Compare and Contrast Brassicas/Turnips to Winter/Cow Peas

[Greta&Gus]

I love brassicas, especially turnips, as a key fall attractant for hunting season and the fall/winter in general. It provides a great green food source with starchy bulbs to build reserves. Winter peas however I have very little experience with but I want to add another food option for the fall that isn't corn.

What is your experience if winter peas? When do deer eat the leaves and when do they hit the peas? Do you get good pea growth from a July/August planting? How do they compare to brassicas for attractant level?

 

[wiscwhip]

If you have any number of deer at all, once they find the peas, they will hoover them to the ground. It doesn't really matter if they are spring planted 4010 field peas, summer planted cowpeas, or fall planted FrostMaster winter peas. They find them, they are toast in a matter of days to weeks. If you got actual pods on them, you might as well quit hunting because you have no deer in the area. When we planted them on our place, they were lucky to reach 6" tall, just like our soybeans, same situation. They grow like weeds, spring, summer, or fall but they get eaten just as fast. As far as attraction compared to brassicas, that is porterhouse vs flank steak at our place. Sure you will still eat the flank steak(brassicas), but you will have everything including the fat gone from the porterhouse(peas) before you touch the former.

 

[Terrific_tom]

I have never planted a straight Winter pea plot but mixed them with a Cereal grain mix. The 1st time I used 40 pounds of peas in the mix per acre and they were gone before the middle of October. The next year I used 80 pounds in mix per acre and they lasted into early November. The deer love them and start hitting them as soon as they emerge. Since then I started using radish in my mix which was more cost effective and lasted a lot longer.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

o_OSo I should just quit hunting Wisc Whip?These were spring planted and I do have some deer.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Guys with small plots will likely never get this amount of growth out of their soybeans, peas, sunflowers etc. These varieties require large plots to be successful and I always have several summer plots available to reduce them wiping out everything.

 

[wiscwhip]

So how large is that plot in the pic you show? Be honest now. We had 2 plots of about 1/2 of an acre and one 3/4 acre plot and they got hammered. Besides, I never said not to plant peas, just be aware that the deer will hammer them. We planted them regardless, as we knew it would keep deer in our general area. When you say you "have deer", compared to what? The idea of "having deer" in most of MN is a far cry from what we consider "having deer" in WI. In the years of high populations in our area, we had between 25-35 DPSM(and we were in a relatively crappy area, all things considered), last I knew the only place in MN with numbers like that at any time in the recent past were about 4 or 5 counties in extreme SE MN and the Metro proper. So you are obviously right, your pic is proof, with a large enough plot and the number of deer you have, peas will do great and will even put on pods. You never answered the OP on when you saw the usage of the pods, I am curious as well, since I have never gotten a pod on a pea plant that was strictly planted as deer food.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Plot was around 2acres. There was some browsing when plants were young and they ate some of the pods in green stage and so did I. They mainly ate them after they hardened and my soybeans yellowed. I say that last part because there was a lot of sign and peas scattered on the ground but I never actually witnessed it. The reason I suspect they made it to pod stage was due to plot size, having additional clover/chicory plot, and also having 3 acres of soybeans which I witnessed 8-10 deer eating in the beans on a regular basis throughout summer on 40 acres.

 

[wiscwhip]

So I'm reading that you have 5+ acres worth of tasty summertime morsels for them to choose from. It must be nice to actually have them survive long enough to have the pods dry down and harden, that would at least provide some good high protein late season feed before they got covered by the snow. Or do they climb high enough on that structure(I'm assuming it is sorghum) to stay above the snow allowing for winter browsing? Did the foliage yellow before or after your soybeans?

 

[Greta&Gus]

Here is a rough breakdown of what we are looking have having in our fields this year. I would guess we are somewhere near 12 DPSM pre fawn. The plot I am looking at planting the peas in is a nice .5 acre spot that is somewhat hidden and off from our main destination plots. Hopefully they don't mow it down as I am wanting to use it as a killing location.

