Cereal Grains for Whitetails

[Dbltree]

1
Why use oats at all?

Rye is slower growing and we don't want it planted so thick that it smothers clover the following spring.

Oats grow quickly and provide highly palatable food source during October and November when whitetails are putting on fat reserves. By December they turn on brassicas and the oats begin to freeze out leaving the winter rye to fill the holes when the brassicas are gone.

Every crop works in tandem with the other perfectly

 

[scott44]

The deer here are still hitting the Dbltree cereal grains, even digging through snow to get to it.

 

[scott44]

The cereal grain part of my Dbltree rotation is the first thing to green up in the spring. The deer will really hammer it when the snow leaves.

 

[younggun1849]

I went to one of my plots yesterday and couldn't believe the rye was already green. What a quick turnaround from snow to green in a matter of 4 days. Some bucks are still holding too. If they drop in the rye it won't be difficult to find!

 

[scott44]

I went to one of my plots yesterday and couldn't believe the rye was already green. What a quick turnaround from snow to green in a matter of 4 days. Some bucks are still holding too. If they drop in the rye it won't be difficult to find!

Yea same here, last weekend snow this week green rye. It always amazes me how green the rye is after the winter, maybe I'm just used to seeing brown and white.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Can't wait to see our rye get some sun on it. At camp, there's still 18 - 24" of snow on our long plot that has rye, W.wheat, and brassicas in it. ( separate sections for comparison )
Thanks for the pix, guys. Looking good.

 

[scott44]

Things are starting to green up here, the cereal grain plot is coming up nice.



Clovers planted with the cereal grains coming up also.



The farmer who rents my parents place has winter wheat, kind of a 57 acre food plot for us.

 

[scott44]

Some comparison pics of our rye over the last month.







The clover and vetch are doing good in there too.





I think I'm going to broadcast my brassicas into this and roll it down, I had a decent plot last year doing this.

 

[sandbur]

Some comparison pics of our rye over the last month.







The clover and vetch are doing good in there too.





I think I'm going to broadcast my brassicas into this and roll it down, I had a decent plot last year doing this.

When would you do that?

 

[scott44]

When would you do that?

Last year I planted them around the 4th of July weekend.

 

[scott44]

^^did you broadcast, roll, and spray...or what?

I bradcast the brassicas into the rye, rolled and sprayed. I have my quad set-up with a sprayer and pulled a cultipacker.

 

[SD51555]

That's a hell of a rig! Your brassica can punch through that huh?

 

[scott44]

That's a hell of a rig! Your brassica can punch through that huh?

Yep, they didn't seem to have a problem.

 

[bueller]

I've had great results spraying, broadcasting, and then rolling. I didn't want to roll first in fear of covering the weeds and grasses with the rolled rye prior to spraying.

Did this June 27th last year and the plot feed deer from July when they started browsing the tops through late winter/early spring when they were cleaning up the leftover bulbs.

 

[biglakeba$$]

I havent read back too far, but had a question.

I assume spraying Gly?

Does the rye seed not grow at all after its been sprayed?

 

[scott44]

I havent read back too far, but had a question.

I assume spraying Gly?

Does the rye seed not grow at all after its been sprayed?

Yes on the gly, as for the rye I'm not sure why it didn't germinate but mine didn't, apparently it hadn't set seed yet. I sprayed more for the clover than the rye, it was pretty clean of both by spraying and rolling

 

[scott44]

Same here. You don't get rye germinating if you terminate it before the seed matures. I'm toying with letting it start to turn brown this year...then broadcasting short season brassicas, rolling and spraying for weed control. It wouldn't bother me a bit to have both "free" rye and brassicas

I expected rye last year, I guess I have figure out better when seed has set. Some wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[bueller]

Same here. You don't get rye germinating if you terminate it before the seed matures. I'm toying with letting it start to turn brown this year...then broadcasting short season brassicas, rolling and spraying for weed control. It wouldn't bother me a bit to have both "free" rye and brassicas

It will work. I've used my ATV to make paths through a mature rye field with clover growing underneath. In the path created by the ATV I had plenty of new rye sprout within the clover.

 

[scott44]

I usually plant this cereal grain mix around the first of Sept, but we are heading out west for a muley/elk hunt so now is the time. Rain is in the forecast for the begining of next week so I got a couple plots planted today, maybe an acre total. I frost seeded some red clover into last years brassicas and mowed them over a week ago.

This is plot #1 before.





After.



plot#2 before



after





I disced the cereal grains in and then cultipacked all in one pass. Spread may radishes and clover and cultipacked again.



Far left in this pic is a alfalfa strip I put ealier this summer, I ran out of oats so this strip didn't get any. This was a brassica strip last year and I'm getting some volunteer brassicas.

 

[scott44]

Moved a camera over the cereal plot, didn't take them long to check it out, 2 1/2 hrs.

Last pass cultipacking.



2 1/2 hr later.