Next year for me

sugar pie pumpkins
ru·ta·ba·ga

I want a 3rd crop

planting them in 6' rows

Radishes?

Acorn squash rates right up there with pumpkins.
Actually, deer love them but tend to eat them a bit earlier then pumpkins.

For 5 years now we plant in 4 different plots. ( Crimson clover and radishes)(winter wheat)
( Turnips canola radish blend) and every year no matter where we plant it the (crimson clover and radishes) get the most deer late into the year. However this we did one with Australian winter pease with clover mix and that is the winner this year. Typically try and plant them in beginning to middle of August here in northeast Wisconsin

rape

I planted buckwheat this year and the deer mowed it down like crazy. Seriously I planted it too early because they had cleaned out the entire 1-acre field before the deer season even began. I'm going back to turnips next year, the deer don't eat too much until after a hard frost then they hit them better.

Alot of guys down here plant soybeans and when the leaves start to turn brown they go in and sow winter wheat over top of the beans,when the leaves fall off the cover the seeds up and will start to grow.deer love the beans and the young sweet wheat.

Huge selection of choices out there not like 40 years ago before it was Whitetail Institute’s selection now they take up little space on the shelf at Cabelas. Beets, radishes, chicory, clover, buckwheat, soybeans, grasses and a lot of mixed choices out there to choose from. My fear with pumpkins is they won’t eat them or won’t touch them until way late in the season making the effort less rewarding.

In SD I think I can grow about anything in MO it’s another story the ground is more gravel pit like than any planting type of soil. Buddy planted radishes and clover this being the first year he had limited success everything was small and stunted but did green up a bit. After soil sampling and new equipment he purchased we will do better next year. I limed the soil in MO when I was hunting down that way and just limed my SD plot yesterday.

Turnips

Rape for later in the season.

Deer eat Rutabagas ?

I like soybeans because they eat them as they grow and late in the winter, they eat them when there is nothing else growing. They wrap their tongue around the bottom of the stalk and strip all the pods off in one motion. I planted turnips on July 25th and they ate the greens as they grew and then really started eating the turnips later.

Is this food plot to be bait for the bullet and bow.......or to help them thru winter? If the latter, you may want to also include a patch of plain old field corn. Years ago, wife of a big time operator (BTO) inherited an 80 acre farm near us. It was about 30 miles from his base of operations. He planted it to corn, then must have forgotten about it as he never came back to harvest it. By late winter, every deer for miles around had moved into that patch of standing corn. They were thick as grasshoppers. Don't think he ever harvested anything as by then, there was nothing left.

Would also try a mix of clover and winter rye. A few years back I planted a small test plot for a hay crop.......about 40' s x 200'......and by mid Oct a deer scrape had appeared in the middle of it. Had 4 to 6 does in there nightly.......all winter long. Looked like a hog lot.

I was talking to several old time. Farmers that used to grow them for their family and they said the deer plowed into them

I broadcast turnips on selective edges of my wheat fields after I drill the wheat.

For Bow and especially for Muzzleloader

Turnips plant by July 15 to July 20th,Conola plant by August 15th and Soybeans plant by mid May.

One thing I wonder is what crops will change the taste of the venison if any. Those acorn fed MO deer are the best eating deer I’ve ever eaten. After 2 years of great acorn crops I’m a little spoiled in the eating part. LOL

Oats, winter peas, radish, vetch, and buckwheat

If it gets late and nothing has done well you can top dress everything with 150-200lbs of Rye grain (not ryegrass) per acre. Just kill it off in the spring before it gets too tall or you'll have to deal with tilling it under

Jerry I know since the soybeans have became one of our main crops the deer are heavier overall and better tasting.