dbltree
Super Moderator
Welcome to IW! :way:
Try rye and radishes instead of wheat and turnips...(oats and peas optional) and i think you'll be pleased....:way:
Welcome to IW! :way:
Try rye and radishes instead of wheat and turnips...(oats and peas optional) and i think you'll be pleased....:way:
dbltree
Super Moderator
In early September I "side swiped" the soybean field with the bag seeder and winter rye even though it was late and the soybeans still yellowing. Now...the soybeans have been harvested and the rye remains despite having been run over repeatedly by giant combines turning at the field edge.
Had the soybeans been left standing, the combination would them become an outstanding source of both grain and forage
Winter rye is so easy and inexpensive to overseed into standing crops and a great option where soybeans will be harvested rather then be left as a food plot.
This rye had no extra fertilizer added but one can broadcast urea after the rye has germinated to encourage more and rapid growth....
Had the soybeans been left standing, the combination would them become an outstanding source of both grain and forage
Winter rye is so easy and inexpensive to overseed into standing crops and a great option where soybeans will be harvested rather then be left as a food plot.
This rye had no extra fertilizer added but one can broadcast urea after the rye has germinated to encourage more and rapid growth....
dbltree
Super Moderator
November 8th, 2010
The winter rye, oat, forage pea and forage radish combo is still lush and green despite no rain and repeated hard killing freezes down to 24 degrees
Now....deer are starting to focus on the forage radish more then the cereals...the opposite of their initial reaction to the planting when they focused on the cereals
These plots have been well fertilized and want for nothing so are keeping up with heavy grazing
The strip plots insure a steady supply of feed that will carry deer all the way into spring and beyond so whitetails never have a reason to leave this farm
The cereal plantings all include white or red clovers that will provide a steady source of food without interruption and that should be a goal of every landowner managing for whitetails... :way:
Here are links to Welter Seed for radish, pea and clover seeds
Ground Hog Forage Radish Seed
Pea and rye seed
Clover seeds
The winter rye, oat, forage pea and forage radish combo is still lush and green despite no rain and repeated hard killing freezes down to 24 degrees
Now....deer are starting to focus on the forage radish more then the cereals...the opposite of their initial reaction to the planting when they focused on the cereals
These plots have been well fertilized and want for nothing so are keeping up with heavy grazing
The strip plots insure a steady supply of feed that will carry deer all the way into spring and beyond so whitetails never have a reason to leave this farm
The cereal plantings all include white or red clovers that will provide a steady source of food without interruption and that should be a goal of every landowner managing for whitetails... :way:
Here are links to Welter Seed for radish, pea and clover seeds
Ground Hog Forage Radish Seed
Pea and rye seed
Clover seeds
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dbltree
Super Moderator
A friend asked me recently.."so what's up with these strip plots....why not just plant clover in one, rye in another and brassicas over in that field?? Why plant all of them in each plot??"
That question could be answered in any of my threads but like the question "why plant rye"...there are multiple answers and this thread is as good as any to address the principle reasons.
ADAPTATION...we want our whitetails to become adapted to always having feed in the same place year around!
Why?? Who cares? They'll find the other food sources when this one runes out!
Of course they will...but we want those deer to adapt to traveling the same runaways back and forth from bedding to feed, day after day, month after month, year after year. Dominate does lead their doe group and fawns... adapt, yearling does with their fawn...adapt and the habits become ingrained, so deeply that they stop bothering to seek out other food sources.
Each field... large...
or small...
should have a combination of food sources that will absolutely not leave deer with out feed for a single day of the year!
There are many such combination's but one that works well for most small plotters is clover, brassicas and winter rye, peas and radish. ALL of these can be planted in 3 different strips...each planted as a separate planting within the strip and easily rotated (another attribute of strip planting) yet the combination will feed deer 100% year around.
