Do deer eat planted sunflowers?

[Typical_Pickle]

Hey everyone! I’m pretty new to hunting so sorry if this is a dumb question, but if I find a field of planted sunflowers that looks like they're about to bloom in the next handful of days, will deer key in on it? I was scouting around some public today and everything butting up to the woodlots/swamp is beans or corn, I was having trouble finding any kind of limiting feature to concentrate some deer and stumbled on this field. I’m going to drive around and glass it in the morning when the storm passes, but I am a bit limited on time in general due to having young kids and I’m trying to get my first deer after a few years of tag soup. The area is pretty heavily pressured and I’m also having trouble finding areas untouched by people, so I’m moreso just looking to get some meat (the mature bucks will come in the future). I’d appreciate any and all help, thanks!

[Grizzlyadam]

I saw just that earlier this season. There was a field planted with corn and had a handful of rows of sunflowers around the perimeter. The deer hammered those sunflowers, leaves and all.

[Skydog24]

Yes, deer love sunflowers. A lot of dove fields down here in SC are planted with sunflowers and the deer just crush them.

[Typical_Pickle]

Cool, thanks!

[Typical_Pickle]

If anyone’s still reading this, there’s a posted trail going into the public beside the field. I followed it to a waterhole with high ridges in an otherwise flat area I wasn’t expecting to find, and blew a deer out of some thick cover nearby (it definitely knew what I was). There was potentially some buck staging on the one corner of the pothole, from my limited knowledge it is how I interpereted the sign. Most sign was old but I did manage to find 2 fresher but smaller rubs. I left to keep scouting other properties but came back at sunset to glass the fields and saw nothing in the sunflowers. I found deer on a piece I can hunt nearby, so I dont have to force anything on this property.

I’m going to check the fields in the morning, we have a decent storm moving through overnight. On this specific property, would you try to figure out how to set up where the deer blew from on the water hole for tomorrow? Or would you set back and stage hunt towards the best feature on the property (as long as the deer are around)? There’s a fair amount of public around so I can hop around if this burns out.

[Typical_Pickle]

If anyone’s still reading this, there’s a posted trail going into the public beside the field. I followed it to a waterhole with high ridges in an otherwise flat area I wasn’t expecting to find, and blew a deer out of some thick cover nearby (it definitely knew what I was). There was potentially some buck staging on the one corner of the pothole, from my limited knowledge it is how I interpereted the sign. Most sign was old but I did manage to find 2 fresher but smaller rubs. I left to keep scouting other properties but came back at sunset to glass the fields and saw nothing in the sunflowers. I found deer on a piece I can hunt nearby, so I dont have to force anything on this property.

I’m going to check the fields in the morning, we have a decent storm moving through overnight. On this specific property, would you try to figure out how to set up where the deer blew from on the water hole for tomorrow? Or would you set back and stage hunt towards the best feature on the property (as long as the deer are around)? There’s a fair amount of public around so I can hop around if this burns out.