Clover 1.8
Brassicas 2
Oats 0.5
Alfalfa 2.2
Rye 1
Radish/Lettuce blend 0.6
Soybeans 2.5
Sunflowers 2.5
Winter Peas 0.5
Total Acrage 13.6

 

[Riggsgwp->]

"So I'm reading that you have 5+ acres worth of tasty summertime morsels for them to choose from. It must be nice to actually have them survive long enough to have the pods dry down and harden, that would at least provide some good high protein late season feed before they got covered by the snow. Or do they climb high enough on that structure(I'm assuming it is sorghum) to stay above the snow allowing for winter browsing? Did the foliage yellow before or after your soybeans?"

First off I have large destination plots totaling around 8 acres because my property used to be ag except for 10-12 acres of woods. This gives me a lot of food which helps with the "hard to grow to maturity" varieties. The plots are in the middle of my property which is open so they will outperform any small plots carved into woods. As far as the spring peas go they matured well before my soybeans did and they were pretty wilted in August if I remember right. I never saw any winter use other than pheasants but there wasn't much left on the pod to stay above snow.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Here is a rough breakdown of what we are looking have having in our fields this year. I would guess we are somewhere near 12 DPSM pre fawn. The plot I am looking at planting the peas in is a nice .5 acre spot that is somewhat hidden and off from our main destination plots. Hopefully they don't mow it down as I am wanting to use it as a killing location.

Clover 1.8
Brassicas 2
Oats 0.5
Alfalfa 2.2
Rye 1
Radish/Lettuce blend 0.6
Soybeans 2.5
Sunflowers 2.5
Winter Peas 0.5
Total Acrage 13.6

I would plant peas with your sunflower field. Also I think a half acre plot of straight winter peas will be gone shortly as Wisc whip has said.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I planted a strip of 4010 field peas in SE MN and the deer didn't like them. I guess they would browse them a little here and there, but they basically walked through them to get to soybeans instead. They produced lots of pods that dried down in the fall and the turkeys really seemed to clean up on the dry peas. My soybean strip and 4010 field pea strips were planted at the same time and the soybeans were browsed constantly and only grew maybe a foot because of the browsing pressure. The peas were waist high and basically untouched.

I'll be planting a field pea/oat strip soon to build up the soil, so it will be interesting to see if they are browsed when soybeans aren't available.

 

[j-bird]

I have had them survive the winter and produce seed. It's a matter of how much pressure the deer put on the plot. I plant mine late summer as part of my fall/winter plots. I will say my deer seem to like true AWP over the frostmasters - not sure why but they do. I typically row plant mine and then broadcast cereal grains and brassica over it and then pack it all. The deer will work thru the plot looking for the peas first especially once the green soybeans are gone. I also tend to have standing corn and beans in plots as well. Couple that with a low deer density say 10 to 15 DPSM and I have had a few actually make it until spring. I use AWP as an early season attractant even though I don't hunt much of the early season - I use it to draw the deer to the fresh plot and to start getting that pattern developed. You can do the same thing with late summer planted soybeans, but they just don't survive the first real frost, where the AWP will.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Riggs - Is that sorghum in post #4 with the peas ?? If so - is it the wild game food sorghum or regular grain sorghum ??

 

[Riggsgwp->]

It's sorghum sudan. It grew tall but didn't hold up well to wind.

 

[wiscwhip]

Any reason you choose S/S over something like WGF? I would assume the height? As I recall, S/S doesn't produce much of a seedhead at all, not like a straight grain sorghum, it is used as a forage mostly, or made into silage.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

It was for height and screening. I likely would plant it again unless I was looking for the screen value.

 

[wiscwhip]

:confused: So now I am confused, you would plant it again unless you were looking for screen value? What other reason would you plant it? Surely not for the seedheads? Do your deer browse it? Did you mean you "wouldn't" plant it again?

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Sorry wouldn't.

 

[wiscwhip]

Thanks for the clarification Riggs. I truly was confused for a moment there. Even though I could see someone planting it for climbing structure within a mixed planting, but there are other things like regular sorghum that fit that bill as well and actually provide a food source, unlike the S/S.