Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Egyptian Wheat

My friend Walt is right around 6' give or take an inch I reckon so this pic gives one an idea how tall Egyptian Wheat can get!

IMG_0001.jpg


That strip is 5' wide and it's impossible to see through it nor over it making it a great screen to keep deer feeling safe in the feeding area and allow an approach to blinds or stands. This EW wasn't planted until very late June and still reached amazing heights!

Eventually red cedars will negate the need for Egyptian Wheat by providing a permanent screen along the field edge but in the meantime Egyptian Wheat is the ticket! :way:
 
I manged to "mud bog" my EW in about the first week in July and it still darn near drowned as the monsoonal rains continued in Iowa. Even with plenty of urea it didn't thrive like in previous years.

EWscreen-1.jpg


Still it got plenty high enough to provide screening...frost nipped it the first week of October

IMG_0074.jpg


Combined with shrub plantings the EW makes a great funnel!

Funnel2.jpg


You would never know there is a road on the other side of the EW

Funnel5.jpg


Keeps poaching problems to a minimum while shrub plantings are growing and it allows me to create great travel corridors! :way:
 
November 20th, 2010

Screens are important to allow whitetails to feel safe and secure feeding in daylight hours and to protect from poachers at night. It is also important then that screens last well into winter making conifers the best bet for long term, year around screening. While trees are growing or where tree plantings are not possible, Egyptian Wheat is a great alternative.

Despite repeated hard freezes and high winds our Egyptian Wheat is still standing well in late November! This screen leading to a ground blind....

IMG_0002.jpg


Here it screens feeding deer and helps keep bucks away from tubed trees

IMG_0001-1.jpg


With 50-100#'s of actual nitrogen per acre EW can reach 12-14 in height!

IMG_0009.jpg


It encourages deer to feed in daylight hours and keeps them protected from midnight poachers

IMG_0015.jpg


Here I combined shrubs, EW and Sweet Spot high sugar ryegrass/clover mix to funnel deer towards my stand

Funnel.jpg


They are keeping the Sweet Spot mowed to the ground

SweetSpot11-11.jpg


and there is a line of scrapes along the shrubs as bucks travel the funnel...

Scrape2.jpg


They follow the funnel and come to me like a puppy on a string

11-17-2010Buck.jpg


Egyptian Wheat is a great tool to assist with screening and funneling whitetails, easy and inexpensive to plant and grow, usually a 5-8' wide strip will do the trick. Plant 8#'s per acre with 100-150#'s of urea and 2 1/2 quarts of atrazine or simazine for herbicide and your in business! :way:
 
My friend Walt made good use of the Egyptian Wheat screens we planted leading up to his blinds...note the path he tramped down through the center of it so he can slip in and out undetected.

WaltnEWscreen.jpg


Each of his Lick Creek built blinds has a screen leading to it and today after some discussion we decided that next year it would be a simple matter to spray a narrow band of roundup down the center to have a ready made path early on. Just easier then cutting or knocking it down later

IMG_0087.jpg


Walt took pics thru the blind windows so they are a little foggy but still very cool to see all the deer safely screened as they feed on the winter rye

EWScreen-2.jpg


The uses for EW are limited only by ones imagination but it sure is a life saver to get in and out of blinds or stands undetected. I use NWSG in the same manner but the EW grows so much taller and is almost impossible to beat as a screen.

Easy to plant and grow...give it a shot next year if you need an annual screen around your food source and blinds... :way:
 
This is EW on February 22nd just to give you an idea how well it stands up...

EW.jpg


This is from November

IMG_0015.jpg


and late summer

IMG_0001.jpg


Hard to find a better annual screen then Egyptian Wheat although some sorghum's and corn can work well also... :way:
 
Egyptian Wheat Screens

Generally we talk in terms of "amounts per acre" when it comes to seed, fertilizer and herbicides yet in the case if Egyptian Wheat most of us will rarely plant an "acre"...so how do we convert those amounts to a narrow strip?

First off what is required to plant an "acre" of EW? Like anything there are many variables that can match almost any budget so what I share is by no means cut in stone but merely inputs that can insure a successful EW screen.

1 acre input

6#'s of seed
200#'s of 46-0-0 urea
200-400#'s of 6-28-28 (optional depending on soil)
2-4 quarts of atrazine or simazine per acre
Let's say we want to plant a 6' wide EW screen along the end of an 80 (1320' wide) 1320 x 6 = 7920 sq. ft. divided by 43,560 (sq feet in 1 acre) = roughly 18%

6 x 18%= 1.08 #'s of seed
200 x 18% = 36#'s of urea
4 x 18% = roughly a pint an a 1/2 of herbicide

That's just an example but you get the idea and the actual cost of planting an annual screen is small compared to the benefits of screening your deer from poachers and giving them a safe secure place to feed and travel... :way:
 
Anybody have a secret source for Egyptian Wheat seed? I procrastinated and Coopers is out for the year...not having luck with any alternative sources.
 
