Re: food plots for whitetails
Either one of the products you mentioned are excellent for whitetail in terms of protein levels and antler production. Straight lab lab is one of the best choices, the only problem with lab lab is that it doesn't tolerate early grazing pressure at all. If the deer eat it when it is first coming up it will kill it. If you are going to plant lab lab then you need to either plant it in an area where you can keep the deer off of it (high fence, electric fence, etc.) or plant a large enough area that you plant more than the deer can over graze. Usually you need to plant at least one acre per 8 deer to stay ahead of the deer on food plots. Also there are products where lab lab is blended with other seeds, like the Tecomate Lab Lab plus, the theory behind this is that the deer will prefer the other plants in the mix early on, which gives the lab lab time to develop. I'm not sure if it really works that way though, I've sold that product to people and the only thing they get a stand of is sorghum.
I haven't used BioMaxx, I was thinking that was the product that is a mix of corn and soybeans. I would think you would have to have pretty good soil conditions to get a good stand on it. Also, the early grazing pressure issue could affect the soybeans in that mix as well. I know in the Central Texas area it is very hard to get a stand of soybeans, I guess our climate isn't right.
It's important to remember that a lot of the seeds that work well in Kansas and the Midwest, doesn't work worth a darn in Texas. A lot of these seed companies and hunting shows promote products that don't work well in warmer, drier, southern climates.
The Biologic Texas Draw you mentioned is also a good food plot blend, it has a mix of different seeds that grow at different times of the year. The Chicory in that product if planted in September will grow until July...giving you as much as 10 months of grazing.
For spring/summer food plots just remember that this is the toughest time to plant something and get it established, but this is the time of year that will directly affect antler growth.
Fall food plots to me are important mainly just as attractants. I haven't seen any of the blends that "attracted" deer any better than just straight oats or wheat. I have mixed Austrian winter peas and Vetch in with my oats and had good success getting a good stand. The Austrian winter peas seem to do the best as far as a legume mixed with winter small grains. Clovers never seem to do much for me. I might add though that I plant in Central Texas and the Texas Hill Country, I'm sure different areas get different results.
I have also used the Brassicas myself. They are great for deer but it is a weird plant. They are basically hubrid turnips that are very easy to get established, you can literally just throw the seed out on top of the ground. They are bitter until they mature or you get a frost on them, so they get to be 3 foot tall and nothing touches them, then when they mature and begin fermenting sugars, the deer can't eat them fast enough. At my place the deer didn't touch them for 2 months, and then ate every ounce of them in one week! The bad part is if you're not hunting that week, you may come back to your food plot and just find a bunch of stumps where the turnips were...