The deer have been eating them off and on since the end of June. They should end up around 5 foot tall like last year. Palatability?? The clipping of the brassicas has this explosive growth, fresh, high quality and not bitter.
I also have numerous other brassicas in the ground that were planted that i'll address observations in one more week. That trial is on compacted soil thats low pH, and formerly a woods that was bowdozed down. The goal on that trial was to give people feed back on worse case scenarios, and planting brassicas on extremely challenged soils.
The winfred was in an experimental mix that i call spring greens. The spring triticale in it, i killed off a couple weeks ago. There was also swiss chard in that mix but the deer loveeeeee swiss chard and destroyed it. The chard doesnt grow back well but the winfred brassica will keep growing, regrowing and exploding. As i stated this is the third growth of it and it's now up to 4' tall.
I also have a 4 brassica mix that i'll have good pics this weekend of. The mix includes premier kale, radish, pasja brassica and winfred brassica. The deer keep eating it and it's going to make me very happy come late bow season and gun season.
I also have numerous accounts/farmers planting it this fall after they take off their corn silage or after winter wheat as a cover crop. Winfred really helps cows milk as well....
I love it...and have posted numerous times about it.
If one asks me what 3 products they should plant to have success, no matter where one plants it..
winfred brassica berseem clover daikon radish
Hard to tell from the angle but these turnips are 3+' tall with HUGE leaves and I was sitting in a tower observation stand last night from which this photo was snapped and watched the deer pull leaves off and munch them down. I was/am surprised both at how well these turned out and how much the deer love them for just a mow/till and hand casting of some seed. It has been a good experiment and will be repeated for sure.
Is it too late to plant the brassica now in mid Missouri? We just received moisture and more on the way. First hard freeze generally in late Oct to early Nov. I have a plot I was going to disc and spread cereal grain. This may be an addition.
Thanks,
I am very impressed.
Not a large deer population here in Massachusetts.
Your Winfred looks good!
The also eat the parts of the turnips that are above ground like apples.
Why they will eat those big leaves is.....it's 3rd crop. The brassica isn't OLD nor is it BITTER. Any mixes i put winfed in, the deer pic it out over other species.
When i do seminars or if i'm sitting in the office and testing the customer service staff, i always say...If someone said i could only plant 3 things in my food plots, what would they be?
My answer would be berseem clover, radish and winfred brassica.
I spend most of my time planting brassicas, experimenting with brassicas, trying to find better varieties of brassicas and i know how to grow big ol brassica..
You need the right pH. You need to pull soil tests and fertilize for the test. You need to add sulfur. You need to add plant foods and also insecticides or fungicides if past threshold levels.
But i also use foliar during burn down. It helps with chemical kill, conditions the soil and helps increase seed germination, and early growth.
I have some clients that 7 days after every hay crop apply the foliar. I'd recommend putting foliar on anytime one applies herbicides to one's food plots.
For $5 an acre, it's the best money anyone can ever spend. I also can prove that applying foliar jacks up protein, energy and sugars on forages. When one calculates the cost to benefit, your looking at 30-1 return on your dollar. Plus i'm always trying to grow big and healthy animals so....it's not just a plant food but a nutrition aid.
I clipped at maturity, just like one should with clovers. In the spring greens mix, the winfred was mature around 60 days and about 3" tall. I clipped down to 8",12" and 18" heights to see if i could tell a difference. They all filled in nicely. I still recommend only taking off 1/2 of any forage growth when clipping.
Winfred brassica stays green down to 10 degrees and stands up well, due to the type of stalk it has. The shorter growing hunter, rangi, rangolia, pacer and pasja won't grow as tall and will go down, due to their structure.
I loveeeee kale and kale crosses as a nutritionist.
