Thought it would be a good idea to start an educational thread on food identification of the whitetail. I'v been hunting for 35 years and don't know them all.As most of you know, to become a complete and successful trad. hunter you must gain as much knowledge of your quarry as possible.I realize Im starting this in the winter season when plants and trees are hard to identify, but then thats part of the challenge. So if you have any good pics or videos to share please do. This will be a wild foods foremat only. No agricultural foods please.
Deer are browsers and probably eat 90% of what grows around them. At different times of year different plants have different properties that deer need and those are the plants they utilize at the time.
Does't hurt to be able to identify those that they are attracted to the most, especially during hunting seasons. I guess thats what im trying to get at here.Thanks Pat
Around here they love white oak acorns.
I've seen the same thing as Pat B. Some of the best time in the stand or blind is just watching deer that are around me. They literally take a bite out of anything they walk past. I have a personal war going with Burdock on my place, absolutely hate the stuff. I've even seen deer eat that noxious weed.
If you are hunting a big woods area with no crop or hay fields, keeping up on what they are feeding on will make or break your day. One thing I read about and then began to see my self is how much they love maple leaves when they turn. Apparently they get sweet when they turn color and get hit with frost, deer seem to love them. Makes for tough hunting in a mature hardwood forest though, like it isn't tough already...LOL.
Different areas of the country will vary some, but nuts are usually a big draw. Like 'shortlongbow' said, white acorns.
Good idea. I hope to get some tips from this one.
I like this topic. I know deer love acorns, but if the acorns haven't dropped yet, what other plants do deer prefer? This is always the challenge in big woods, food plots are not possible, and farms arent either. Any deer biologists here?
For me, these are the primary food sources I have found or focused on over the years. Hopefully someone will chime in with those I have missed or overlooked. Or perhaps I have made some incorrect assumptions. Anyway, here goes:
White oaks, always a draw. Here are some other foods I focus on when scouting and hunting. Try to target in on what's hot of course since this can change rapidly.
Honeysuckle - year round in many places in the south. I have seen deer feeding on these in February but it is more heavily targeted by whitetails when mast crops are not available.
Muscadines - These fall early in the season here in GA. This season, for me at least, it seemed they fell too early, probably due to dry conditions.
Beechnuts - Early season food. I look for these around the season opener.
Acorns - White Oaks preferred, Red Oaks will be eaten but not if white oaks are dropping. Chestnut oaks (the big WHOPPER acorns) are pretty much ignored. Water oaks are dropped very late, usually after the season or very late in the season. From what I have seen deer will target these but perhaps due to the lack of other foods?
Farm crops - if available deer will feed on pretty much anything farmers plant. I have even seen them eat the tender growth (bud) in the tops of Tobacco plans and those plants taste nasty! Corn, Winter Wheat, Oats, Soybeans and any Garden vegetables are pretty much fair game. When I lived in NC we would plant large plots of peas (blackeye, purple hull sugar etc)and deer absolutely loved them!
Browse - any tender growth is targeted. The good part about a lot of browse come mid to late deer season is it takes a lot of it to keep deer fed so they move alot and will tend to focus on other foods that are more plentiful if available.
These are all my experiences in the south east. I am sure there are others I forgot or perhaps do not know about but hopefully this helps some.
Regards,
I've seen video of them eating a dried up old maple or oak leaf. I've personally seen them eat mulberry leaves. I think they eat grass but I don't think they prefer it.
Pretty much anything I plant in the yard. Tulips seem to be a favorite.
Persimmons can be good when they produce. It's like deer candy, not a staple food but a treat they like when available. Same goes for sumac berries.
Easykeeper, good input on the turning maple leaves,thats the kind of thing I'm looking for.I realize deer eat a wide variaty of tree leaves and plants I'v watched them by the hour. The quest here is to single out those foods {if any} that they prefer.White oak acorns of course is number one with reds probably being second. But given a choice are there certain foods they prefer over others. How about honey suckle for instance?Like this year in NY we didn't have an acorn crop at all.I was searching for plants and other food sources the deer were keying in on. crop foods in my area also are almost non exsistaint.With no leaves and not many berries for them I was looking for and trying to identify plants they may have been targeting, If any.I did find areas where they seemed to favor the brose around them, but couldn' identify those plants. Nothing is cast in stone, deer diet included.
Thanks Gringal and BowhunterGA, now wwhere cooking :thumbsup:
A mixture of ag plants, forb's and shrubbery (sage mostly). It may only be preferred if that's all they have around these parts.
