Brassicas

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Interesting field observation. I was on stand a few days ago, October 2 I believe. I was looking over an acre+ of turnip/radish plot to north with nothing but cow pasture to south. I was thinking to my self, man this plot doesn't look that great. Hadn't been in there in a while and it looked real good previously. I soon figured out why.

Deer, deer, deer. Plot loaded up with deer and I tell you what they are hammering it. Not just the tops. The bulbs and all. Need a frost....? Apparently not in that neck of the woods. 22 deer on an acre that night. Plot won't make it to November. There's 5+ acres of that mix on the farm and its not like its the only food around, far from it. Clover, bean plots, cereal grains, plus production ag all over. I guess those deer just have a tooth for root veggies. I'm wondering if any of it will be around when it gets good.

Sidenote. No BS, right before I was about the get down I almost got nocked out of my stand by an owl. Thing bombed me and pulled up at the last second like Maverick hitting the brakes on his F-16 on top gun. Second time that has happened in last 6 years. Strange.

 

[Lucky13]

Interesting field observation. I was on stand a few days ago, October 2 I believe. I was looking over an acre+ of turnip/radish plot to north with nothing but cow pasture to south. I was thinking to my self, man this plot doesn't look that great. Hadn't been in there in a while and it looked real good previously. I soon figured out why. Deer, deer, deer. Plot loaded up with deer and I tell you what they are hammering it. Not just the tops. The bulbs and all. Need a frost....? Apparently not in that neck of the woods. 22 deer on an acre that night. Plot won't make it to November. There's 5+ acres of that mix on the farm and its not like its the only food around, far from it. Clover, bean plots, cereal grains, plus production ag all over. I guess those deer just have a tooth for root veggies. I'm wondering if any of it will be around when it gets good. Sidenote. No BS, right before I was about the get down I almost got nocked out of my stand by an owl. Thing bombed me and pulled up at the last second like Maverick hitting the brakes on his F-16 on top gun. Second time that has happened in last 6 years. Strange.

F-14 Tomcat!!

 

[arm]

Rookie question here. I moved some bale blinds down to my plots this last weekend after not being there for a couple weeks. I did not have a very successful plot for probably a number of reasons. Anyways, I noticed that the bulbs I did get to grow were all ate in half...the part above the ground. Will they finish off the rest underground when they need the food come late season?

 

[BJohnson]

"Will they finish off the rest underground when they need the food come late season?"

Last fall was the first year I did any brassicas so I am a novice compared to most. The deer hammered the bulbs on my first plot and dug down into the dirt to finish them off last Jan-Feb.

 

[Daver]

Rookie question here. I moved some bale blinds down to my plots this last weekend after not being there for a couple weeks. I did not have a very successful plot for probably a number of reasons. Anyways, I noticed that the bulbs I did get to grow were all ate in half...the part above the ground. Will they finish off the rest underground when they need the food come late season?

In my experience, there is a substantial difference between how deer go after turnips(later) and radishes(earlier). I was looking in a couple of my brassica plots just the other day and from what I saw, it looked like the deer had cleaned out almost all of the radishes at this point. (This is not surprising to me, as I commonly witness deer eating whole radishes, plant and bulb, in the Sept. through mid-Nov. time frame AND skipping turnips in the early fall.)

What varies is how the killing frosts fall each autumn and subsequently, how the "fruit" holds up. IMO, turnips are much hardier than radishes. I have had several years in the past where the radishes were just plain rotten by Thanksgiving and not a draw at all, but this year, they still look and smell good, what few I could see.

My interpretation is that we didn't have real killing frosts early in the fall, then followed by much warmer weather, although we did have a warm fall. I would say we had conditions that allowed for plant growth through October this year, with the warmer temps, but no super hard frosts to kill the plants early.

I did see some turnip bulbs halfway gnawed up the other day, but they will become more desirable as it gets colder. In every case that I can think of, ALL brassicas will be totally consumed by late January/February and the field will look like pigs rooted in it.

