Bio-Logic Winter Grasses Plus

[Joe Buck]

First time on the site, new member. We have land we can hunt and put in small food plots in Adams County Wis. approx. 120 acres. The owner/farmer lets us use some of his equipment as well. The soil is extremely sandy and low ph. We have 60-70 acres swamp/ tag alders/. We have 10-15 acres of wooded highland, consisting of jack pine, red pine, white pine and a few red oak. Highland is east and north of swamp. He has a 35 acre field east of highland and swamp. On the west end of field ( butts up against highland ) he lets us plant a 20 yard wide by 330 yard long strip. It is a little over an acre. We have 4 other small foodplots in woods and along driveway each approx. 20 yds. by 20 yds. He has the field planted in corn again this year. My son has access to Bio-Logic brand products at a little over cost.
Last year we divided the 20 x 330 yd. section into 2- 10 x 330 yd. sections. One we planted with Deer Creek Seeds "Autumn Buffet" ( brassicas, rape, pt turnips, & 30% red & white clovers) we added some dakion radish to that mix. It turned out very good and the deer had it down to the ground by late bow season. A lot of the clover came up this spring which was great. We are planning on either killing what clover remains and planting the same thing or trying to overseed and cultipack with same mix. The other 10 yd. x 330yd. strip we planted in winter wheat. They feed on it all fall and it came up in spring. We have cut the wheat and clover a couple times so that when we kill it we don't have so much mess. Our owner also wanted us to cut it so it wouldn't go to seed. We are thinking of trying the Bio-Logic "Winter Grasses Plus" where the winter wheat was last year. It is 63% Forage Max/wheat, 26% Fridge/ Triticale, 2% Mino early radish, 2% Dwarf Essex brassicas, 1% Berseem clover. Has anyone tried this mix in zone 4 which is what we are here in central Wis. or have any other ideas for that strip. I know rye would be an option but I'm not sure the deer like it as well. Our owner thinks they like wheat better! Any thoughts.
In our other plots We used Bio-Logic "Hot Spot", "Outfitters Blend"' and added some of their "Clover Plus" and "Radish" to those Mixes. They all did very well and the deer were in them all the time. We are going to just do clover in one of those small plots because the clover came thru the winter really well.
For those of you in Central Wis. sand country you know how hard it is to grow anything if we don't have a lot of rain. Last year was near perfect and just about anything would grow. This is only our 3rd year doing this and the 1st year was dry and we didn't do well. Don't have a lot of experience so any help would be appreciated. We seed by hand but do have access to small tractor, cultipacker and 4 wheeler with chainlink fence drag.
Sorry this is so long but wanted to let you know what we have and what we have done to this point. We fertilize and lime as well. Thanking you in advance for your replys

 

[bueller]

Welcome to the forum. I'm across the river from you in Juneau County. There are several others that frequent here from Adams and the surrounding counties. We plant rye every year around Labor Day. Your guy is incorrect. The deer love it. Lots of use from time of planting until the snow covers it up and then again in the early spring when everything else is still brown. I'm not totally against BOB (buck on bag) especially at discounted prices but I won't use any that contain grains (rye, wheat, etc.) as a majority. Regular ole winter rye is so much cheaper and likely just as effective. I have and will use BOB for brassica mixes if they contain coveted varieties and are priced right but I still lean heavily towards other sources for my seed.

 

[Big Snow Man]

I'm in Adams County and the Deer Creek blend will work. I just mix wheat,Rye,and oats together with a little crimson clover and ghr together. They can choose what they want and they have never complained, they eat it to the ground and look for more !

 

[Joe Buck]

Where do you guys by your seed and what percent of each do you use in your wheat,rye,oats,crimson clover and ghr mixture? Thanks for the info, its greatly appreciated.

 

[bueller]

I mail order some seeds from Welter Seed and buy some in person at the Co-Op in Adams County. Used to be called Wisconsin River but now it's Allied. Located just north of the railroad tracks just east of 13.

 

[Tree Spud]

Where do you guys by your seed and what percent of each do you use in your wheat,rye,oats,crimson clover and ghr mixture? Thanks for the info, its greatly appreciated.

