deer forage

Deer Diet Breakdown: What Do Deer Eat?

Mar 30, 2022 Matt Ross

White-tailed deer are absolute plant-eating machines, but understanding what foods they prefer to eat will vastly improve your knowledge and effectiveness in both managing and hunting them. A deer needs to consume about 6% to…

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Green Fields: 10 Ways to Grow Low-Impact Food Plots

Aug 28, 2018 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Questions about growing quality food plots are nothing new for NDA’s phone lines and e-mail in-boxes. But over time, new themes emerge among the questions, and for the last couple of years, one new theme…

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8 Winter Projects for Better Fall Deer Hunting

Jan 25, 2017 Craig Harper

Unless you hunt in portions of the Deep South, deer season is over. And for those who hunt in south Alabama and Mississippi, you have precious few days left. The end of the season can…

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When Do Fawns Begin Eating Natural Forage?

Jun 19, 2015 Kip Adams

This great photo of a young fawn taking a bite of hopclover was captured by Vermont forester and wildlife expert Susan C. Morse and it helps answer an interesting question about fawns: When do they wean…

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Food Plot Species Profile: Lablab

Mar 27, 2015 Ryan Basinger

Along with soybeans and cowpeas, lablab is one of the primary forage legumes planted for deer each spring and summer – and for good reason. Lablab (Lablab purpureus) is a warm-season annual legume that originated…

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Food Plot Species Profile: Red Clover

Jun 30, 2014 Ryan Basinger

If you don’t have red clover growing in some of your food plots, let me explain why you should. Dr. Craig Harper and I examined red clover in research plots in Tennessee for several years. We…

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Food Plot Species Profile: Soybeans

Jan 24, 2014 Ryan Basinger

Soybeans (Glycine max) are a warm-season annual legume and perhaps the most preferred summer forage for white-tailed deer. They are extremely nutritious, containing upwards of 25 to 30 percent crude protein in fields with good…

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Know Your Deer Plants: Pokeweed

Jul 31, 2013 Matt Ross

Pokeweed easily has over a dozen different common names, from pokeberry to poke salad to just plain poke. But no matter what it is called where you live, pokeweed is an extremely valuable soft mast…

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