White clover feed whitetails from early spring until late fall, brassicas from mid summer to late January and winter rye will feed deer all winter and because it grows longer into the winter then wheat and starts growing earlier in the spring then wheat, rye is a crucial element in strip cropping.
It takes a few years but gradually, over time deer adapt to this continual never ending food supply and then even freshly harvested crops a 1/2 mile away cannot lure them away.
This little plot shows clearly the rye, peas and radish on the left, brassica mix in the center and white clover on the right in the plot beyond the lane and the reverse in the foreground plot.
We can do the same thing with white clover strips or blocks and soybeans by simply overseeding rye and radishes into the standing soybeans or planting a field to strips or blocks of corn, soybeans and alfalfa.
Planting soybeans in the back forty and clover at the other end of the farm does NOT adapt deer to using the same runways and in fact encourages them to develop new travel patterns that making hunting them more difficult.
Combine thick, safe, secure bedding sanctuaries with feeding areas that always, always have great food sources in them, with narrow bottlenecks and hunting those deer will become amazingly easy. If you enjoy working extremely hard to harvest a buck and being frustrated year after year, then...don't give my advice a lick of attention....
If however you want to hold deer on your property year around ...
if you want those deer to do the exact same thing every day
if you want bucks to become "homebodies"...
that show up every day in the same places
then give some thought to how extremely important it is to provide food sources year around in the SAME spot...
Think about it....just common sense friends....
That question could be answered in any of my threads but like the question "why plant rye"...there are multiple answers and this thread is as good as any to address the principle reasons.
ADAPTATION...we want our whitetails to become adapted to always having feed in the same place year around!
Why?? Who cares? They'll find the other food sources when this one runes out!
Of course they will...but we want those deer to adapt to traveling the same runaways back and forth from bedding to feed, day after day, month after month, year after year. Dominate does lead their doe group and fawns... adapt, yearling does with their fawn...adapt and the habits become ingrained, so deeply that they stop bothering to seek out other food sources.
Each field... large...
or small...
should have a combination of food sources that will absolutely not leave deer with out feed for a single day of the year!
There are many such combination's but one that works well for most small plotters is clover, brassicas and winter rye, peas and radish. ALL of these can be planted in 3 different strips...each planted as a separate planting within the strip and easily rotated (another attribute of strip planting) yet the combination will feed deer 100% year around.
White clover feed whitetails from early spring until late fall, brassicas from mid summer to late January and winter rye will feed deer all winter and because it grows longer into the winter then wheat and starts growing earlier in the spring then wheat, rye is a crucial element in strip cropping.
It takes a few years but gradually, over time deer adapt to this continual never ending food supply and then even freshly harvested crops a 1/2 mile away cannot lure them away.
This little plot shows clearly the rye, peas and radish on the left, brassica mix in the center and white clover on the right in the plot beyond the lane and the reverse in the foreground plot.
We can do the same thing with white clover strips or blocks and soybeans by simply overseeding rye and radishes into the standing soybeans or planting a field to strips or blocks of corn, soybeans and alfalfa.
Planting soybeans in the back forty and clover at the other end of the farm does NOT adapt deer to using the same runways and in fact encourages them to develop new travel patterns that making hunting them more difficult.
Combine thick, safe, secure bedding sanctuaries with feeding areas that always, always have great food sources in them, with narrow bottlenecks and hunting those deer will become amazingly easy. If you enjoy working extremely hard to harvest a buck and being frustrated year after year, then...don't give my advice a lick of attention....
If however you want to hold deer on your property year around ...
if you want those deer to do the exact same thing every day
if you want bucks to become "homebodies"...
that show up every day in the same places
then give some thought to how extremely important it is to provide food sources year around in the SAME spot...