Find your local feed mill. You can buy everything except the GHR, as Bueller said above, you can get that at Welters seed in IA. I don't plant wheat. You can buy 56 lbs of WR for around $11-12/bag.

This is Lickcreeks recommendation for cereal grains to build OM in your soil. Without OM, the nitrogen will not hold.
Plant ALL in one plot in strips or blocks

Alice, Kopu II, Durana (or comparable) white clover 10% of plot, sow at 6#'s per acre with the rye combination in the fall or in the spring with oats and berseem clover. Correct Ph and P&K with soil tests

Brassicas in 45% of plot

Purple Top Turnips 3#
Dwarf Essex Rape 2#
GroundHog Forage radish 5#

Plant in mid to late July in most Midwest states, or 60-90 days before your first killing frost, Use 200#'s of 46-0-0 urea and 400#'s of 6-28-28 per acre. Follow the dead brassicas with oats and berseem or crimson clover in mid spring at 60#'s oats and 12-15#'s berseem clover and/or crimson and/or 50#'s of chickling vetch)

Cereal Grain combo in 45% of plot...we use 50# each rye, oats and peas along with radish and clover seed all planted in half of each feeding area

Winter rye 50-80#'s per acre (56#'s = a bushel)
Spring oats 50-120#'s per acre (32#'s = a bushel)
Frostmaster Winter Peas or 4010/6040 Forage peas 20-80#'s per acre

Red Clover 8-12#'s per acre or white clover at 6#'s per acre (or 20-40 pounds hairy vetch and 20-30#'s crimson clover on sandy soils)
Groundhog Forage Radish 5#'s per acre

Plant in late August to early September, if following well fertilized brassicas use 100 - 200#'s of urea, if starting a new plot add 400#'s of 6-28-28 but for best results soil test and add only what is necessary.

Rotate the brassicas and rye combo each year

You can learn more by reading this thread.
http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/cereal-grains-for-whitetails.1381/

 

[TreeDaddy]

I never get tired of reading this. ^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for reposting

bill

 

[Joe Buck]

I'm in Adams County and the Deer Creek blend will work. I just mix wheat,Rye,and oats together with a little crimson clover and ghr together. They can choose what they want and they have never complained, they eat it to the ground and look for more !

Big Snow Man or anyone else in central Wis. Minne.. When do you plant your mixture above? The land is 2 hours away and we try to plant everything at once. We are from Fond du Lac. Last year we planted the last week in July. We planted Autumn Buffet from Deer Creek Seed with some Daikon Radish about 1/2 acre and the other 1/2 acre Winter wheat. This year I would like to use the Bio-Logic Winter grasses Plus (see mix above) and add winter rye a little more radish and some Bio-Logic Brassicas in the plot we had the winter wheat in last year. It would be close to your mix above. Last year the deer were still eating the wheat at gun season, even thou it was in for over 3 months . Secondly, the other 1/2 acre has a pretty decent stand of clover that came up from the "Autumn Buffet" mix. It needs to be over seeded thou. I was thinking to over seed in late July with Bio-Logic Non-Typical Clover. It is called "Critical Mass White Ladino Clover" and rye for a cover crop. We would broadcast on existing soil and cultipack hoping to have a good perennial clover plot next year. Your thoughts? Thirdly, If your rye,wheat, brassica, radish mix gets in to early and the rye/wheat get to tall and old can you cut it to make it more appealing? Thanks alot Joe Buck

 

[bueller]

IMO - brassicas anytime from July 4th - August 1st is about ideal for our area, however I've also played with and had success planting a bit earlier and later.

As far as grains like wheat and rye I shoot for Labor Day weekend but again have had success planting earlier and later.

Radishes will bolt and go to seed if planted early. I wouldn't plant them earlier than August 1st or so.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I'm planting my brassicas later and later all the time. My deer seem to like them better the smaller the bulbs are. I'm going to shoot for around 8/10 this year in South East Minnesota. Could be a bit later depending on forecast.

 

[Barndog56]

If I plant my brassicas in july they get eaten up by red turnip beetles, but waiting til the first week of august avoids that problem. Still had plenty of time to develop large bulbs last year. Then I wait 2 or 3 more weeks for the cereal grain mix.