food plots and corn help deer in winter time, BUT like having a 24/7 food bank, , deer will tend to eat when its safest for them, and don't care that you want them there in hunting hrs LOL
NOW as for the turnips, I have seen deer love them and some deer could care less about them, I planted them for many many yrs, and the type of turnips made a BIG difference too, some brands they liked better, but they always seemed to like the green stems best! and, come winter time, when the ground was frozen, they tended to stay out of the turnips, NOW if there was snow and the ground was still soft, they did dig some, but , prefered my other food plots better(corn/beans) they WOULD however, get the turnips come spring time and clean them up when they were rotton and smelly as crap!,
I have seen this many times in many areas too, when there frozen, I think they are too hard for deer to really eat and as such they don;t like them, guess the moisture in them also freezes and makes them rock hard!
NOW here in my area the local gun /hunt clubs feed deer piles of Flower bulbs, just like a turnip, they feed about a 100+ ton a winter behind my house, and there are deer 24/7 on these piles
but they eat the soft ones and leave the frozen one and are always digging to get lower in the pile to where they are soft, there will be holes about 3 ft deep in spots
as for getting deer into hunting lands in shooting light, thats tricky, on smaller plots, I would suggest you look into plot saver, and like systems to keep deer out till hunting dates you want to hunt, I would also suggest trying to make the plots more attractive to day time use, buy planting pine trees and such to surrouind it to make them feel safer in it in day light
same can be said with making bedding cover closer to it or at least making cover they can travel thru
deer just don't like being out in the open if they don't have to, and in summer, into harvest time, that is one BIG reason standing corn works so well, they can live in it 24/7 just need water and there good, and other foods they can hit at night!
but its hard to pull deer with small plots if BIG food /crops are near by, thats where saving a prime food till later on can be the killer set up
here's a few pictures of deer on a bulb pile, if you look in the last pic, a button buck is mounting a doe?? LOL
little eary for the rut this yr LOL
there are a bout a dozen piles like this behind my place, they pull deer from MILES in winters like this one, and its about all that is keeping them alive, as about 3 ft of snow has been on the groun d here for the past 2 months and temps below freezing since dec, without these bulbs there would be a ton of wionter kills here!, going to have a lot of winter kill in PA this yr!
see bad hunting in 2015 due to it too!