Wheat, Oats, or Grain Rye???????

I am planning on doing some experimenting this fall i want to plant some of all the above mentioned. Which one is your favorite and why? Which one do the deer prefer the best. Going to plant some clover and some brassicas with it also. Is there a certain variety you like over another etc..... I used Wrens Abruzzi Rye last year as my nurse crop, it worked and the deer seemed to like it pretty good.

my 2 cents........by a 3way mix that includes wheat, oats, and abruzzi rye. harrow and plant this mix and cover appropriately. Then spread some clover or brassicas and drag in lightly.

The problem I see with some of these 5 and 7 way mixes is that the seeds should planted at a different depths and the large mixes have you burying the clovers and brassicas too deep.

good luck!

My deer prefer winter wheat.I prefer to use certified seed instead of feed wheat because of the weed content .

BFO has always been a favorite of mine and the deer

seed

Crakajak said:

My deer prefer winter wheat.I prefer to use certified seed instead of feed wheat because of the weed content .

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I also prefer certified seed!

The deer seem to prefer the Oats and clover in my plots followed by brassicas. I'm attempting this year planting cowpeas along with my blend to ease the pressure on the other stuff for a couple weeks. My plots never get more than 1"-2" tall they get so much pressure. We'll see how it goes.

catch22 said:

I also prefer certified seed!

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Where do you get your certified seed from????

any good feed store will sell certified seed.

Wrens Abruzzi Rye
Gore Wheat
Coker Oats
Buck Forage Oats

these are some that I have used

I've used buck forage oats for years. I'm trying mix from Pennington this year called Georgia giant. I'm planting 5 plots and only trying this in one plot, the rest I'm doing oats with an over seed of a brassica mix

If you are going to do "throw & mow" or other surface seeding techniques, use either wheat or rye as your cereal. Germination of oats is poor unless they are at least dragged to place them under the surface.

Deer where you are will eat oats, wheat or rye. Buck Forage oats are worth the extra cost in my trials, but they will feed on any of them. For a nurse crop to establish a clover plot, use wheat or oats, as they tend to stay shorter than rye. Also, if you plan to leave them in turkey season, avoid rye; once it bolts, it grows so tall turkeys don't like to go in it to bug. They like to be able to hide easily, but to periscope & check for predators.

This is an El Nino year, which usually results in a colder winter; that means bob oats may freeze out on you, although you might not care if it's after deer season. BFO's, wheat & rye are all cold hardy up to Michigan, so I would choose among those. With mixes, deer won't pick out any one species, they just kind of mow the whole thing. But in side by side trials, I always got better utilization from BFO.

As far as brassicas: they will eat both radishes & turnips well, but I have never been able to get those deer to eat rape (not even at gunpoint ); so I no longer plant it at all.

Be sure you lime enough to correct the pH deficit on your soil test. The No. 1 reason for poor palatability of fall cereals is acidic soil.

I don't plant just one. Mix oats and wheat every year.

Oats seem to do better in the sandy land around here and if you ever plow it up and see the root on it you'll know why. The last couple years I've had good luck with clover and daikon radish top seeded after plowing oats under. I've not had very good results with Rape or Austrian winter peas.

Thanks for all the replies fellas i think im going to go with mostly GA Gore wheat and have a few plots in BFO and wrens Abruzzi for a few new areas i want to start to est. I have 60LBS of WTI Imperial Clover, 10 Lbs durana, 9LBS of chicory From WTI and 10 LBS of daikon radish and some med red, crimson, arrowleaf to throw in also, I am going to try to plant next weekend or the weekend after hoping for some rain on the radar soon.