QuoteOriginally posted by Shortlongbow:
Persimmons can be good when they produce. It's like deer candy, not a staple food but a treat they like when available. Same goes for sumac berries.
Yep, forgot about persimmons. Also made me think of a couple more.
Crabapples - Deer LOVE them, not a staple but if a deer can reach them or if they are falling the deer will eat them.
Also old abandoned fruit orchards will get a lot of attention in season. Apples and pears were commonly planted near farms and houses. When these were abandoned the fruit trees many times keep on producing and in some cases produce new trees. If you find one of these you can bet every deer within a few miles knows about it and will come a calling when the fruit starts ripening.
Deer are like a goat they will eat anything.
And how about pods,crab apples for sure, good one
Deer don't eat the crabapples around here. They fall on the ground and rot. They do however pick rhododendron leaves but only eat the pediole(stem). Deer eat poison ivy, polk salad, privet,honeysuclye and almost all of the hard mast crops. I've seed them eat dried oak, maple and other dried leaves as well as freshly fallen mulberry leaves. I've even seen deer eating on another dead deer.
If you fertilize a weed field it will draw deer. They browse on most of these "weeds" anyway and the fertility makes them more desireable.
I've never had the pleasure of hunting farmland on a regular basis and did most of my hunting near Athens GA or Coastal SC. In GA we put out food plots. In SC just coastal woods and whatever natural foods they offered.
QuoteOriginally posted by BowHunterGA:
QuoteOriginally posted by Shortlongbow:
[qb] Also old abandoned fruit orchards will get a lot of attention in season. Apples and pears were commonly planted near farms and houses. When these were abandoned the fruit trees many times keep on producing and in some cases produce new trees. If you find one of these you can bet every deer within a few miles knows about it and will come a calling when the fruit starts ripening. [/b]
I agree. In my area anyway there are old abandoned foundations from houses of days gone past in the middle of big wooded areas. You can usually find some remainin apple trees in very close proximity of these foundations. The deer will eat the apples when they drop and then eat the leaves after they fall. A lot of times the trees do need some TLC and some sunlight to get them back into shape.
Onestringer, deer will eat just about anything, thats why I call them Woodsgoats. But if they will eat anything then we should be able to hunt them anywhere there's food.Of coerce thats not the case genaraly speaking. Excluding other factors, what wild foods do they turn to when the obvious ones aren't there?
Hedgeapples towards the later part of fall depending on availability, if they are abundant they don't eat them as often but if there are few of them they seem to go fast.The tops of "gempson weed" in the spring and summer. Just adding some I did not see.
I always know were at lest a few deer will be latter in the deer season, especialy when theres no hard or soft mast. Thorn apples (I believe thats what your talking about Moose eye). Hawthorns plot in the corner of my property always draw some deer.
QuoteOriginally posted by Pat B:
If you fertilize a weed field it will draw deer.
.
That is interesting. Might have to try that. Thanks, Pat.
This is a good thread......I would like to hear RC and Landshark's thoughts. They both seem to be very successful scouting for and hunting hot food sources.
How about wild pod bearing trees and shrubs? This last season I found an area I was hunting that had fresh deer sign around a group of trees near a pond I believe these trees were honeylocust. They were dropping long pods with fairly small beans inside. I'v also seen bush type trees bearing four in. pods I believed to be called wild coffee.Neither of these trees are very common in my neck of the woods,so I'm not at all familiar with them.Deer may or may not target these pods with any regularity,but would like to be able to identify them and/or any other pod bearers.
Yes, hunting hot food sources probably would have been a better title for this thread. Thanks TexasTrad
Fruit trees get hammered. The bucks will even use their antlers to knock fruit out of the tree.
I've notice the whiteoak acorn and beechnuts as favorites myself.
QuoteOriginally posted by Knawbone:
But given a choice are there certain foods they prefer over others.
I would highly reccomend that you read "The Deer of North America" by Leonard Lee Rue III. In it he does state deer will go for taste over nutritional value most always. He also lists preferred foods in different parts of the country in the different seasons. I hope this is of some help.
This could be a very vast thread, I believe you have to look at area (state, prov. etc), time of year, availability of food sources. as an example we have few oaks up here, if any they are planted, the deer will eat them as browse, but won't typically eat acorns, in the south of the province where there are oaks they love them? their favorite in the fall seems to be hazelnut leaves that are on the ground.
go figure?
QuoteOriginally posted by b.glass:
I've seen video of them eating a dried up old maple or oak leaf. I've personally seen them eat mulberry leaves. I think they eat grass but I don't think they prefer it.
