Other than during the rut, understanding what deer eat and how their diets change throughout the season is pretty important for hunters. Afterall, for the majority of the year a whitetails daily routine revolves primarily around a bed to feed pattern. This article aims to answer the question, “what do deer eat?”, while providing hunters with the knowledge to translate this information into a more productive and successful season.
Core Components Of A Whitetail Diet: What Do Deer Like to Eat
So, what do whitetail deer eat exactly? Whitetails have the ability to deactivate secondary plant compounds due to the enzymes produced by their salivary glands. Because of this, deer eat a wide variety of plant species, with their diet centering on food types that are easily digestible and contain the necessary nutrients for the specific time of year. The major categories of a deer’s diet consist of browse, forbs, hard and soft mast, grasses, agricultural crops, and fungi/lichens.
Browse
Natural browse makes up a large part of a whitetail deer’s overall diet throughout the year. So, what exactly is browse? The browse that deer feed on are the leaves, buds, and small twigs of woody plants.
In late winter, browse often becomes one of the major food items consumed by whitetails due to other food sources being limited. While browse is always present, it’s not the most nutrient-rich option. It contains more fiber and less protein compared to other foods.
Some of the most common natural browse preferred by whitetails include:
- Honey Locust
- Greenbrier
- White Cedar
- Poison Ivy
- Blackgum
- Elms, hackberry/sugarberry and maples
Forbs
Unlike browse, forbs are non-woody, broad-leaved plants that most of us would consider weeds. Forbs generally grow best in the spring and summer and are highly preferred over browse during this time of year. This is due to them being high in protein and being less likely to disrupt digestion.
Some of the forb plant species preferred by whitetails include Common Ragweed, Goldenrod, Tick-trefoil, Wild Lettuce, Partridge Pea, Pokeweed, Wild Sunflowers, Old Field Asters, Clover, and Pigweed.
Due to the nutrients provided by forbs during the growing season, these plants often play a large role in a deer’s diet, providing the necessary nutrients needed for antler growth in bucks and milk production for does.
Mast
Mast can be broken down into two primary categories: hard and soft mast.
Soft mast are most predominant and sought after by deer in the summer. These soft fruits include berries, apples, and persimmons, are higher in sugars and vitamins, making them almost like candy to deer during the warmer portions of the year.
Hard mast, like acorns, hickory nuts, and beechnuts, play a larger roll in the fall. Acorns, produced by oak trees, play a major role in the overall diet of whitetail deer due to being high in carbohydrates and fats, helping deer build energy reserves for the colder months.
While mast are a big part on a whitetails food habits, they are not always reliable. Some years trees produce heavily, and other years they produce little. When mast drops in abundance, deer quickly shift their feeding patterns to take advantage of it.
Grasses
Its important to note that while being herbivores, deer differ from animals like cattle and will rarely focus on grasses as a primary food source. Unlike cattle, deer do not digest these plants efficiently and are low in nutrients when compared to forbs or browse.
While not preferred, deer will eat the new growth of cool season grasses like rye or wheat, due to them being more palatable than mature perennials like fescue.
Mushrooms and Lichens
Mushrooms and lichens are the smallest portion of a whitetails diet. Deer eat them when they come across them but will generally not seek them out. Mushrooms like morels and chanterelles can supply trace minerals and protein that other plants lack. Lichens, like old man’s beard, are not high in protein but aid in supplementing a whitetails diet when more preferred food is scarce.
Agricultural Crops / Ornamentals
If you live or hunt in agricultural areas odds are you know that ag fields are prime areas to see feeding deer during early morning and late evening. Here in Western Kentucky and many states, whitetails have a seemingly infinite forage abundance due to the large quantities of ag fields.
Some of the most notable agricultural crops deer eat include soybeans, corn, and alfalfa. Corn and soybeans are especially important due to the amount of protein and energy they provide.
Seasonal Diet Patterns
What deer eat will change during different times of the year. This is primarily due to certain types of plants and crops only being available during certain times of year.
What Do Deer Eat in the Summer
From early spring thru the summer months, a whitetails diet consists primarily green plants and vegetation like grasses, forbs, and the green leafy portions of soybeans in areas with agriculture. While whitetails focus on the greens during this time of year they will also eat soft mast like fruits or berries when presented the opportunity.
What Do Deer Eat in the Winter
Once summer turns to fall and winter, we start to see whitetails feed on foods higher in carbohydrates, that provide high energy, helping them build fat before the weather takes a turn for the worst. These foods include hard mast like acorns and agricultural crops like corn and soybeans. During late winter, when food gets scarce, deer rely heavily on woody browse that is available year round.
Why understanding what deer eat can help you harvest big bucks
We’ve already established that a whitetails life revolves around food and is one of the limiting factors that can determine whether deer will frequent an area. The following are of some of the top tips I’ve picked up over the years to capitalize on the feeding habits of mature bucks.
Understand that the food habits of whitetails can change at a moment’s notice
During the early season here in western Kentucky, you will find the majority of feeding deer in green soybean fields. However once the beans start to turn from a green to yellowish color, deer don’t seem to prefer them as much and will move on to different foods like acorns or cut corn fields. Low impact scouting, like glassing fields from a distance or looking for changes in where you are seeing deer sign while going in and out of the woods is a great way to stay on top of the where deer are feeding.
Consider the time of year and nutritional needs of the deer your after
Personally, I have found that the best times of the season to capitalize on a mature bucks feeding habits are during the early season and late season. Bucks are not worried about breeding at this point and are more patternable and predictable, as long as they don’t pick up on the fact that they are being hunted.
While the early and late season are great times to harvest a mature buck, your success will henge on understanding what deer prefer to eat during that specific portion of the season.
During the early season, spring thru early fall, deer really focus in on greens and eat specific plant parts that are high in protein and easily digestible. In agricultural areas, look for feeding deer in soybean and alfalfa fields. In areas with less agriculture, look for clover fields or areas with the species of plants preferred by whitetails like the forbs listed earlier in this article.
Late season on the other hand is about survival. Deer during the late season are run down from the rut and will often have a significantly lower body weight than just before the rut. The preferred food of deer during this time of year are plants higher in carbohydrates and fats that they will need to make it through the winter. Ag fields that still have standing crops can be deer magnets during this portion of the season. In areas where the ag has been harvested or not present, look for areas with high concentrations of browse.
Field Note: Winter wheat fields in ag country, can be a great place to find feeding deer during the late season and are some of the best areas I’ve found to hunt during the late season here in western Kentucky.
Don’t Think You Need to Hunt Directly by the Food
While this doesn’t apply to all deer, a lot of times mature bucks don’t make it to where they plan on feeding until after dark. If you are getting trail cam photos of a buck feeding in an area after dark, odds are you are going to be wasting your time hunting that exact location. I hear of so many new whitetail hunters doing this, just with the hopes that the buck will daylight one afternoon.
Instead of essentially wasting a hunt in a location that you know a buck is showing up after dark just hoping to get lucky, analyze the situation. What direction is the buck coming from in the trail cam photos and is it always the same? Does he show up every night or only some nights? Use this information to determine the bucks possible bedding area and travel route to and from the food. The hang and hung method works extremely well for this, allowing you to stay mobile until you land on the right trail to catch your target buck in daylight.