You won’t believe what the deer on my property were eating in the late winter of 2014. We had heavy snow that completely curtailed the use of food plots and forced the deer into areas of brush and evergreen trees. But the main food source was a plant that grows in abundance in one spot but is not a deer favorite most of the year. The common name is horsetail. Now, when you see how this was being hammered by the deer, you may be tempted to try to cultivate it on your property. That may or may not be a good idea. Their use of it in this case was very situational. This happens to be an area with flowing water about 18 inches below the surface 365 days per year, keeping the ground warmer than the surrounding fields. Plus there was lots of other food in this spot, including willows, red osier dogwoods and white pines, all of which are preferred browse, and all of which also got hammered. The key to successfully helping deer get through the winter is to provide variety in the habitat. Have enough variety, and they will figure out what they need at any given time to make it through stress periods, whether it be winter in Michigan or summer in Florida. In this video I add some hinge cutting to the area they were using and they begin to use it within about 5 minutes after I leave.