Like clockwork for the past 5 months there have been 2-5 does feeding on grass in the center of a 25 meter diameter exit loop off of I-295 at 0600 (am). Maybe they have no other options or they are corrupted inner-city deer as this exit is within view of the Washington Monument/Reagan National Airport in D.C. (can't hunt them!) :D
Thanks for the input Tuscarawasbowman and Hammer3T,I guess I'm trying to focus mainly on preferred food sources during hunting seasons(no matter what part of the country).This is an attempt to understand,for all Tradgang members,what wild foods deer prefer when the more obvious one aren't available to them.eg If they normally target acorns, but there are no acorns that year- Where would you start looking for deer when considering other preferred sources. Sorry just trying to clerify it's about finding deer when the typical foods aren't available.I should have worded my opening statement differently. I knew what I meant,I just didn't word it very well. :banghead:
Smilax (aka green brier, deer thorn, catbrier) is a big time deer favorite in my area. We just call them "briers". Many times I've observed deer walking past acorns while picking the leaves off these vines one at a time. They don't typically want the vine, just the leaves. If you see naked green vines in the woods, you'll know what I mean. The deer will browse them clean as far up as they can reach. Sometimes they don't hit them hard until later in the year but if you find a thicket of smilax, you have found a place to watch.
(http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg180/750grains/smilax.jpg)
(http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg180/750grains/smilax2.jpg)
(http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg180/750grains/smilax3.jpg)
Jedimaster,Perfecto........ Thankyou for the pics. :thumbsup:
Another vote for beechnuts, when they are in. Very cyclical but when they fall here it's generally before acorns and they are 'candy' for every critter around. Consequently, they don't last long.
I have hunted urban deer in 5 states and every time I concentrate on flower beds and manucured lawns. I love right after a yard is reseeded for the winter it draws deer like a magnet. I have actually had deer walk numerous times right past white oaks to get to a well manacured lawn. This is not for everybody but for anyone who does a lot of urban hunting do not discount buying lyme and fertilizing the grass within 25 yards of your stand for 10 bucks you have a food plot.
Something Unexpected.
In South Texas Wild Onion tops. I have observed them slurp this stuff up like spaghetti noodles. I love to hunt creek bank edges and that stuff likes the moisture and partial shade I guess. I saw some doe eating it one morning and when I got down I checked it out and pulled up an onion. I had no idea. Now I look for it!
And what they like this year could be different the next due to a lot of things.
Nothing beats a sweet acorn, IMHO
Lots of good and accurate info here. White-tail are mostly browsers and less grazers: 70:30 and it is the reverse for elk.
Our season starts in September and goes through mid-January. They are in hayfields early, they love alfalfa, timothy, and clovers. They browse new woody shoots as many have pointed out above. In a drought year (2010 here) the persimmons are dropping early but normally after the oak acorns. Enough has been written about white acorns vs. red oaks. The reds are year after year producers, the whites usually are alternate years, at least for bumper crops. Very easy to tell the white and red families apart.
By late season, when the acorns are gone; thank-you deer, turkey, squirrels, and exotic hogs, they go primarily to twigs and certain leaves (exotic honeysuckle, green briar, others mentioned above). By the way dogwood leaves have higher calcium levels -- good for antler growth.
Of course those who live with urban and suburban deer know deer also love; tulips, white cedar, and the fruit trees listed above.
Of course hickory and walnut are useless to deer except they distract the squirrels a bit.
The deer where I used to hunt LOVED soybeans, more than any other agricultural crop. Around here they also browse a lot of red osier twig tips during the growing season, since they grow well in a lot of uncultivated fields.
We have a couple wild persimmon trees on our land and for wild food they seem to be the best when they produce. Our deer in the fall like white oak acorns so much that they will leave a food plot or feeder to go get acorns.
Thank you for your input everyone, but PLEASE remember this thread is not about AG.CROPS
Dog wood and juniper all winter long.
They love Red oiser dogwood up here too. So much we don't have much were deer are plentiful. So I forgot to mention. We call it deer licorice.
QuoteOriginally posted by Knawbone:
Thank you for your input everyone, but PLEASE remember this thread is not about AG.CROPS
Looks like to me thats what most replys are about or did I miss something?
