White-tailed deer are very adaptable animals, but good deer habitat usually includes a mixture of trees, shrubs, vines, forbs, grasses. High quality deer habitat will also contain important foods such as fungi and even sedges. Of course, specific plants within each of these categories benefit deer more than others. If you really looked at a deer’s mouth, you will notice that it’s quite small and relatively pointed. This is because deer are highly selective with regards to their diet.

Palatable plants should be well interspersed throughout an area, so that the whole area functions as deer habitat. Over much of the whitetail’s habitat, adequate woody plants should be present to provide food, shelter and concealment. The enroachment of woody plants into areas that were once dominated by grasses is an important reason for the expansion of the whitetail deer. In addition to browse plants, some sort of water source should be available about every mile for deer watering. Put all these habitat requirements together—food, cover, water, and space—and you’ve got whitetail habitat.

When it comes to deer habitat, plant diversity is an important because deer require a variety of plants to provide their various needs. Many plants are utilized during only one season (when they are growing/available) or a portion of a season. Keep in mind that each plant that is eaten provides only a portion of a deer’s nutritional requirements. However, many plant species are not consumed by deer. These plants are also important, serving as cover and concealment for traveling and loafing animals.

In short, deer need a variety of plants to have high-quality, year-round food and cover. Plant diversity is generally adequate where native plant communities are emphasized and managed for a variety of successional stages. This means having plant communities that range from “young” in age to “old,” or climax communities. Often times, good deer habitat is about 50% tree or woody cover and about 50% open. This interspersion of plants provides browse and forbs, which comprise the bulk of a whitetail’s diet.

I mentioned plant succession in the above paragraph, but what is it? Well, plant succession is the natural progressive change of plant species and communities on a site across time. Habitat management practices that encourage disturbances such as tilling, clearing, flooding, mowing, grazing and burning set back succession by various degrees. And trust me, deer love freshly disturbed areas because of the diversity of high quality forbs they provide.

With time, however, plant diversity in the disturbed area will decrease. Rest or lack of disturbance allows succession to progress forward toward more mature, stable plant communities. Deer need these areas as well as early successional plants, so good habitat will offer high diversity within and between plant communities.

In the end, for those landowners and hunters that are serious about managing deer populations, we should want to create the best whitetail habitat. For this is where quality hunting opportunities are literally born. The real secret that I’ve determined when looking at properties where individuals want to improve the deer herd is finding and enhancing the most limited habitat element. It’s easy to concentrate on one single facet of habitat and provide a whole lot of one thing, but they need it all!

Although food plots have their place in the whitetail hunting world, we can’t destroy needed habitat just to plant food. For the most part, I believe the whitetail herd found in America is now better fed than ever. In some cases, though, some have planted food plots with foods that deer won’t consume. A landowner may have good intentions, but sometimes enthusiasm must be anchored with a little research.

There are many reasons why food plots are planted, but the main reason is sometimes overlooked—nutrition. Food plots are often confused as places to just shoot deer. That should never be the case. If so, you have a hunting plot, or simply bait. Yes, whitetail hunting is good around food plots if they grow, but food production is the primary goal of those interested in improving their deer herd.

Food plots can help, but they are not a fix-all for better deer or deer habitat. More healthy deer populations can result from food plots, but it’s more important to pay attention to the habitat that you provide as a whole. It’s impossible to ingnore the requirements of whitetail and also expect to improve a deer herd. If you build it, they will come… and get big!

Food plots are commonly used to attract and supplemental whitetail diets. However, small food plots are not always the best for improving deer nutrition or whitetail hunting. I planted two small winter food plots this year for the first time. Both of these plots are about a 1/4 acre in size. I used a mixed seed variety from the local feed store.

First, I disked the areas to be seeded, then limed, and finally fertilized. Everything looked good, but I waited for a week before seeding and then dragging to cover the seed. We got a nice rain and everything starting coming up within a week’s time. That was about month ago, but here is the kicker. If I had not built an exclosure in the middle of the plots, then I would not have been able to tell if the deer were eating or not.

To build the food plot exclosure, I placed two “T” posts about 2 to 3 foot apart and wrapped the area with 5 foot high net-wire fence. I did this to keep whitetail deer out and to see if plots were either not growing or being consumed by the deer.

At both food plots, the vegetation is a lot thicker and higher in the closed off area. So that tells me that the deer are tearing up the plots. So small food plots can grow, even though it may appear that they are not. They do grow, but I am not sure how well these small plots are supplementing the deer diet. I don’t think they are producing enough food for the deer in the area. I think there are simply too many deer eating on the small plots. This, even though it’s early in the season.

I suspect when winter rolls around and when all the native vegetation is gone my food plots will be gone as well. I will never do small food plots again, unless I do many of them. My personal recommendation would be to do larger food plots of at least 2 acres or more.