Think about it....just common sense friends....
dbltree
Super Moderator
November 24th, 2010
Attracting does is the most important function of our food sources, because they in turn attract bucks during the time they are most vulnerable. It's also nice however to see that the winter rye, oat, forage pea, forage radish and clover combination attracts....the big boys as well.... :way:
Keep in mind there is freshly harvested corn a few hundred yards away and standing corn next to huge blocks of timber a 1/2 mile away
Yet these bucks are here...foraging on the winter rye mix
These pictures serve as an example of how heavily the rye mix has been grazed because deer are reluctant to graze the last couple feet next to the flash cam.
It's easily knee high near the cam while the rest has been grazed to 4-6"
I talk often about the need to plant strips of multiple food sources to provide year around feed and this is just another example where deer are commonly seen grazing on clover and rye at the same time on opposite sides of the plot.
One might look at this and say...why bother with rye if they eat the clover? The clover however will soon be done for the winter as temps plummet awhile the rye will last literally all winter and start growing long before any other crops in the spring.
The smaller plots are grazed down and look something like this...easy to see the young red clover coming up that will feed deer next summer and....when tiled under for brassicas it will in turn feed the nitrogen loving plants as it decomposes.
The larger strip plots like this one (the brassicas are to the far right/background and clover beyond that) were heavily fertilized and large enough that deer have not been able to graze it to the ground which of course was what we had in mind.
We need the rye/pea/radish combo to last well into the first of the year and the GHFR is proving to be a tremendous draw right now with the tops heavily used, the roots will garner the attention later on.
The combination or cereals, radishes and peas is just one of the finest one can plant, not only providing a high quality source of food literally until spring but also scavenging nitrogen, pulling up potassium, loosening compacted soils, adding tons of biomass, fixing N (the peas are legumes) and if clover is added will provide a large share of the N required when the strip is rotated to brassicas the following summer....
Much of this mix can be overseeded into standing soybeans in late August and urea broadcast before a rain to encourage growth and that mix is probably the only combination better then this mix alone. If you haven't tried combining winter rye, oats, forage peas, forage radish and red clover for you fall planting...give it a try next fall....you won't be disappointed....
Attracting does is the most important function of our food sources, because they in turn attract bucks during the time they are most vulnerable. It's also nice however to see that the winter rye, oat, forage pea, forage radish and clover combination attracts....the big boys as well.... :way:
Keep in mind there is freshly harvested corn a few hundred yards away and standing corn next to huge blocks of timber a 1/2 mile away
Yet these bucks are here...foraging on the winter rye mix
These pictures serve as an example of how heavily the rye mix has been grazed because deer are reluctant to graze the last couple feet next to the flash cam.
It's easily knee high near the cam while the rest has been grazed to 4-6"
I talk often about the need to plant strips of multiple food sources to provide year around feed and this is just another example where deer are commonly seen grazing on clover and rye at the same time on opposite sides of the plot.
One might look at this and say...why bother with rye if they eat the clover? The clover however will soon be done for the winter as temps plummet awhile the rye will last literally all winter and start growing long before any other crops in the spring.
The smaller plots are grazed down and look something like this...easy to see the young red clover coming up that will feed deer next summer and....when tiled under for brassicas it will in turn feed the nitrogen loving plants as it decomposes.
The larger strip plots like this one (the brassicas are to the far right/background and clover beyond that) were heavily fertilized and large enough that deer have not been able to graze it to the ground which of course was what we had in mind.
We need the rye/pea/radish combo to last well into the first of the year and the GHFR is proving to be a tremendous draw right now with the tops heavily used, the roots will garner the attention later on.
The combination or cereals, radishes and peas is just one of the finest one can plant, not only providing a high quality source of food literally until spring but also scavenging nitrogen, pulling up potassium, loosening compacted soils, adding tons of biomass, fixing N (the peas are legumes) and if clover is added will provide a large share of the N required when the strip is rotated to brassicas the following summer....
Much of this mix can be overseeded into standing soybeans in late August and urea broadcast before a rain to encourage growth and that mix is probably the only combination better then this mix alone. If you haven't tried combining winter rye, oats, forage peas, forage radish and red clover for you fall planting...give it a try next fall....you won't be disappointed....
dbltree
Super Moderator
December 8th, 2010
There wearing a path thru the rye/oat/pea/radish/clover mix now!
