August Food Plot Strategies

If you didn’t plant anything in the spring and are starting to panic that you don’t have a food source for deer season, don’t worry. As August comes to a close, you’ve got one more shot to plant a fall food plot to cultivate a food source that’s in bloom during the middle of deer season and rut season. Check out our tips, below, for how you can still create a thriving food plot that will bring deer to your property all hunting season.

Weed the Area

Before you plant your food plots, make sure you clear the area of weeds and other unwanted foliage to ensure the seeds will survive and thrive. You can kill two birds with one stone by de-weeding and clearing your shooting lanes at the same time. Having clear shooting lanes will allow you to hunt near the food plot without worrying your arrow will hit a tree instead of your target buck.

Choose the Right Seeds

Since we’re at the end of summer, what you’re going to plant now will be different than what you would have planted in the spring. You should focus on brassicas like turnips, radishes, and kale along with winter peas. You can also throw in a new batch of things you planted in the spring, like soybeans, and mix them in with the fall plants. As the spring soybean crops are drying out and getting harvested, your newly planted fall soybean crop will be at peak temptation for the deer herd.

If you’re looking for a crop that will grow to maturity immediately, ensuring they’re ready in time for fall, you can plant cereal grains like wheat, oats and rye.

Use Your Feedbank Gravity Feeders

If your soil isn’t suitable to planting natural crops or if you simply don’t have the room, use our Feedbank Deer Feeders to supplement the feed. You can put any of the crops specified above into the feeders. They’ll hold anywhere from 40-600 pounds of feed. You can choose between our Gravity Deer Feeders which have multiple ports that are elevated above the ground at a deer’s eye level or our Feedbank Timber Deer Feeders which have multiple ports that lay flat on the ground. The Gravity Deer Feeders will give bucks room for their antlers and the Timber Deer Feeders will mimic a tree trunk. Either way, they will entice the deer herd with their natural designs.

As always, make sure supplemental feeding is legal in your area before you plant any food plots or load your Feedbank Feeders with feed. You can review Minnesota’s regulations on supplemental feeding here.

Once you’ve planted your new food plot or put our your Feedbank Gravity Feeders, you can set up your Stump blind near the action to make sure you capitalize on the deer herd’s activity. Avoid hunting directly on top of the plot so that the herd won’t be scared away from visiting it in the future. That said, you can absolutely make sure you’re stationed nearby so that you can catch them right before they enter the crops. Get your plots together now and be ready for opening day here in Minnesota on Sept. 19!

Do you plat new food plots in the August? How do your fall food plots differ from your spring food plots? Let us know you tips and tactics for food plot strategies in the comments below!