Can Radish and turnips replace Corn
General Topic
Can a radish & turnip food plot replace corn or soybeans?
Up north when it gets cold and there is snow on the ground, nothing beats standing corn and beans
Smitty,
Assuming you are in IA with agriculture around you, I always try and have a habitat element to offer that surrounding properties do not. We have lots of beans/corns around us including our property, so I always plant a winter plot of rye grain, winter peas, brassica and clover mixed in for early green up. And offer cover that is lacking. GL.
Not if you enjoy turkey hunting as well.....
I'd go with standing corn where I'm at if I could keep the deer out of it to give it a chance to grow. I put in three plots with purple tops and daikon radishes. The deer ate the tops off and some of the bulbs prior to the snow. When I was out last week with 6" - 12" of snow covering the plots, the deer were digging thru the snow to get to the bulbs.
No. No one thing can replace the others. You have to remember that a deer will only eat up to 60% of any given food source in a day, unless that's all they have. Even when the beans are young and tender, a deer will still need to eat 40% of something else. That's why you see them walk out of a food plot and nibble on leaves of the shrubs as they are leaving. They require a variety of forage. You never want to stick with just one or 2 things.
The bigger the variety the happier they are. It's all about keeping the deer happy so they don't have to wander off for something else. Your best bet is corn, beans, brassicas, wheat, clover and alfalfa. All of these are best during different times of the year but are still used even after they ripen and dry out. My property will have all of the above, except for the corn. I generally have milo instead of corn, not because it's better but because it's a more consistent cash crop in my area. I'm fortunate to have enough tillable ground to have 3 different crops per year as cash crops. That helps a lot when deciding what to plant on the food plots. My food plots are secondary to what my farmer has already planted.
Just my perspective here...but I have been doing food plots for at least 15 years now, probably closer to 20. When the cold and snow are here...nothing beats standing corn and soybeans, nothing. That being said, I plant all manner of options and they are used plenty...but in the real cold...all of the tracks are in the beans and corn.
On years when I don't have good corn and beans (due to drought, too wet at planting time, etc, etc,) then of course deer use the other options available, but if some neighbor has corn and/or beans...the trails leading across the road are quite heavily used, if you get my drift.
Stating the obvious, but it is best to have some of all, as the deer will favor different things in different seasons, but to me...radishes and turnips are not a replacement for corn and beans.
IowaDave, That's interesting and I have a question. I'll substitute mile instead of corn but still the same concept.
During the winter when the beans and corn are fully ripe and dry, do the deer eat the leaves or just go after the corn cobs and bean pods. I generally don't have much in the way of beans still standing after the harvest but in the places that they miss with the combine, I don't see the standing beans being eaten much. I see them eat the milo heads more but it's not a primary food source.
Do you have any winter wheat or alfalfa?
My deer flock to winter wheat and alfalfa when it's cold. They are on these 2 food sources morning and evening. Way more than any other food source.
I have never noticed the deer eating the leaves and stalks of corn plants, only the ears. But they definitely will consume all of the bean plants once things get tough outside...like about now, each year. I pretty much always have winter rye, and sometimes WW and even triticale, available. They will eat that of course, but when it is cold, they will be in the corn or beans.
The time of the year that the winter rye/wheat/trit really shines though is starting in late Feb/early March. By that time, most other options have been consumed AND the rye will start growing again and is almost always the first "green" thing in late winter/early spring. (Note - one year I had such a good supply of corn that the deer/turks/etc were still coming to that field into May, when we mowed it down and replanted. Normally, my 5'ish acres of corn and 3'ish acres of beans are consumed by February'ish.
I sometimes have alfalfa and when I do, the patterns of usage there resemble the cereal grains. Good usage through the late fall, next to nothing through the dead of winter, and then they will get back on it as soon as it starts growing again in Feb/Mar.
Milo - I sometimes have milo and will have it now every year since I finally have my own grain drill. But when I have had it years past, it seems like the birds have it pretty well consumed before the deer would probably switch to it very heavy. So I can't really say how the deer would use it in my experience.
Dave, Are you allowed to have feeders in Iowa? In Kansas, everyone has corn feeders out about year round.
Corn and beans are tops but Kale in my garden beats everything else when it gets cold. My wife always says shoot those damn deer they are in the kale again. It will grow until snow flys and deer will dig in the snow to get it. I can also dig it out of the snow to get it for us to eat.
Feeders are allowed in Iowa, but not while hunting seasons are in...although I suppose you could run a feeder and then not hunt around it. Baiting is not legal and while I am sure it probably happens somewhere, I am not aware of anything like that going on in my neighborhood...during the seasons.
Feeders are everywhere in Kansas. Maybe that's why I see more deer on the green stuff through the winter and less eating beans or milo. They get corn from the feeders.
I'll have to experiment with corn next year.
We are allowed to have feeders. Squirrels get a lot of the corn and they only eat the heart out of the kernels. Small birds love the left overs. Raccoons eat the corn and there will always be field mice digging holes around the corn. Foxes know it and catch the mice. Owls catch the mice and hawks catch the squirrels and birds. Every hawk and owl know where the feeders are. My cousin took a video of a red fox sneaking up on a squirrel and catching it. The fox then took the squirrel off about 50 yards and buried it. I was in a tree stand and a big red fox trotted by me with a squirrel in his mouth. He buried it under and old log.
JSW - that could be, it would stand to reason. As someone else said earlier, deer will naturally seek some diversity in their diet...so maybe they are loading up on corn at a feeder somewhere and then enjoying the greens at your place??
Given that, I suspect that you are seeing something that isn't 100% natural. I would still maintain that with no "free food"/bait, deer are going to find corn and beans, if available, in their range and use that the most at this time of the year.
It also may be that there are regional differences between us and your area in KS may not get quite as frosty as my area in IA??
Deer have always ate winter wheat in Kansas I can remember when we had few beans or corn so it was milo stubble or wheat.Usually they move to greens if warmer than normal and back to grains if colder,Deer eating wheat doesn't have anything to do with feeders.They are tearing my oats up right now.i think one issue that you don't see as many on wheat is 20 years ago there was wheat everywhere 3 inches tall by now where with double crop alot of wheat is barely up.
In reference to milo... I plant it often and the deer don't touch it until the berries hit the doughy stage. Once that happens they strip it in a week. Not much grain left for the deer or birds at that point. After that it's no longer a food source for us but critters do like the cover. It's much like beans here in that you have to plant a big enough plot to handle the pressure or they wipe it out in short order.
Thank you all for the input. It is getting more and more difficult to get someone to fertilize, plant, spray etc. my small two acre plot. A radish / turnip plot would be easier for me to do myself. Almost everyone agrees that different food sources is the best and corn and beans are still a good choice.
I would plant turips and radishes between my rows of corn, not all rows but mix it in and as far as late season here in NY. I would take rye or winter wheat over corn say into late December. I watch deer walk through corn and standing soybeans to get to winter wheat or rye that was planted mid sept. Once the snow settles in than they go to the corn or soybeans but will still paw through the snow to get to the green underneath! shawn
Not in my area. I had 33 deer visiting my 50 acres of corn regularly this late season. That being said, it is the only cornfield in my area for miles.
My neighbor has several hundred acres of radishes. When the corn and soy beans are about to be cut, a crop duster flys over and drops radish seeds. After the corn and beans are gone the radishes come up. They are huge white radishes. They are also very tasty so I have all the radishes I want for the table. They use the radishes for a cover crop. Seems they break up the soil and rot in the spring leaving a nice place to plant beans and corn. I took this picture from my front yard. Do you know how hard it is to get a flying crop duster in the middle of the picture?