This stuff was knee high and they have mowed it down, even the taller stemmy areas
Hard to find any peas or radishes now and most areas the rye is down to a few inches high
The rye combination is getting plenty of attention
and a few are willing to get right up close to the cam to get what the others have left alone
Both the clover and rye strips are still being grazed but with the clover wilted to the ground it's use is now limited
Winter rye will be here all winter and that makes it an extremely important component in allowing us to feed and hold whitetails year around....
There wearing a path thru the rye/oat/pea/radish/clover mix now!
This stuff was knee high and they have mowed it down, even the taller stemmy areas
Hard to find any peas or radishes now and most areas the rye is down to a few inches high
The rye combination is getting plenty of attention
and a few are willing to get right up close to the cam to get what the others have left alone
Both the clover and rye strips are still being grazed but with the clover wilted to the ground it's use is now limited
Winter rye will be here all winter and that makes it an extremely important component in allowing us to feed and hold whitetails year around....
KSHUNTER
PMA Member
When would you recommend tilling the rye under for its soil building qualities? I have five acres that I will be tilling under this spring.
Do you shoot for a date, or a certian hieght of the rye? After tilling this in I will be breaking up the 5 acres into sections and starting a rotation of plantings.
Do you shoot for a date, or a certian hieght of the rye? After tilling this in I will be breaking up the 5 acres into sections and starting a rotation of plantings.
dbltree
Super Moderator
I would till it under at 12-20" high depending on your equipment, small ATV equipment would need to attack it when it's shorter but large equipment can disc or till it under when it's taller.
The taller it gets the tougher it is to work with unless you plow or disc it under, when it gets 4-5' high it's impossible to till under using a rotary till because it will wind up in a big ball. If using a rear tine tiller, don't allow it to get over a foot tall or so and that will be in April to early May most likely.
If wet weather delays tillage then spray it with roundup or if clover is planted with it use clethodim but again don't let it get 3' tall before spraying...
bowhuntr311
IowaWhitetail Addict
DBLTree any thoughts on mowing then disking? I would think a person may find it easier to get it tipped under with it being mowed and still get the same soil building qualitys or even more evenly spread through out the soil.
Why is your rye directly infront of the camera so tall? Deer avoiding the spot becuase of the camera?
Why is your rye directly infront of the camera so tall? Deer avoiding the spot becuase of the camera?
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dbltree
Super Moderator
As long as you kill the rye it's not necessary to completely turn it under and speaking of hardpan...in the future add the Groundhog Forage radishes along with nitrogen and they will loosen the hardpan and feed deer both!
Mowing is always best when using any small equipment or rear time tillers to help chop up the rye.
Deer don't like the "flash" on my home brew cam so some lave avoided the 6-8's area right next to it. Others however are getting braver as the rye gets mowed to the dirt farther back. Now that snow and bitter cold weather have arrived, I suspect they won't mind the flash even a little bit....
dbltree
Super Moderator
December 14th, 2010
It's pretty tough to beat standing soybeans, corn and milo in the winter time but despite having grain at my place...deer are still feeding heavily on the winter rye.
With deer feeding in the milo and beans I couldn't do much but take a few pics from the blind but it is clear that they couldn't pass up the green rye in the field!
Eventually they will glean every last bit of grain from the milo/soybean plot but the rye...will be there all winter. While it's true in my case they will eat it literally to the dirt, it will still be an attractant that will hold them there all winter. That makes winter rye an extremely important element in adapting whitetails to living on our properties year around.....
It's pretty tough to beat standing soybeans, corn and milo in the winter time but despite having grain at my place...deer are still feeding heavily on the winter rye.
With deer feeding in the milo and beans I couldn't do much but take a few pics from the blind but it is clear that they couldn't pass up the green rye in the field!