Overall, this ended up being a very good year for our brassicas even though we struggled to get them planted because it was so wet through July...then near total drought in August and early Sept. What saved them was good moisture and fair temps in September and October IMO.

 

[HorseDoctor]

Someone reassure me again that the deer will learn to eat turnips sooner or later. I'm in the 3rd year of the Dbltree rotation and they have left most of the bulbs for fertilizer in past years. This year, a little action on the radishes and plenty of grazing on the the rye, oats, clover and the adjacent winter wheat patch but not much on the turnips.

 

[arm]

In my experience, there is a substantial difference between how deer go after turnips(later) and radishes(earlier). I was looking in a couple of my brassica plots just the other day and from what I saw, it looked like the deer had cleaned out almost all of the radishes at this point. (This is not surprising to me, as I commonly witness deer eating whole radishes, plant and bulb, in the Sept. through mid-Nov. time frame AND skipping turnips in the early fall.)

What varies is how the killing frosts fall each autumn and subsequently, how the "fruit" holds up. IMO, turnips are much hardier than radishes. I have had several years in the past where the radishes were just plain rotten by Thanksgiving and not a draw at all, but this year, they still look and smell good, what few I could see.

My interpretation is that we didn't have real killing frosts early in the fall, then followed by much warmer weather, although we did have a warm fall. I would say we had conditions that allowed for plant growth through October this year, with the warmer temps, but no super hard frosts to kill the plants early.

I did see some turnip bulbs halfway gnawed up the other day, but they will become more desirable as it gets colder. In every case that I can think of, ALL brassicas will be totally consumed by late January/February and the field will look like pigs rooted in it.

Overall, this ended up being a very good year for our brassicas even though we struggled to get them planted because it was so wet through July...then near total drought in August and early Sept. What saved them was good moisture and fair temps in September and October IMO.

That's interesting. I'll have to take a closer look and compare your findings against mine. At the glance, I thought it was the small turnip bulbs that were nipped off. The BIG turnip bulbs, if they were touched, had small single bite marks in them. I could have most likely confused the turnips for radishes when seeing all the white specs in the field. One thing for sure, the day that snow was on the ground, deer were in my plot all day each day and that's going to be pretty fun assuming it'll snow again

 

[4 Buck]

Someone reassure me again that the deer will learn to eat turnips sooner or later. I'm in the 3rd year of the Dbltree rotation and they have left most of the bulbs for fertilizer in past years. This year, a little action on the radishes and plenty of grazing on the the rye, oats, clover and the adjacent winter wheat patch but not much on the turnips.

I feel your pain...im in the same boat! Very little grazing

 

[Daver]

Someone reassure me again that the deer will learn to eat turnips sooner or later. I'm in the 3rd year of the Dbltree rotation and they have left most of the bulbs for fertilizer in past years. This year, a little action on the radishes and plenty of grazing on the the rye, oats, clover and the adjacent winter wheat patch but not much on the turnips.

I have heard, or read, this ^^ several times over the years, BUT, that has not been my experience, so I am not sure what to advise. IMO, the radishes are "candy" early(Sept/Oct) and I have watched deer many times "pick" their way through a brassica field eating ONLY radishes at that time.

The turnips, the "meat", will get attention, but usually not until early-to-mid December...after a couple of good killing frosts. The turnip bulb "sugars" up after hard freezes, it is starchy prior to that.

Soooo...if I was having trouble getting the deer to eat turnips, I would adjust the ratio of radishes(candy) to turnips(meet) and get them "hooked".

 

[HorseDoctor]

I have heard, or read, this ^^ several times over the years, BUT, that has not been my experience, so I am not sure what to advise. IMO, the radishes are "candy" early(Sept/Oct) and I have watched deer many times "pick" their way through a brassica field eating ONLY radishes at that time.

