Hello,
Those are all excellent choices. Much depends on food plot location, soil types and where and when you want the food to be utilized, as you probably know. Deer love soybeans -- 35% protein --the highest of all legumes -- and will start eating the plant as soon as they peek out of the soil That’s not always a good thing, of course, because you probably are wanting most to put out pods for deer use in the fall and winter. Thus, small bean plots can be decimated before the fall hunting season in areas of high deer density (plant as many acres of beans as you can in high deer density areas). A good tactic with beans is to plant a good diversionary summer food source, such as ladino clover, to defray some of the deer feeding intensity on beans during the critical summer growing months. Just something to keep in mind.
Clover is an excellent year-round deer food, once established (although early spring through late-October would be the normal times of highest use). Ladino is a top choice (27% protein) and can be had for a little over $3 per pound from most farm seed dealers and coops. It does best on moist, well-drained soils with PH levels over 6. Ladino has shallow roots which means it doesn’t tolerate drought or droughty clay-based soils as well as some plants (such as alfalfa). For these reasons, many bottomland situations are perfect for ladino.
I plant ladino very heavy (heavier than most guide books recommend) because it is fairly inexpensive and will self thin. I would plant at 8-10 pounds per acre. And, by the way, now is a perfect time to plant ladino -- when most or all of the snow has melted anyway. I would plant it on dead sod (sod that perhaps you sprayed last fall) or on bare ground, such as in last years crop field. It will grow if seeded into live sod but it’s much preferable to kill the sod first. This will greatly increase the stand density and will help keep weed competition to its lowest levels (You can use POAST or an equivalent, per label directions, to help with weed control in clover plots). You can also frost seed ladino into a stand of last years winter wheat. The wheat will act as a nurse crop for the establishing ladino clover. You then mow down the wheat in June to find a great stand of clover growing underneath! You can also plant clover later in the season, by standard crop preparation fare of working the soil, sewing the seed, etc. But frost seeding is really a better method because the seed gets started earlier in the season, getting a jump ahead of competing weeds. In dryer soils, red clover is an alternative clover choice. It is a good deer food but its not as high on the preference list as is ladino.
Winter rye is a fantastic deer food and I am always surprised how little this food plot choice seems to be recommended or is employed by hunters. It is cheap (costs less than $15 per acre for seed -- and this may be the reason why you don’t hear much about it -- nobody is making money off of it.) Rye grows on all but the worst soils, grows fast, tolerates extremely dry and wet conditions, germinates with a just 1/8 inch of moisture (sometimes even a heavy dew will get a stand of rye growing!), stays green all winter and puts out lots of pounds per acre. It also continues to grow all the way down to about 37 degrees! Besides that, deer love the stuff! As you probably know, rye is planted in the fall (late August - mid October for Iowa food plots)
AGS mentioned above that he heard a seminar speaking say that rye isn’t a great deer food. I don’t know why a seminar spokesman would say that -- I have found that deer love it and it has almost as much crude protein during the fall and winter growth stages as alfalfa! (Winter rye protein levels average 13-20%; alfalfa averages around 19%. It is true that late-stage rye is low in digestibility and palatability -- late spring through early summer growth stages -- but that is not a time of food concern for whitetails anyway. Also, rye will tiller and can easily spread into neighboring wheat fields -- for this reason, many wheat farmers hate it. Maybe he was feeling some political pressure? I don’t know.)
Something else to keep in mind with rye is that it does have allopathic properties -- meaning it puts plant growth inhibiting chemicals into the soil. These chemicals can linger for up to 90 days post-rye. They don’t tend to significantly cut yield of legume crops (though they do lower yield some) but they do inhibit weed growth. For this reason, some farmers are using rye in soybean fields as a natural herbicide! So you do need to consider the short term crop future of the site if you plan to plant rye.
Winter wheat is similar to rye in terms of protein content, expense and planting times/methods. However, wheat is not as winter hardy as rye, goes dormant sooner, and often doesn’t stay green all winter like rye does. It also takes more water to germinate wheat seed than that of rye. Wheat likes wetter soils than rye. Rye will do better in dry soils and withstands drought better than wheat. I think deer like rye a bit better than wheat though they seem to love both!
Corn is a good food plot choice. Though it requires excellent soils and proper plant spacing for good results (you can’t just broadcast seed corn and expect good results). Deer love the stuff and eat it like candy for it’s sugar content (corn only has 9% protein on average). The carbohydrates of corn are what makes it an “energy” food and it’s the burning of the carbohydrates that help deer maintain body temperature during extreme cold.
However, corn can be hard to hunt -- deer often go in and don’t come back out! And the rate of predation by all sorts of critters on corn is high -- often there will be few, if any, ears left by January, even in larger plots on high-yield soils. Deer often eat the silks during the development stage which can really hurt the yield as well.
Alfalfa is a great deer food and is high in protein (19%). But alfalfa is high maintenance (needs to be mowed several times during summer to maintain a good stand) and requires good soils as well. It also is hard to get rid of if you ever decide to kill it off!
Hope some of this helps….jeeez, my fingers are tired!
Good Hunting…
Raven