Eventually they will glean every last bit of grain from the milo/soybean plot but the rye...will be there all winter. While it's true in my case they will eat it literally to the dirt, it will still be an attractant that will hold them there all winter. That makes winter rye an extremely important element in adapting whitetails to living on our properties year around.....
dbltree
Super Moderator
December 16th, 2010
Every morning when I rise, I start the day with one basic desire...to shine for Christ. I'm thankful then that I can honor God with my life by offering help and encouragement to other landowners who share my passion for both habitat and whitetails. Those are very personal statements but I feel it is important some times to make clear my motivation for spending so much time and effort helping others with habitat problems.
I am not interested in telling others to plant any specific food source or making major habitat changes unless I know without the slightest doubt that if landowners combine ALL the pieces of the puzzle...they will be successful in their endeavors to hold more and better whitetails on their property.
Having shared that...I can say without hesitation that after 50 years of working with all types of cereal grains that winter rye can be utilized as one of those habitat pieces that completes the puzzle. I would never recommend it if I did not have complete confidence in not only it's attractiveness to whitetails but it's usefulness to our soils as well.
I would like to share a case in point where deer are clearly choosing winter rye over winter wheat literally in droves. I have a close friend who owns a farm next to one managed by Lee and Tiffany Lakosky here in SE Iowa that offers a very real perspective on this subject.
Lakosky's own very little land outright but rather are partners with investor friends and that combination has allowed them to have at least an interest in some of the finest hunting land in Iowa. They have not "created" this great habitat but were just smart enough to see some great property that offers a large enough chunk of cover to hold mature whitetails.
Despite grossly exaggerated claims of "hundreds of acres of food plots" they in fact have very few in what most of us would call "food plots" and on the farm next to my friends they have perhaps 3 acres at best. They do have the farmer who leases their ag fields leave standing corn...smart of course but they had no involvement in planting them, that corn however does factor into this equation.
This is a view of some of Lakosky's that is adjacent to my friends place and you can see the standing corn next to some awesome timber.
Now corn is a great draw and I would be surprised if you don't see some kills on their TV show from that spot and you would think that every deer in the area would in fact be...in that field!
I'm going to share a series of pictures however that shows something very different then even I would have expected and this is the second year in a row this has happened.
This picture is a very hidden food plot on Lakosky's and it's planted to winter wheat...no reason that I can imagine for deer to even consider jumping the fence to eat winter rye...if in fact they had even the slightest preference for wheat!
so far as i could see...there is not so much as a track in that field although surely they have spent some time there as well. This pic is standing in the Egyptian Wheat on my friends place simply to verify this is in fact literally next to his property and only yards away from the rye plots I planted for him.
As I mentioned..L&T have some awesome cover...that is a fact but there are beat down runways coming from right beside that wheat to my friend place.
Where they are well screened just as they would be with natural cover on Lakosky's
Our rye/oat/pea/radish plots are covered with tracks and at this point the oats have long ago frozen off
Sign is everywhere
The peas decimated a month ago
The forage radish tops have been murdered
leaving only the radish roots
and the winter rye behind
I stuck a trail cam out in this plot which is roughly 5 acres in size...so while we get hundreds of pictures they are probably only a fraction of the overall deer feeding here. Unless they happen to walk by the cam within 20 yards or so...we don't get pics of them , my point being that whatever you see here is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.
With awesome cover, standing corn and a hidden winter wheat plot right beside this property...why on earth would this buck be feeding on winter rye???
What are any of the following deer doing here at all??
Does any of this make sense? What the heck is going on here?
There a number of factors....first..."wheat" is not some magical sweeter then sugar better then anything draw! It doesn't taste better and I'm not sure it tastes worse but since rye is higher in protein then wheat AND it grows later into cold weather then wheat, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that deer are going to choose it when they can.
Now....what else is going on here??? Why is this field covered up with deer??
What are L&T missing???