Yes Stickbow,People need to read my opening post,Thanks :thumbsup:
Here in southern Ohio have mix of mature woods clear cut and cattle farms with hay fields. Hard to separate ag vs wild clover for ex. I've noticed deer feed heavily about 1 week after hay is cut. Seems like they like that fresh growth white clover best. In late season I look for dogwood sumac stands they bud early and can see evidence of ends of branches being bitten off. Have sat in stand and watched deer eat berries of a smooth sumac tree. Honeysuckle and greenbrier are staples especially late season or when poor acorn crop. As for chestnut oaks I have been on stand and heard a very loud crunching noise which turned out to be deer crunching chestnut oak acorns. Could be heard 75-100 yds away. Not as popular as white oak but wouldn't completely ignore them.
All these factors add up to my favorite spots to hunt a geographic pinch point at the transition between mature woods and old reverting field or clear cut has all these in
same place.
My advice to folks hunting areas like mine is talk your neighbor into clear cutting their entire farm. I wouldn't have the heart to do it on my own place, but deer love everything about them for food and cover and you will enjoy some of the best whitetail hunting on earth for about the next 10 yrs
Early bow season down here I look for Bullis vines aka wild grapes first, persimmons second which is my favorite thing to hunt over because here the swamp persimmons drop before acorns and a hot persimmon is about a sure thing. Next comes water oaks and live oaks then our white oaks and swamp chestnuts start dropping. Deer love the swamp chestnuts down here. Up north a bit they don`t.They leave the water oaks when the white oaks and Chestnut oaks start dropping then get back on them later. Crab apples mid October.Kudzu and honey suckle are great late season feed.Pin oaks are great as well.Hawthorns are good to as well as palmetto berries.
I honestly don`t care what kind of tree it is. If it is dropping and has deer sign under it being several piles of droppings and is in a thick enough place I feel a deer will come before dark I`ll hunt it.RC
RC- what are Hawthorns?
Hawthorn is a small tree( Generally )which bears a small fruit about the size of a chic pea. there most often yellow or red in color and have an oblong star shaped seed inside its fleshy outside.the fruit is sometimes called thorn apple.
In some areas here they will feed on spicewood leaves and in others they leave them alone.
I used to hunt a place with a large levee running through it, If they did work on the levee and planted grass those new tender seedlings were like money in the bank. I've seen them go nuts over persimmons in places and totally ignore them in others, I've seen them eat the seeds that fall from cypress trees, honeysuckle is really good in the late season especially if there is snow or ice, white oaks and pin oaks are usually good all fall. Agricultural fields are our number one food source. but in the larger timbered areas I hunt without them I'm going to be looking for big white oaks with the most sign under them most of the time.
They love soybeans in my area.. White oaks would be the #1 choice in the timber in early season. Alfalfa and corn are a big draw as well. Late season winter wheat is pretty popular.
Problem is, many of their foods are "good" all or much of the time, but are "best" for only certain periods. Even things like alfalfa or hay or whatever goes thru phases of growth which delivers higher protein or more fiber or better digestibility than at other times. Their world is constantly changing.
ChuckC
Around here they love Eastern Redbud leaves either green or freshly yellowed and fallen. The Eastern Redbud grows alot on banks of highways and has the lavender blooms in the spring. The leaves are heart shaped.
But, like has been stated, they'll eat whatever they can. I have seen them nibble on new pine growth.
If im not mistaken in harsh winter they even eat the briars. In most cases you have to hunt the food source as it produces. But in jersey they love the parkway grasses.
The wild vetch family (cream coloured, wild vetchling, etc.) seem liked throughout the year, as a wild legume they produce pods in the fall that seem to be very palatable. I know elk also like sarsaperella leaves in the fall but not sure if deer like it.
I've noticed here in FL that deer like the new shoots that come up after a fire. I've even seen them browsing in areas where small fires are still burning! The problem is that it's pretty hard to hunt a burned out area with a bow; no cover and nothing to funnel the deer to you. I imagine that if you could figure out the nearby cover they are using you would have a chance. I'm not sure exactly what plant they are focused on after a fire, but it looked to me like they weren't being all that picky.
gringol, they might be eating charcoal from the fire. Lots of animals eat charcoal for one reason or another. Probably to absorbe toxins that might exist in some of their forage or for the minerals it contains.
