lower pH.

Crimson clover is a cool-season annual legume valued for rapid establishment, bright red blooms, and high palatability to deer.

Alfalfa is the highest-protein perennial legume available to deer managers but is also the most demanding to establish, requiring a soil pH of 6.5 or higher — ideally near 7.0 — and excellent drainage for long-term persistence.

Forage soybeans are considered the gold standard of warm-season food plot legumes, providing both summer leafy forage and highly sought after beans and pods in fall that sustain deer through the rut and early winter.

Cowpeas and iron-clay peas are fast-establishing warm-season annual legumes that provide high-protein forage (20–28% crude protein) from mid-summer through fall and tolerate heat, drought, and low fertility better than soybeans.

Lablab is a warm-season annual legume from Africa that produces high-protein forage (25–30% crude protein) through summer and fall and tolerates heat and moderate drought better than soybeans.

Sunn hemp is a tall-growing warm-season annual legume that fixes more atmospheric nitrogen than almost any other legume and improves soil organic matter significantly when terminated, making it as valuable for soil health as it is for deer forage.

Austrian winter peas are a cool-season annual legume that combines high palatability (up to 30% crude protein) with the nitrogen-fixing benefits of a legume, making them a natural companion for cereal grains in fall food plots.

The clover-chicory perennial blend is one of the most popular and productive long-term food plot combinations available, leveraging clover's rapid establishment and high palatability with chicory's summer drought tolerance and deep taproot to create a diverse stand that remains attractive from spring through fall.

Forage brassica blends typically combine rape, kale, turnips, and/or radish into a single planting that provides successive attractions through the hunting season — leafy tops are available first, followed by swelling bulbs and roots after frost.

Purple-top turnips are a fast-establishing cool-season annual brassica capable of producing over 8 tons of forage per acre on fertile soils, making them one of the most economical food plot crops available.

Forage radish (daikon/tillage type) is a cool-season annual brassica that doubles as a soil improvement tool — the large taproot penetrates compacted subsoil up to 18 inches deep, decomposing over winter to leave channels that improve drainage and aeration for subsequent crops.

Forage rape is a large-leafed annual brassica that provides substantial above-ground leafy forage through fall and early winter, with palatability increasing sharply after frost.

Kale is the most cold-hardy of the common brassica food plot species, capable of persisting and remaining palatable well into winter even in northern states.

Sugar beets are a warm-spring-planted, cool-fall-peaking biennial grown as an annual food plot crop that produces energy-dense roots containing 13–22% sucrose — making them among the highest-energy food sources available to late-season deer.

A five-way brassica blend combining turnip, rape, kale, forage radish, and swede provides layered attractiveness through the entire fall and winter hunting season because each component has a different growth rate, structure, and frost-palatability threshold.

Cereal rye is the most cold-tolerant and drought-tolerant of the cool-season cereal grains, germinating reliably at lower temperatures and producing forage faster than wheat or oats after a late planting.

Winter wheat is one of the most consistently preferred cereal grains in deer preference trials, providing high-protein forage (often exceeding 25% crude protein in fall growth) from establishment through spring bolt.

Oats consistently rank first among cereal grains in deer forage preference trials, providing soft, leafy, high-protein growth that deer hammer from the moment of germination.

Triticale is a human-bred hybrid of wheat and rye that combines the palatability of wheat with the cold-hardiness and adaptability of rye, making it an underutilized but excellent food plot grain.

Grain sorghum (milo) is a warm-season annual cereal that deer largely ignore during vegetative growth but descend upon once seed heads mature in fall, providing high-energy carbohydrate forage that deer rely on through winter.

Field corn provides the highest energy food source available in a managed deer food plot — mature ears contain approximately 72% starch, giving deer the caloric density they need to maintain body condition through the rut and survive harsh winters.

The fall grain-plus-brassica blend is the most versatile and widely planted food plot combination in North America, providing rapid early-season attraction from cereal grains within two to three weeks of planting, followed by legume protein from Austrian winter peas, and finally late-season draw from frost-sweetened brassica roots and leaves.

Chicory is a deep-taprooted cool-season perennial forb that provides some of the highest crude protein values (15–30%) of any food plot species, along with excellent acid detergent fiber levels that make it highly digestible.

Buckwheat is a warm-season annual forb that establishes more quickly than almost any other food plot crop, germinating in a few days and producing edible forage within 70–80 days.

Sunflowers are a warm-season annual oilseed crop that provides high-fat, energy-dense seeds that deer, turkey, dove, and waterfowl all utilize heavily from late summer through fall.

Switchgrass is a tall-growing native warm-season perennial grass planted almost exclusively for thermal cover, screening, and bedding habitat rather than as a food source — it provides little forage value to deer.