Like most hunters they are missing the boat by ONLY planting "hunting" plots which means most of the year deer have nothing to eat on their farm! Now if you were a hungry deer and all winter long you could find winter rye under the snow, if in April you found lush clover and it was there all summer....where would you go to find food?
If every single day of the year you knew you could get out of bed (where you have been safe and unmolested in a sanctuary) and now without question where you could fill your belly...why would you ever look elsewhere??
So...these deer have adapted to the fact that we provide YEAR AROUND food sources...right next to thick cover, well screened safe feeding areas, fields of switchgrass, apple orchards, hybrid oaks and...hopefully you get the picture.
L&T have done none of those things except for purchasing large areas of timber that do in fact become sanctuaries but...obviously that alone is not enough...habitat is not about rye versus wheat...it's about the WHOLE package!!
If you don't provide the whole package, you will be frustrated and tempted to blame your lack of deer or mature bucks on the type of food source you plant and until you accept that you will never solve the real problem.
These pictures are from a year ago in the same field...the same week and I sat in a blind and watched with my own eyes deer walking through standing corn to get to these strip plots of rye and brassicas.
It's not a fluke, it's not just on his farm...it's the same way on mine and everyone who provides ALL the things whitetails need year around. Neither rye nor wheat are the answer nor will either one be the reason for disappointment...something much more serious and significant is....
Every morning when I rise, I start the day with one basic desire...to shine for Christ. I'm thankful then that I can honor God with my life by offering help and encouragement to other landowners who share my passion for both habitat and whitetails. Those are very personal statements but I feel it is important some times to make clear my motivation for spending so much time and effort helping others with habitat problems.
I am not interested in telling others to plant any specific food source or making major habitat changes unless I know without the slightest doubt that if landowners combine ALL the pieces of the puzzle...they will be successful in their endeavors to hold more and better whitetails on their property.
Having shared that...I can say without hesitation that after 50 years of working with all types of cereal grains that winter rye can be utilized as one of those habitat pieces that completes the puzzle. I would never recommend it if I did not have complete confidence in not only it's attractiveness to whitetails but it's usefulness to our soils as well.
I would like to share a case in point where deer are clearly choosing winter rye over winter wheat literally in droves. I have a close friend who owns a farm next to one managed by Lee and Tiffany Lakosky here in SE Iowa that offers a very real perspective on this subject.
Lakosky's own very little land outright but rather are partners with investor friends and that combination has allowed them to have at least an interest in some of the finest hunting land in Iowa. They have not "created" this great habitat but were just smart enough to see some great property that offers a large enough chunk of cover to hold mature whitetails.
Despite grossly exaggerated claims of "hundreds of acres of food plots" they in fact have very few in what most of us would call "food plots" and on the farm next to my friends they have perhaps 3 acres at best. They do have the farmer who leases their ag fields leave standing corn...smart of course but they had no involvement in planting them, that corn however does factor into this equation.
This is a view of some of Lakosky's that is adjacent to my friends place and you can see the standing corn next to some awesome timber.
Now corn is a great draw and I would be surprised if you don't see some kills on their TV show from that spot and you would think that every deer in the area would in fact be...in that field!
I'm going to share a series of pictures however that shows something very different then even I would have expected and this is the second year in a row this has happened.
This picture is a very hidden food plot on Lakosky's and it's planted to winter wheat...no reason that I can imagine for deer to even consider jumping the fence to eat winter rye...if in fact they had even the slightest preference for wheat!
so far as i could see...there is not so much as a track in that field although surely they have spent some time there as well. This pic is standing in the Egyptian Wheat on my friends place simply to verify this is in fact literally next to his property and only yards away from the rye plots I planted for him.
As I mentioned..L&T have some awesome cover...that is a fact but there are beat down runways coming from right beside that wheat to my friend place.
