For two years, I planted Full Draw or GPP and the deer would not touch the brassicas. Even after high 20's and somewhat of a freeze for the south, they would not touch them. I was ready to give up but decided to trust food plot dude, who has always given me sound advice, and give brassicas a third try. I planted strips of Full Draw with Outfitter's Blend. When the brassicas finally came up, the deer started to tear them up. Tore the tops off. I have not had temperatures below high 30's yet and they are tearing the brassicas up. Glad I listened to food plot dude and gave brassicas a third try.

Man I am so glad to hear that. Brassicas are nutritionally one of the best foods that I know of for whitetail, and it’s also one of the best tonnage/yield providers and sources of attraction as well. I’m glad that you stuck with it. It could have just been a specific variety of brassica that triggered it, or the last two times it could have been specific varieties they didn’t like. That’s one reason why we put several varieties in each blend. Now that they have figured brassicas out, I would expect them to eat them earlier and concentrate on them more. A whitetail’s “learning curve” and the things that are imprinted into a whitetail’s system can be hard to “break.” Just as it goes with human’s sometimes – “if it works…why change it?” Even though there may be something much better out there. I guess that could be a lesson for us also… always be open to try new things! Congratulations.

Had the same happen here with my first patch of GPP. I was told that sometimes deer must learn to eat it and sometimes the soil needs something. The second year I planted it they hit it after the first freezes and snows...since then they will hit it when growth reaches approx 12" to 16". Don't let fall start with out it. Varities/cultivars make a difference and BioLogic has some great stuff.

Talk about the human perspective. The funny part is my friend was looking at my plot and noticed the tops bit off. He decides that he has to tear off a piece of brassica to taste. His comment was that it was real sweet and that he understood why the deer were tearing them up. He was ready to take some to cook like collards and eat them himself. I've been trying to convert him over to Biologic for two years so this might do it.

Actually, I hear quite frequently about people eating the greens. And that's one thing that I also do often - when I see a whitetail eating something I will snip a piece and try it for myself - not necessarily for the taste, but to see how fast it breaks down.

This is Dr. Grant Wood's "Five chew test"
Whitetails are slaves to their gut, and a whitetail with an empty stomach is one that is on the move, seeking something to fill that empty rumen. Research has shown that foods with higher lignin content, or more woody, tough foods like twigs and stems, takes longer to digest. Deer with a diet high in lignin move less and are probably seen less by hunters. Many popular foodplot forages like clovers and brassicas are low in lignin content and digest more quickly - meaning more feeding times and increased deer movement.
One easy way for you to test the toughness and digestibility of the browse your deer are consuming is to do a “chew test.” I like to pick a sample of my food-plot crops, chew it between my back molars (as a deer would), and after five chomps spit it out to see the results. If I chew a juicy leaf of brassica, for instance, it should be well ground up and ready to be swallowed after only five chews. Try this with a stalk of, say, ryegrass - five chews later that stem is going to look the same as it did when you put it in your mouth. Use my “five-chews test” to see just how digestible your crops are for deer.