Buckwheat is being grazed hard. I estimate 25% of tops already eaten.
Other species are slowly coming up under the buckwheat very well.
We have turned dry. The buckwheat is helping to shade the other stuff coming up from the hot sun. This is a great benefit in holding moisture. More rain forecasted in a few days.
My chicory has never gone to seed. The deer are on it before it has a chance to seed out. I have about a 2ac chicory/clover plot that gets hammered. I mix in about 150lbs of cereal rye every fall and mow it down around July 1.
Yeah, Chicory seems to be preferred over clover to me in Northern and central MN. Might have something to do with natural and pasture clover being everywhere.
Glad I planted early. We are now in a drought and no rain in the forecast. Below is another lawnmower plot I did this year. I left out the buckwheat in this one.
PS - the break in the middle is a spring covered in jewelweed.