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Food Plot Discussion

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Wsucoug:
Alfalfa does not frost seed. Red clover does. Also oats die and turn yellow with the first hard Frost which can often come before September is out.

Stick to the winter varieties if planting that late. Winter wheat...winter triticale...winter rye. I would also add some AMS fertilizer if you can.

Peas are an ultimate attraction for deer.....but I have found they can be tough to germinate if you can't get them buried an inch deep or have lots of moisture. Just an fyi from experience.

T-ROY:
Winter wheat...winter triticale...winter rye.  ill try planting all 3 should i mix the seed together or do seperate little plots. im only looking at planting  about 40 foot wide by about 600 feet long so roughly a .5 acres according to the calculator. the only whitetail buck i have killed in washington was on brand new fire break that they had made that summer. they had either planted it with something or it was coming back naturally not sure and wish i had pay more attention now. and the does where using the heck out of it in mid november. the temp was in the teens every morning. it was about 6 inches tall and very green that time of year and there was and hand full of does using it every night .. about the 3rd evening a buck fallowed one of the does in.  any idea what that may have been? im going to guess one of the 3 things you mentioned

T-ROY:
jrebel    posted this a few day back, if you can believe what they say, it sounds very winter hardy http://buckforage.com/pages/Products/Buck-Forage-Oats

nwwanderer:
Be flexible with your plans, what the weather brings should dictate what, when, where.  If all else fails simply fertilize a strip where you commonly see deer.  The increased growth and nutrition from the fertility is a big draw for the critters.  Mowing late, after july or so, especially if there is some moisture, brings on new growth where everything else is dried up or mature and of little feed value.  My first choice for fertilizer is always a blend of urea and CaSo4, gypsum.  The blend is not as pH lowering as AMS, (NH4)2So4, and the calcium part is a plus for soil health.

Wsucoug:
NW Wander is right about the AMS being able to effect ph, which should defiantly be a concern with alfalfa. The crops i have been mentioning, probably wont be effected to much, and AMS is a slower release nitrogen than Urea which I put a higher value on. I have also have noticed most soils are deficient in sulfate in our area, hence two birds with one stone with AMS. If i was doing alfalfa, borated gypsum is the go to fertilizer in the area. If you want, you can do a soil test and know for sure. You can also go down to North 40 and get 3 bags of triple 16 and call it good.

I wouldn't mix all three. I plant only rye and triticale.  Rye is the easiest to germinate and grows the best in the harshest conditions. It is the "safe bet". If you can't grow rye you are not going to be growing anything else.  Wheat is prolly the most preferred and easiest to find at the stores, but it is much harder to get right than rye. Triticle is a cross between the two plants, which is suppose to bring the toughness of rye with the desirability of wheat. I plant both depending on what i can get my hands on.

Buck forage oats where created to over winter in the more southern states. They put on a lot of tonnage down there and the extra frost tolerance works great for them. I have heard it said that BFO will get you two extra weeks in the northern states on average. So take that for what its worth since they cost 2x much. IF you have to plant late because of moisture issue, oats will be a bust because of frost.

If you have a half an acre you can do the following:

4 lbs of red clover - welter seed online or landmark seed in airway heights
3/4 - 1 of a pound of Forb Feast chicory- welter seed
25 lbs of rye/triticale - local, welter seed or landmark seed
30 -60 lbs of oats - local, welter seed or landmark seed in airway heights

If very little moisture is coming or it comes late, just plant the red clover and rye. If you got some serious rain coming around the end of August plant them all. Don't forget fertilizer.

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