The turnips, the "meat", will get attention, but usually not until early-to-mid December...after a couple of good killing frosts. The turnip bulb "sugars" up after hard freezes, it is starchy prior to that.

Soooo...if I was having trouble getting the deer to eat turnips, I would adjust the ratio of radishes(candy) to turnips(meet) and get them "hooked".

Thanks! At the advice of others (CI), I did up the amount of radish in the mix this year. But, if the deer keep going to my wife's corn/bean plot (300 yards away) instead of my Dbltree plot for late season, I'll be forced to plant some corn & beans to compete with her. Tired of being outdone by her!

 

[goatman]

Will be hard to judge this year if it don't get cold. Deer here really pound the turnips in single digit temps. Like Daver said radishes are early feed and usually rotten by now. Deer here at home now what turnips are because neighbor has put them in before for his cattle. My other place 5 miles away they just pull them up and maybe bite them alittle. Up there they will eat radish now. Before when frozen in the deer here would eat the turnips above ground and as soon as it thawed they came back and rooted out what was left in the ground. Got my best turnips this year but will probably rot like last year when it got warm in Jan.

 

[Daver]

Just an FYI...in my recollection, this year has been an outlier as it relates to brassicas in that this continued warm weather has resulted in no discernible rotting of radishes so far. I had a friend of mine hunting at my place this past weekend and while the movement was very subdued, he did observe deer feeding actively in a close by brassica plot.

They were primarily targeting the few remaining radishes and downing them one after another. I am not so sure that the brassicas aren't still growing...very slowly, if they are, but are still pretty green and sturdy. No rotting or spoiling that I can detect.

Now then, things could change fast when the temps drop. I will say that the grass in the yard is still green and growing. I might have to mow again!

 

[10hunter]

No turnips rotting here either as of Saturday. Deer have started eating tops off o(started in last week)and still grazing on rye and clover. Now are probably underwater so will see if deer return and eat again after floods. Hope this year is an outlier on the curve and not a recurring trend

 

[skyleralan]

Finally got out to plots and the deer seem to be hammering the brassicas. Got cams back out over plots to see what is showing up. Even found my first shed of the year in process of putting cams back up.

 

[Daver]

I stepped through a brassica field yesterday while checking cams and they still look pretty good. Some turnips are being gnawed on, but overall, the field looks like it is early November, not late December.

 

[scottonbuck]

I stepped through a brassica field yesterday while checking cams and they still look pretty good. Some turnips are being gnawed on, but overall, the field looks like it is early November, not late December.

Had 20 deer in the turnips tonight with more than half being bucks. Nothing over 135". They have been hammering the turnips it looks like it snowed with all the half eaten turnips on the ground

 

[MNbuckhunter]

Anyone who hadn't been seeing much action in the brassicas seeing much the last couple days with the snow???

Just curious as I haven't been to our farm in a while and there was not much going on in the brassica department. I'd assume now with 8-10" of snow they would be in there...

 

[Daver]

Anyone who hadn't been seeing much action in the brassicas seeing much the last couple days with the snow???

Just curious as I haven't been to our farm in a while and there was not much going on in the brassica department. I'd assume now with 8-10" of snow they would be in there...

My son will be hunting our place this afternoon, I will ask him what he saw in terms of brassica usage. I suspect though that with a little dose of actual winter weather, the deer will finally be on the corn and beans more right now.

At least that is where I told him to sit.

 

[HorseDoctor]

My son will be hunting our place this afternoon, I will ask him what he saw in terms of brassica usage. I suspect though that with a little dose of actual winter weather, the deer will finally be on the corn and beans more right now.

At least that is where I told him to sit.

Pretty much what I'm seeing. Still very minimal action on the Doubletree plots. Corn & beans are getting pounded!

 

[chipterp]

They've been pounding our brassicas for 3 weeks now and were digging them up last night when my brother was down at the farm up the road from Dave.