Could be, Pat. I think they probably are doing a little of both. Those brand new, tender shoots look tasty even to me and I hate salad. :laughing:
Besides the obvious fruit/nuts from trees. Forest foods that deer eat in Michigan are as follow: Preferred ; White Cedar, White Pine, Maples, Yellow Birch, Dogwoods, Viburnums and Sumac. Medium quality Deer foods; Aspen, Jack Pine, Oaks, Ash, White Birch and Witch-Hazel. Starvation Deer Foods;Spruce, Beech, Red Pine Balsam Fir, Alder and Leather Leaf. Food sources available in Fall, Winter and early Spring are most critical to Deer to effect body condition, Winter survival and reproduction. Deer browse on the leaves, needles, buds twig ends of trees and shrubs browsing is done on the order of preferred to starvation based on the availability. Yarding areas where the snows are least and food sources most. Remember mature forests provide far less of the browse foods than of the brushy early phases. Just cut some trees in the early Winter in the snow and see the Deer tracks from when they go to eat all the tops you leave.Information available from www.dnr.state.mi.us (http://www.dnr.state.mi.us)
QuoteOriginally posted by Pat B:
If you fertilize a weed field it will draw deer.
Never heard of that before. Anyone else do this?
I have noticed them hitting Privet Hedge pretty hard, especially in winter when there is not much else still green left in the woods.
Privet is high in protein and deer eat the heck out of it.
BobCo, I read that in QDMA magazine a few years ago.
MY, rose buds, bean blossoms, raspberries, or pretty much any landscaping I put in.
Thanks so much everyone for your input and wisdom of wild deer foods.I hope that the knowledge here on this thread will result in the traditional harvest of a few deer that might otherwise not have been taken with the stick and string.
Up here, we have a lichen called Old Man's Beard that is best found growing on mature white spruce. It'll be on other softwood as well, but really seems to be in wSpruce stands. The deer love it.
During a winter harvest (of trees)you can literally be limbing up the tree and have a few does eating at the top. The powersaw draws them in to the food happening on the ground. Beds and tracks everywhere on the worksite. Not much of a hunting spot, with the work going on and all, but the Old Man's Beard is the point.
During a scouting session (or when hunting), I'm on the lookout for any softwood blowdown with OMB on it. Usually a thick, tangly place with food. As per RC's comments, pretty much a sure thing for the deer to show up and lots of opportunity for the hunter to be hidden.
Deer depend on a diverse community of microbes in their guts to efficiently digest the variety of foods they eat. Different microbes work on different types of food. Maintaining a diverse array of digestive microbes requires eating a diverse diet. That's why deer sample everything and how they ensure their digestive system can adapt to the seasonal variation in food availability. They are also known as "concentrate selectors", eating both grasses and forbs and high quality woody browse. Contrast this with elk, which are primarily grazers.
There science lesson over. Up to you to figure what they are eating in your neck of the woods, but given the variability what they eat and where it's found, concentrating on other life needs might be more "patternable." Travel corridors, water, bedding areas, rutting behaviors, etc. I rarely hunt "food sources" per SE although find the right oak at the right time and it's game on!
They like Locust tree pods and will eat them before acorns are dropping and also during late season.
I hunt the suburbs and like Steve said above, food can be a crap shoot. I don't usually hunt food but I do try to figure what direction food is that they are heading to. My friend shot a deer this fall with corn in it. Not a cornfield in ten mile! In the "burs" bird feeders are hit hard and if theirs a retirement community near by it's a food source! My father in law and all his neighbor feed wildlife.
I not know about you all but around my neck of the woods white acorns fall before Oct 1 and not many left when the season opens!
As for apples there are lots around but deer definately have preferences. I keep the ones I know they like pruned and fertilized.
They like Locust tree pods and will eat them before acorns are dropping and also during late season. We had no acorns at all here last deer season in southern NY.Because of this situation,deer were scattered, generally speaking. By hunting trails and pinch points to and from small concentrations of food sources such as locust pods and crab apples(which are few and far between were I hunt) I was able to fill a couple tags. One deer being a 16" wide 8 point. I think it was the weirdest season I'v ever hunted and it called for thinking out of the box. Some areas that normally held good numbers of deer , held none.And visa-versa.Alternate food sources were a big piece of the puzzle.
When corn is up you won't find me anywhere else but around a cornfield, regardless of what else is in the woods. You never know what is going to happen or when it will while hunting corn.
Don't forget that deer love when new growth comes in after a burn or a clear cutting in timber country. The years that follow after a burn or clear cutting allow thwe sun to reach the ground in timber areas and the deer will forage the new growth expecially beech trees and new buds. I have a list of preferred or best liked foods that deer will eat. I think that it was produced by the NYSDEC areound the early 70s. I know that it was in the October 1975 issue of Sports Afield magazine. I would copy it and send it but it is probably copyrighted so I am afraid to do that.