Where they are well screened just as they would be with natural cover on Lakosky's
Our rye/oat/pea/radish plots are covered with tracks and at this point the oats have long ago frozen off
Sign is everywhere
The peas decimated a month ago
The forage radish tops have been murdered
leaving only the radish roots
and the winter rye behind
I stuck a trail cam out in this plot which is roughly 5 acres in size...so while we get hundreds of pictures they are probably only a fraction of the overall deer feeding here. Unless they happen to walk by the cam within 20 yards or so...we don't get pics of them , my point being that whatever you see here is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.
With awesome cover, standing corn and a hidden winter wheat plot right beside this property...why on earth would this buck be feeding on winter rye???
What are any of the following deer doing here at all??
Does any of this make sense? What the heck is going on here?
There a number of factors....first..."wheat" is not some magical sweeter then sugar better then anything draw! It doesn't taste better and I'm not sure it tastes worse but since rye is higher in protein then wheat AND it grows later into cold weather then wheat, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that deer are going to choose it when they can.
Now....what else is going on here??? Why is this field covered up with deer??
What are L&T missing???
Like most hunters they are missing the boat by ONLY planting "hunting" plots which means most of the year deer have nothing to eat on their farm! Now if you were a hungry deer and all winter long you could find winter rye under the snow, if in April you found lush clover and it was there all summer....where would you go to find food?
If every single day of the year you knew you could get out of bed (where you have been safe and unmolested in a sanctuary) and now without question where you could fill your belly...why would you ever look elsewhere??
So...these deer have adapted to the fact that we provide YEAR AROUND food sources...right next to thick cover, well screened safe feeding areas, fields of switchgrass, apple orchards, hybrid oaks and...hopefully you get the picture.
L&T have done none of those things except for purchasing large areas of timber that do in fact become sanctuaries but...obviously that alone is not enough...habitat is not about rye versus wheat...it's about the WHOLE package!!
If you don't provide the whole package, you will be frustrated and tempted to blame your lack of deer or mature bucks on the type of food source you plant and until you accept that you will never solve the real problem.
These pictures are from a year ago in the same field...the same week and I sat in a blind and watched with my own eyes deer walking through standing corn to get to these strip plots of rye and brassicas.
It's not a fluke, it's not just on his farm...it's the same way on mine and everyone who provides ALL the things whitetails need year around. Neither rye nor wheat are the answer nor will either one be the reason for disappointment...something much more serious and significant is....
IQDM
New Member
I'll second that... This time of year in the upper portion of the midwest, we usually have a substantial snowfall already. I watch deer dig through small amounts of fresh snow to get to my rye, but once there is 12"+ of hard frozen snow, the activity pretty much stops. The corn, soybeans, and taller brassicas still get pounded, but my rye seems to get hidden beneath the snow. However, I surely dont mean to deminish its value! All hunting season up to December 1st this mix is money! and as dbltree stated, its the first thing to green up in the spring and really thats when deer need nutrition the most IMO! :way:
Central Iowa
Life Member
Snowblower! I came close last year, if we have another winter like last I will.
risto2351
Well-Known Member
I actually used my 8' snowblower that I use on the tractor last year. I did it once and then the next storm hit. Not trying to say it wont work but it got to be quite the hassle.
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dbltree
Super Moderator
I'm liking my milo so far and if one row plants it you can easily overseed rye and radishes into it. If the snow gets deeper then the milo....you got problems i don't have a cure for...
risto2351
Well-Known Member
Well guys I stand corrected they will go through 24" of snow to get to my
rye, oats, peas, clover and GFR.
Sorry for doubting you Paul.
It looks like a bunch of pigs were in there.
Here is what they are after.
I did sit there last night and had six deer come in.
No jumbos but hopefully they will get hungry later down the road.
rye, oats, peas, clover and GFR.
Sorry for doubting you Paul.
It looks like a bunch of pigs were in there.
Here is what they are after.
I did sit there last night and had six deer come in.
No jumbos but hopefully they will get hungry later down the road.
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