From Pauls 1st post on cereal mix here..... cleaned up some to take out some old stuff that won’t show up....
RIP dbltree!!!!
I know a lot of you are getting ready to plant fall grains like wheat, rye and oats. I'm getting ready to plant some myself so here's a few thoughts and links.
My favorite can't fail fall mix:
Fall rye 50-80#'s per acre (Fall rye grain, Winter Rye, Cereal rye)
Spring oats 60-100#'s per acre (any oats are fine )
Austrian Winter Peas or Field Peas at 20-100#'s per acre
Ground Hog Forage Radish 5#'s per acre
Red Clover at 8-12#'s per acre (I prefer Alta Swede Mammouth RC for a plow down
Sow large seeds first and lightly till or disc in roughly an 1" deep to cover. Use 100-200#'s of urea (nitrogen) if you expect heavy grazing and cultipack to cover.
Then broadcast the small radish and clover seeds and cultipack again to cover
Plant late August to early September....earlier in the north, later in the south
If you cannot locate seeds locally Welter Seed carries everything you need.
Ground Hog Forage Radish Seed
Pea and rye seed
Clover seeds
Rye and triticale would be my favorites for fall and winter feed. Rye is cheap but triticale (a cross between wheat and rye) is a leafier version with the attributes of both.
Cereal rye is always my first choice over wheat or any other grain because it is higher in protein, requires no fertilizer, will grow on low PH soils, has alleopathic chemicals that discourage weeds, is a nitrogen scavenger and a root system that breaks up soil hardpan and improves soil.
Make sure you ask for RYE not ryegrass seed! Rye seed is around $10-12 per bag.
Wheat works fine but doesn't have the "weed inhibitor" abilities of rye which affects next springs food plot, whatever it might be. Wheat sucks up nitrogen and has none of the soil building attributes that rye has. Wheat is lower in protein so unless it's all you can find, DON'T plant it!
Oats work well also but have a limited time frame because of frost. An early frost means it may be long dead well before the 1st of November. I use regular oats which are about $10-12 a bag versus "brand name" oats which cost considerably more and the deer mow them!
Rye and tricticale seeding rates can be from 80-100# per acre
Wheat 90-120#
Oats 80-120#
Plant cereal grains anywhere from 1/2" to 3" deep with 1 to 1 1/2" being the norm which puts the seed in the moisture zone.
Grains like winter rye can even be broadcast on bare soil and will germinate with adequate moisture so planting depth is not extremely important.
Cover by discing, dragging, tilling lightly or just cultipack to cover.
They all love nitrogen so a 100# of 46% urea (or more) would certainly encourage growth.
