What deer do and don't eat

Ohiosam said:

I have a friend that has developed a very effective food plot. He has a small field, maybe 2 acres, with woods on 3 sides. He plants beans around the edge and corn in the middle. He didn't hunt it the first couple of years and still won't shoot a doe out of it. It's a doe magnet so consequently it's a buck magnet.

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This essentially what I am hoping to do at our farm. We have a bottom field in the middle of our property that is surrounded by my sanctuary, 20 acres of thick 6 year old select cut timber, and a ridge top crop field lined with oaks and south facing bedding. I hope to plant a strip of corn 20'x200', a strip of beans 20'x200', and a strip 20'x200' that will be a clover, grain, brassica blend. It may not happen for a year or two, but it will happen...

Personally I think the reason deer eat different things in different places is pure and simple nutrition. If they're lacking a mineral in their diet they crave something. That's the reason deer in one place will not touch beans but two miles away they mow them down. It could be as simple as the nutritional mineral value in the soil there compared to here. That field could simply have different dirt. the same reason they prefer these acorns over those. I've tasted many many acorns trying to find a difference. And while the various species taste different, I can't tell you why they prefer this white oak over the other one. Ive done the same with beans. Why are they always in this field vs that one. I can't taste a difference. So it leads me to believe it must be nutrition or mineral differences.

For instance. Deer don't typically need the same amount of salt in the winter as they do the summer. The reason is green vegetation is very high In potassium. They need the salt to counteract the potassium. They don't need it because they lack it. They need it because of other things they've been eating. If they stopped eating green vegetation (like they are forced to do in the winter) their potassium intake drops and the need for salt decreases. But the deer doesn't know why it needs salt. It doesn't lay in its bed and say. My belly hurts. I need to go visit that salt block. They just do it out of instinct. Craving. We humans without batteries of tests can't diagnose anemia (lack of iron) but we do know anemic people crave foods high in iron. So why do deer eat green brier late in winter? Could be because they need it to counteract something else. Not simply because they lack green brier. Deer are generally stupid and eat whatever is within reach. Bu if they eat too much nature tells them to eat more of another thing to counteract it. Every plant has natural chemical defenses to ward off herbivore browsers. But in one plants chemical defense another plant has a remedy. Deer aren't smart enough to figure this out on a medical level. Shit, we humans don't really understand nutrition.

In short. Deer are simple minded creatures that sleep, eat, and fuck. A natural calling beyond their understanding makes them feel when and how to do each. They aren't calculated Einsteins of the animal world. They're just dumb feral cows that wonder around eating this and that when they crave it.

Just my 02.