Author Topic: Preferred Foods Of The Whitetail (Read 1952 times)

Michigan Mark · « **Reply #60 on:** February 16, 2012, 02:41:00 PM »

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

BobCo 1965 · « **Reply #61 on:** February 16, 2012, 04:05:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Pat B:

If you fertilize a weed field it will draw deer.

Never heard of that before. Anyone else do this?

Sam McMichael · « **Reply #62 on:** February 16, 2012, 04:05:00 PM »

I have noticed them hitting Privet Hedge pretty hard, especially in winter when there is not much else still green left in the woods.

Pat B · « **Reply #63 on:** February 16, 2012, 04:35:00 PM »

Privet is high in protein and deer eat the heck out of it.
BobCo, I read that in QDMA magazine a few years ago.

Zdogk9 · « **Reply #64 on:** February 16, 2012, 04:35:00 PM »

MY, rose buds, bean blossoms, raspberries, or pretty much any landscaping I put in.

Knawbone · « **Reply #65 on:** February 16, 2012, 06:08:00 PM »

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.

Hopewell Tom · « **Reply #66 on:** February 17, 2012, 04:57:00 AM »

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.

Steve Kendrot · « **Reply #67 on:** February 17, 2012, 06:36:00 AM »

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!

Hoyt · « **Reply #68 on:** February 17, 2012, 07:05:00 AM »

They like Locust tree pods and will eat them before acorns are dropping and also during late season.

44charlie · « **Reply #69 on:** February 17, 2012, 10:35:00 AM »

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.

Knawbone · « **Reply #70 on:** February 17, 2012, 10:30:00 PM »

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.

Ulysseys · « **Reply #71 on:** February 18, 2012, 02:30:00 PM »

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.

StickBowManMI · « **Reply #72 on:** February 19, 2012, 08:53:00 PM »

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.

StickBowManMI · « **Reply #73 on:** February 19, 2012, 08:54:00 PM »

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.

Covey · « **Reply #74 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:31:00 PM »

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

longshadow · « **Reply #75 on:** February 23, 2012, 03:11:00 PM »

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

BOHO · « **Reply #76 on:** February 23, 2012, 04:25:00 PM »

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.

twitchstick · « **Reply #77 on:** February 23, 2012, 07:25:00 PM »

Interesting stuff. I'm hoping to do my frist whitetail deer hunt this year.

LimBender · « **Reply #78 on:** February 23, 2012, 08:35:00 PM »

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.

BOHO · « **Reply #79 on:** February 23, 2012, 10:14:00 PM »

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


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Author Topic: Preferred Foods Of The Whitetail (Read 1952 times)

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