I wouldn't plant anything and just let it go fallow.

I don't see Milo mentioned ??

So is there a difference between "Eagle Seed Beans", "Eagle Large Lad", "Eagle Big Fellow", and the "Eagle Wildlife Manager's Mix"?

Milo is more of a fall-season food source (deer eat the seedheads). For summer protein and volume of quality food produced, I want a major legume, with beans preferred over peas, although both are good.

Yes, there are differences. To find out the details about each plant, as well as which would be best for your situation, I would talk directly to the people at Eagle Seed.

The "Wildlife Manager's Mix" contains more climbing beans, and is meant to be planted with RR corn (the cornstalks give the climbing beans structure to climb up).

Deer have to eat in the fall also right ??When the corn,peas,and beans are gone they will tear those seed heads up.In La. when harvesting the Milo crop we always left the stuff around the edges and corners for deer and other wildlife,Seems like with 3 fields a good fall crop would benefit the deer as well as the hunting.I know it is not as popular in Tn. as other places.I always wondered why ??

Excellent. I will definitely do that. Thanks for all the info guys and anything you want to add is greatly appreciated.

In past years I've shyed away from the Ag crops on the property focusing more on clover, chicory, rye, wheat, and oats. I want to try something different. Other than the chicory I've not been impressed with the results (results = deer foraging, not plant growth).

BlountArrow,

Just don't assume that one plant, planted for one season of the year, is the best answer. Deer have different nutritional needs during the different seasons of the year, and no one plant can meet all those needs. To maximize nutritional benefit, you need a mixture of plants that produce what the deer need most for each season.

I hope to be able to stagger/stage planting of different plants throughout the year as resources become available (resources = time and money ).

BlountArrow,

Some of the cheapest things you can do is manage native vegetation. If you have mostly mature hardwoods, you might want to look at getting some of it logged. You can also select a few different sites to put on a burning regimate.

I completely agree and yeah there are several weeds, browse, and forbes that comprise way more of a deer's diet than any food plot ever did (based on what I've read and been told). Like my local TWRA biologist told me, he says that anymore he's convinced food plots are more for the hunter than the animal; more for us guys that still like to play in the dirt.

One forester I spoke to, when I asked him about how a logger would go about getting trees off some of my ridges, he more/less told me that a logger would not.

Here would be my questions I would ask MYSELF (I have the equipment to do all this already but, you may not).... how much money do I have to work with including fertilizer, lime, soil prep (fuel) and finally the actual seed. Do I have the money to "burn" every year feeding deer if I didn't I would look into what I'm already getting this year Wapsie corn. It is an open pollinated dent corn and I plan on saving enough seed to replant next year saving myself the money that I'd spend in seed. If I had the equipment and the time I would consider R.R. Alfalfa and sell off the bales and make a little money.

Often you can get small time loggers to do work that the big boys won't. The good thing about that is with smaller equipment they usally can do it with less damage to the land.

And that's what I do. Our last logger (which we were thrilled with) was just a father and son operation. They were slow, but they were good!

Yep,I liked them too.

Hey Blount, you have a p.m.