Everyone is desperately looking for Egyptian Wheat seed but alas...it appears to be sold out from most sources. Forage sorghum is a great alternative and is most likely available at your local co-op.

Welter Seed carries Red Top forage sorghum that grows 7-9' feet tall

Red Top Plus Forage Sorghum Hybrid

and Pheasants Forever carries Blizzard Buster sorghum mix that has some sorghum's about the height of Red Top

PF Sorghum Seed Mixes

The following suppliers handle EW seed but check for availability and expect prices to be on the pricey side!

Hancock Seed

ABSeed

Turner Seed

Kesters Wild Game Food

Remember to order your EW seed supplies early next year to avoid being disappointed.... ;)
 
June 9th, 2011

I finally was able to get some Egyptian Wheat screens planted although much f the ground was still a little wetter then I like to sow into. Some areas were new and the weather prevented spraying gly ahead of time so I just mowed and tilled...

CIMG2992.jpg


Note the red cedars planted for a more permanent screen...once they get large enough the EW will no longer be needed.

CIMG2993.jpg


You would think the high ground would be dry after 3-4 days of upper 90's but the sod holds moisture like a sponge! I used roughly 200#'s of urea per acre which looks a like this...

CIMG2994.jpg


CIMG2995.jpg


It's not an exact science spreading urea with a bag seeder but I have done enough with both a hand seeder and an accurate mechanical spreader to know what it looks like on the soil.

I let it dry as long as possible before planting then spread roughly 6#'s per acre of seed

IMG_5041.jpg


and covered by simply running a cultipacker over the seed bed and sprayed with atrazine after planting.

IMG_5042.jpg


We have had another 1 1/2 of rain since planting yesterday and more on the way so if it doesn't drown...it should be up and growing in no time! :way:
 
Last edited:
I just spent 5 minutes reading this post and looking at the pics awesome I will be planting some next year maybe even in my yard for some landscaping neat looking stuff
 
June 17th, 2011

The Egyptian Wheat is up! I thought I said not to plant that stuff to think?! Yikes! :eek:

IMG_5223.jpg


I didn't till any of it in but just ran the cultipacker over it instead and it worked perfectly

IMG_5222.jpg


One small area I just broadcast it on top because there was no room to turn around dragging a packer but thanks to heavy rains it's coming up just fine!

IMG_5230.jpg


We'll keep and eye on growth this summer and see how it does... :way:
 
Interesting what folks will recommend?!?! Not sure. If it were me, I'd probably hit it hard with Atrazine and possibly mix in some 2,4-d. If it were really bad fox-tail, I'd mix atrazine with crop oil. I might be wrong though but if I had to bust out tomorrow and hit it- that's what I'd use.
 
would like to know what post emerg. herbicides would work on eygp. wheat.

As Skip mentions, 2-4D is an easy way to kill emerged broadleaf weeds in EW, just allow the EW to grow to 3-4 leaf stage before spraying.

Atrazine and crop oil will work as would simazine...if you can set back the weeds for a bit, the EW will soon shade out and smother most weeds from there on out...;)
 
August 2nd, 2011

This is Egyptian Wheat plant the first week of June and I literally planted it in the mud to get it in! Since then we ended up building a new fence right down the middle of it with lot's of "trampling" going on yet it still is nearly over the top of the fence!

EgyptianWheat8-2-11.jpg


Much of our early EW plantings drowned out so i replanted those areas and this EW was planted July 4th. We have not had rain since June 28th so considering that....it's not half bad

EW7-31.jpg


Each day it withers in the 100 degree heat but continues to grow despite the lack of rain

EW17-31-11.jpg


Tough year so far with excessive rains in May and June and excessive heat with no rain in July and August....when the going gets tough....we find out what crops are tough enough to survive!
 
My first post! I grew up near Ossian, IA (Winneshiek County) and am an Iowa State grad. Live in the Twin Cities, MN now but have family all over NE Iowa still.
This web site is a treasure trove!

EW - looks like impressive stuff. Will have to give that a try next year. My property is in northern WI and we're practically drowning up there. Planted oats almost in the mud yesterday morning and then got another 1.25" last night.
 
Last edited:
My first post! I grew up near Ossian, IA (Winneshiek County) and am an Iowa State grad. Live in the Twin Cities, MN now but have family all over NE Iowa still.
This web site is a treasure trove!

EW - looks like impressive stuff. Will have to give that a try next year. My property is in northern WI and we're practically drowning up there. Planted oats almost in the mud yesterday morning and then got another 1.25" last night.

Welcome to IW and send us some of that rain!:way:
 
Top Bottom