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Buck Forage Oats and other brands of oats are popular among many hunters and may just be the absolute best deer attractant in fall food plots. Nothing serves better as a fall deer attractant than a food plot full of tender forage oats. Forage oats are the primary seed in most winter deer food plot blends offered by major seed manufacturers...and for good reason.
..deer love them!
Buck Forage Oats are known to be extremely winter-hardy while staying tender and more palatable longer throughout the fall hunting season. Buck Forage Oats germinate quickly and are much slower to put on thick and stemmy growth that deer avoid. Buck Forage Oats are also loved by other wildlife such as turkey, rabbit and many others. While Buck Forage Oats is an excellent choice of oats it's also a lot more expensive than other brands of seed oats on the market. Buck Forage Oats tend to run in the mid ~$45 range for a 50lb bag and may be worth every penny if their claims are true.
There a much cheaper forage oats but are they preferred as much as Buck Forage Oats? The Handy Hunter has used "feed oats" from Tractor Supply for many years with great success. These forage oats are made by Producers Pride and are sold as feed, not seed. Since they don't have the typical quality control that a Buck Forage Oats brand would have so there is less germination rate with Tractor Supply Oats. Although there is a slightly lower germination rate they still germinate quickly and will provide a food plot full of tender forage oats that deer will love. For the cost conscience, Tractor Supply Oats run about $13-$15 for a 50lb bag.
So the question is "do deer prefer one brand of forage oats over another"? The Handy Hunter set out this season to test if there's a difference using a small oats food plot. He chose a 1/10th of an acre plot and split it down the middle. He planted Buck Forage Oats on one side and Tractor Supply Oats (Producers Pride) on the other. So far, the 1-month results show that deer in general love tender forage oats. This plot is getting equally hammered on both sides. It's even getting grazing pressure from hogs as they seem to love grazing as well. The difference may be seen at the next update in the season as Buck Forage Oats could prove that they are tender for longer and are more palatable to deer later in the season. We will see!
Planting oats for deer is relatively easy. To develop an oats food plot you really only need to get the seed about an inch below the soil (it's pretty forgiving). I've even had it come up by throwing it on top of the ground and pulling a drag over it or packing it down with four wheelers, etc. I typically use the seeding rate of 50lbs per acre but I have used as much as 100lbs if starting a brand new plot and using forage oats as a single seed. If using forage oats in combination with other seeds such as winter peas, clovers, and brassicas then you will want to keep your forage oats seeding rate around 50lb or adjust accordingly.
The best food plot for deer is the one that brings them in early and keeps them longer. Deer food plots are a lot of fun to build and can easily be established using forage oats. In my opinion, forage oats is the best deer attractant for any fall deer food plot! If I only had one seed to plant for fall food plots in the south...it would be forage oats! Forage oats are the best food plot for deer and the cheapest!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this experiment as we look at deer preference later in the season between Buck Forage Oats and Tractor Supply Oats.
Thanks for watching and God Bless!
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