Deer feeding calendar by region.

Why timing changes by region

Every feeding calendar is built around one anchor: the rut. It is the most expensive event in a buck's year, the point where his energy demand peaks and his reserves crash. Post-rut recovery starts the day it ends, and everything else — spring minerals, summer growth, fall attraction — is spaced off that anchor.

The anchor moves. Whitetail in most of the country breed in mid-November, but the Deep South runs months later, and Florida barely agrees with itself. Winter severity, season length, summer heat, natural forage, and hunting pressure shift the details further. Feed the calendar your deer are on, not the one in a magazine.

Alabama

One of the latest and most variable ruts in the country. North Alabama peaks earliest — mid-December into early January — while most of the state breeds later still, the last two weeks of January into February; scattered pockets rut as early as November. Alabama's biologists trace the spread to decades of restocking that mixed deer genetics from all over. That drags peak energy demand into the coldest, barest weeks of the year, which makes late-winter recovery feeding the most underrated play in the state. Green-up recovery runs late too, so keep Triple Grip out through February and start Grip Grower and minerals as sheds drop in late winter. Summer is long and hot; water and mineral sites carry the herd through it. Attraction windows open as early as October as bucks stage for a rut that is still months away. See the Alabama state file.

South Carolina

The other extreme: among the earliest deer seasons in the nation, with the Lowcountry opening in mid-August while bucks elsewhere are still in velvet. The rut runs mid-October into November for most of the state. That compresses the growing season, so protein and minerals need to start early — late winter — and the switch to attraction comes in late July or August, not September. Post-rut recovery starts in November, months before Alabama's even begins. See the South Carolina state file.

Georgia

Most of Georgia ruts from late October through November, with wide local variation and pockets that run later in the southwest. It is a classic Southeastern calendar: sheds in February, velvet through August, hard horn in September. Acorn crops swing feed-site activity harder here than almost anywhere, so hold the program steady through heavy mast years even when visits dip; the deer come back when the mast runs out. See the Georgia state file.

Florida

The most variable rut in whitetail country. South Florida deer can breed in late July and August, Central Florida runs September into October, the North zones run November, and the Panhandle stretches into February. The same month means opposite things at opposite ends of the state, so run Florida by zone: anchor your program to your local rut date and shift the whole template accordingly. The month-by-month table below shows the pattern with zone notes. See the Florida state file.

Mississippi

A late, drawn-out rut like Alabama's: the Delta and Hills breed December into January while the southeast Coastal Plain runs into February. The calendar mirrors Alabama: recovery feeding deep into February, protein and minerals through the long hot growing season, attraction from October on. Summer heat stress is the quiet variable; deer that spend August panting need every bite to count, which is where digestible, fat-first feed earns its keep. See the Mississippi state file.

North Carolina

Three calendars in one state. Coastal deer rut in October, the Piedmont in mid-November, and the mountains not until early December. Coastal seasons open earliest, so the attraction switch moves with your longitude. Winters are real in the mountains; post-rut recovery feeding matters most there, while the coast's mild winters shift the emphasis to early-season attraction. See the North Carolina state file.

Tennessee

Tennessee breeds in the back half of November for most of the state, with the western river counties tending to run a little ahead of the eastern ridges. TWRA puts gestation at about 199 days, which lines that up with fawns on the ground in June. What separates Tennessee from the states below it is what comes after: the rut ends in late November and winter still has four months to run, with acorns picked over and green-up not until late March. December through February is the leverage window here, and it's recovery feeding rather than attraction — the season is over by then. Worth knowing that baiting on private land is legal for the first time as of the 2026-27 season, under a new state license, so a lot of Tennessee hunters are building a program from scratch. See the Tennessee state file.

Kansas

After the Deep South, Kansas is a relief to plan around: chasing in the last week of October, breeding through the middle of November, done by the end of the month, and very little drift from the Nebraska line to Oklahoma. The hard part isn't timing, it's supply. Kansas deer live on agriculture, and by mid-December the beans and corn are off and a section that fed forty deer is stubble. That leaves December through March as the longest, leanest stretch of any state on this list, and it comes straight out of next fall's antlers. Summers swing dry, so a mineral site that stays active through July and August is cheap insurance in a drought year. See the Kansas state file.

Arkansas

Arkansas splits down the middle. The Ozark and Ouachita hill counties rut earliest — late October through the third week of November — while the Delta runs late November into mid-December, the Mississippi River counties latest of all. The feeding story splits the same way: hill-country winters run on acorns, and a Forest Service study in the north Arkansas Ozarks found winter survival tracked mast almost directly, with high-quality winter food roughly doubling what the ground could carry. Delta deer eat well until the combines leave, then face a bare winter just as their rut winds down. Recovery feeding after the rut is the play on both sides — it just starts a month apart. See the Arkansas state file.

Texas

Texas doesn't have a rut; it has eight. TPWD's breeding study puts peak dates at September 30 on the upper Gulf Prairies, mid-November through the middle of the state, and December 16–24 in the South Texas brush — nearly a three-month spread, so anchor the template to your region and shift everything with it. The other Texas difference: the hard season is summer, not winter. Drought is the normal condition across the western half of the state, and TPWD names dry summers and the dry post-rut as the stress periods where supplemental feed matters most. Protein and minerals through the growing season carry more weight here than anywhere else on this list. See the Texas state file.

Virginia

Virginia's rut is the most predictable on this page — DWR's data centers peak conception on November 16, and photoperiod holds it there — but the law rewrites the calendar. Feeding is illegal statewide from September 1 through the first Saturday in January, and banned year-round in the 40-plus counties within 25 miles of a CWD detection. So the Virginia program runs on the edges: feed hard from the January close through late August, pull everything by September 1, and let food plots — legal everywhere, all year — carry the fall. See the Virginia state file.

Whitetail country overview

Outside the Deep South's late-rut belt, the classic pattern holds: sheds drop in late winter, antlers grow April through August, velvet strips around Labor Day, the pre-rut builds through October, the rut peaks in mid-November, and winter closes the books. If your state isn't listed yet, run this template and shift it by however far your local rut sits from mid-November.