Not just that, but they typically provide a more diverse source of deer foods (nutrients often more important to herd health than just the carbohydrates found in corn).
Food plots also add diversity to habitat, often providing fawning cover for deer, nesting/poulting/feeding cover for birds (like quail & turkey).
Speaking of "cover", there is zero cover around a corn feeder, and all wildlife using that "spot" experience a much higher rate of being preyed upon than does wildlife using field or food plot.
Anytime wildlife is more concentrated feeding in a single spot, predators are quick to note that spot. Coyotes, bobcats, and raptors learn to just "camp out" continuously near a wildlife feeder. And guess which deer are the most vulnerable to their predation? Button bucks, the very deer many hunters placing feeders would most want to survive?
We talk much about the disease issue, and especially the aflatoxin poison that's so deadly to birds. But truth is, more turkeys & birds may be lost due to increased predation, as a direct result of feeders.
This is particularly the case with "corn piles", but not always the case with permanent stationary "feeders". Some people do feed protein sources (such as soybeans) in their feeders. Just rarely diverse like what Mother Nature can grow, and still concentrates wildlife to a small "spot", rather than their being spread out "browsing" over a larger area.
