Going with a big mix, how many lbs of each?

[bossgobbler]

Good morning everyone!

Pretty soon I will be planting a couple acres of food plots. I’ve decided I will for sure be planting it all at once. I am doing a mix of Winter Wheat, Winter Rye, Buck Forage Oats, turnips, maybe some radishes, and will seed a mix of clovers with it.

I like diversity. I’ve had success with this blend in the past. I always let my rye, wheat and oats stand next spring and summer and will not mow it. My main objective is to have lots of standing grains for turkeys to raise their poults and fawns to hide. It has worked great the last few years. Behind the tall grains the clover has come on string and mostly weed free.

Right now I am rotating out of a 4-5 year old clover field that has become weedy into the mixes I listed above. I sprayed last week and I am getting a good kill. I’ll check one more time right before planting and will spray anything still alive.

Please recommend the amount of lbs per acre of WW, WR, Buck Forage Oats, Turnips, Radishes, Clover blends such as ladino, Durana, medium red, crimson etc.

I realize that’s a lot of different seeds. It has worked in the past to be very effective for a fall kill plot, winter feeding, early spring green up, and summer bedding nesting and food all in one package!

I just don’t know the amounts I should be planting of each!

I will be using a county rental No-till drill for the grains and will be broadcasting the smaller seeds into dead thatch.

Thank you to everyone who can help me out!

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

clover is usually 6# per acre I would go 50# per acre oat (mine winter kills) 25# WW 25# WR No more than 3# Radishes

If you didn't have the radish component of the mix I would go higher with the WW and WR. I would be concerned with the radishes not growing much being planted with your cereals this early and at the same time with any higher than 50#/acre

If it were me I would TNM 2# radishes and a 5 gal bucket of urea because TNM plantings take longer to take off than traditional tillage and you want to get good growth out of those radishes before planting your cereals. (maybe spray after because of the light /acre rate) Approx 8/20 I would be broadcasting 50# oats. 9/1 I would broadcast the 6#/acre clover with 50# WR and 50# WW

 

[bossgobbler]

There are a few reasons I need to plant it all at one time. One of the reasons is time. I just can’t make the time to make multiple planting times. I am renting our county soil and water no-till drill for $100. Renting it multiple times becomes costly. I would do a broadcast at a later date closer to 9/1 but we have a high population of turkeys in our area and our land is their main hang out and source of food. They pick the fields clean of any broadcasted grain. I love feeding the turkeys but I want it to grow before they clean it up!

 

[yoderjac]

Cereal (WR, WW, Oats) total of about 100 lbs/ac. Lots of flexibility there.

Brassica component (PTT, GHR) total of 2 to 3 lbs/ac. Keep this low.

Clover - total of about 10 lbs/ac.

There is nothing in this mix that require a drill. T&M will work fine for all of these seeds.

You might want to add your USDA zone/location to your profile. Things like planting dates are location dependent.

Thanks,

jack

 

[bossgobbler]

Thank you guys! This helps me get a good idea of the amount I should work with. I will be drilling the grains. The last several broadcasts I did were picked so clean and hardly had any germination. The turkeys are hard on any grains on top of the ground. Last fall I drilled it and it turned out great.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Go to the Lickcreek forum here

Scroll down to LC mix

.........prepare to become a believer.......

bill

 

[Mortenson]

Do you guys have luck broadcasting oats and having them germinate on top of the ground?

 

[Tree Spud]

Do you guys have luck broadcasting oats and having them germinate on top of the ground?

Even with good rain & heat, very marginal success. ... no. Sure some will germinate; however, will mature and die very quickly 1st frost.

BFO are just another Buck on the bag product ... at $40-$50/50lbs, ... they will die off quickly once it gets cold.

If you want early/late fall food source ... plant 60-100 lbs/acre winter rye. At ~$11-$12/50 lbs ... will germinate on top of ground, as low as 32 F, bounces back every thaw ...

Mort ... you are a pretty knowledgeable ag guy... you tell us?

 

[yoderjac]

Do you guys have luck broadcasting oats and having them germinate on top of the ground?

It is possible to surface broadcast oats and WW, but depending on your soil, you need to crank up the seeding rates fairly high. That is just one more reason I stick with WR as the cereal grain component. My deer don't care which cereal I use, but my soil and weeds sure do!

 

[Mortenson]

I don't know about knowledgeable, but no would be my response as well. :) I just saw that Jack mentioned oats working like that, so wondered what I was missing out on.

I did spread 130 acres the past 2 days with a Herd spreader. Oats would have been nice but not feasible. I tapped into my Lickcreek memory bank and chose 6 lb total of DER, PTT, and Nitro Radish. Figured what the heck, works well in the plots so give it a shot on some ag land too. Cheap seed, and in my experience it winter kills. (In hindsight, I hope it's not just the deer winter killing it for me). Just need some ground cover. Had to hire the coop to spread some other ground. I gave them the Lickcreek mix to add to the oats. They sent it flying with a little fertilizer. I need to scratch over the top of it get some soil on the oats.

 

[Kooch]

Do you guys have luck broadcasting oats and having them germinate on top of the ground?

I sprayed gly/24d/AMS this Spring shortly after green up and spread a mountain of oats with an ATV sprayer, then I ran a chain drag over the top. The entire plot looked like this in early July when I sprayed the oats, broadcast brassica/clover and smashed it all down with my ATV tires. Two acres of beautiful oats. It felt wrong. But yeah broadcasting oats worked for me. I did put down ~200LBS an acre though..... I could have used half that I think, based on the germination. But, they're pretty cheap in the big scheme of things. I haven't been up there since. I wonder what it looked like today.....

 

[Mortenson]

Got some of these premix Oats - coated radish bags from the neighbor who deals for Becks. Look at how nice the seeds stay in suspension. Didn't realize the easy button existed while I was piecemealing Dbltree's mix to the coop. Lol