Nova Trapper, The short answer to your question is rye/triticale and turnips but there is more to the story. I'm located on the line of zone 4 and 5 lying between Lake Ontario and Tugg Hill. We get less snow than the Hill but are in the snow belt for sure. There is a picture on my property tour thread "Recreating a Deer Woods" of deer digging thru snow to eat winter rye in the dead of winter. The deer were there just about every single winter day on and off all day. Scroll down about 1/2 way down the linked page to see said pic.
http://www.deerhunterforum.com/index.php?threads/recreating-a-deer-woods.1088/page-7
Like yours, our winters are long and extreme; By February a ten degree day if still and sunny, feels delightfully warm! Since the spring of 2014 when well over thirty winter killed deer were found on this property, we have focused on helping the deer get thru winters in as good a shape as possible. We had put forth much effort to get deer thru winter prior to the winter kill year but that caused us to focus on it even more.Trying to sum up what is written on my thread here are the main efforts that have helped get us to a population of around 64 deer counted/calculated pre-fawn during late winter 2017 on 605 acres. In no order of importance because each activity helps the other.
-Logged a quarter of the property a year for three years running with the goal of creating great deer woods over any consideration for future timber production except for one14 acre stand of hard maple. Besides raising our fawn recruitment thru the roof via its protective cover, the resultant browse is now available to house and feed the deer all winter.
-Released over two thousand wild apple trees. This of course produces millions of apples some of which last thru winter but as or more importantly apple tree browse is the hands down, number 1 preferred, winter deer browse here. Huge amounts of other brushy browse plants growing in the sunlight around the released apple trees is also a large side benefit.
-Planted over thirty acres of rye and triticale which as mentioned, the deer feed on mostly daily throughout the winter. It is important to note that food plot locations abutting the thickest nastiest cover sanctuaries receive the most deer use and help the deer to both conserve energy And avoid predators(coyotes here). Also the rye/triticale plot benefits the deer the most in windswept spots where the snow may only be two to three feet deep instead of four, five or even worse.
-Planted around three acres of turnips annually with around July 15 being an optimum planting date. Again, it is important not to cause the deer to risk their lives to travel to the winter plot. It needs to abut protective cover.
-Dropped full sized poplar trees(quaking aspen) in late January/early February in bunches of four to five and as with food plots always near holding cover. Have witnessed over twenty deer a day eating the tops of just one dropped poplar. We plan to drop them annually during winter at a rate that is sustainable.
I'm sure I've missed some stuff but these were at least some of the major activities that have resulted in a population "explosion" on this property while properties around me are barely in a holding pattern. Food plots matter, no doubt about it but they alone will not get deer thru winters like where you and I live.
