Not necessarily. If you’re able to raise clover or alfalfa, those are perennials. If you maintain the plot by mowing it and if the deer aren’t eating it down, fertilizing it annually like you should, it could last as many as 5 years. Clover and alfalfa make their own nitrogen, so the only things you’ll need are potassium and phosphorous. They’re supposed to produce as much as 20,000 pounds of green forage per acre per year. And they’re supposed to be as high as 36 percent protein. If you can get at least over 20 percent, you’re in good shape. The pellets I feed are about 18 percent, and the deer get a lot of good out of 18 percent. In the wild, they only get 8 to 11 percent, so anything you can do to increase their protein intake is extremely beneficial.
One other thing, if you’ve got fruit trees or nut trees, mast crops. If you can fertilize your mast crops, your fruit trees or acorns, pecans, and things like that, you will improve the attractiveness of your area. Put it along the drip line of the tree, then the tree will produce the mast crop that you want.