Don't forget that deer love when new growth comes in after a burn or a clear cutting in timber country. The years that follow after a burn or clear cutting allow thwe sun to reach the ground in timber areas and the deer will forage the new growth expecially beech trees and new buds. I have a list of preferred or best liked foods that deer will eat. I think that it was produced by the NYSDEC areound the early 70s. I know that it was in the October 1975 issue of Sports Afield magazine. I would copy it and send it but it is probably copyrighted so I am afraid to do that.
White oak acorns, persimmon's, white clover, corn, soybeans, (until they get hard) green briars...etc. I think they adapt perty well to any part of the country. Not having access to crop fields...I hunt persimmon and white oak when they're falling. That would be my early season pattern. Browse in the late season and areas where there's water.
JMHO, Jason
Up here in northern Wisconsin, I have found the deer favor blackberry buds in early fall. The little bud that are left over after the berry falls off or are picked. Early season up here, find a large blackbeery patch and the whitetails will come...
Al
I hunt some strange land. Deer seldom eat persimmons. They lay on the ground and the coons get em mostly. One great food source we have is honey locust beans. They have to be moist though. If they arent, try and find something else. Our water oaks fall early in october and our white oaks start dropping around the first of November. We have a acorn like a shumard thats striped and it falls late in the hunting season. Thats about the only food sources I know of. We have so many acorns every year that the deer dont have to move much to get a full belly. Makes the hunting tough. Even tougher when they dont have a defined bedding area. Just gotta try and get lucky.
Interesting stuff. I'm hoping to do my frist whitetail deer hunt this year. :campfire:
Knawbone, you brought up honey locust. Yes, deer love honey locust pods - I've seen them chewing on them with the end flapping out their mouth - trying to get the seeds out the pod. When they fall and get some moisture and age they give off that sweet "honey" smell. Not sure if they are first choice, but at the right time I think they are up there. They also fall pretty early in the season, so a good early source to key on.
I now see after reading that I'm late to the party on my honey locust comment. :D
We had some fresh cutover and the deer tear it up, but hunting it is tough. The deer seem to treat it like a crop field, mostly moving in at night even though there is a good bit of cover. Good habitat, but so far frustrating to hunt.
also make sure you dont get honey locust and black locust confused. I dont think any deer has ever eaten a black locust pod. lol
on my plate it would be backed potatoes and a fresh green salad.
In my neck of the woods they like corn, maize or milo, alfalfa, wheat pasture, soy beans. I've seen em browsing on fresh fallen mulberry leaves, honey locust pods, and leaves of many different trees. They love poison ivy berries, the nice little white pods that appear in late summer, early fall. They'll just flat pig out on em.
Please remember my fellow arrow slingers, THIS THREAD IS ABOUT WILD DEER FOODS, THAT MEANS ANYTHING WILD OR OVERGROWN FRUIT TREES,ECT- NOT CORN,NOT SOYBEANS..........
Please remember my fellow arrow slingers, THIS THREAD IS ABOUT WILD DEER FOODS, THAT MEANS ANYTHING WILD OR OVERGROWN FRUIT TREES,ECT- NOT CORN,NOT SOYBEANS..........
:campfire: TTT
sweet clover
A friend of mine has a couple hundred acres he uses exclusively for hunting. He has different for plot mixes planted, along with corn, beans...etc. He said every deer they have shot this year has had a belly full of clover. They have a lot of goodies to choose from, an are just hammering the clover.
"Preferred" is sorta like "deep," it all depends. :)
When I think of preferred native/natural foods, I think of those that would excite me to bowhunt over, those that would cause a deer to pick over other available food sources. These can and do vary from region and even change during the hunting season. Having spent most of my deer hunting life in the Southeast, I'm partial to those foods found here that are available during the hunting season.
When I first step foot on a potential hunting property in the SE, the first food sources I look for are persimmon, honey locust, oak mast and southern crab apple. "Generally", it is within this group of food sources one might locate what us Southern boys lovingly call a "kill tree." :)
I don't remember seeing American beautyberry or French mulberry mentioned previously, but it never hurts to find it in your hunting area as deer browse it heavily.
I don't know if these have been mentioned but deer here like privet hedge,mushroons and lichen just to name a few.
someone earlier said the big acorns are no good, but ive seen them pick up one and lay down and crunch on it. Seems like they only need a few though and they stay down for a nap. Also hedge apples seem very popular. Also pecan nuts.
good thread resurrection
I don't think anyone has mentioned new growth blackberry shoots.