Seeding Rate Questions
Whitetail Deer
Looking for some advice on how to go about determining proper seeding rates for a fall blend. Our plots in Alabama are mostly 1/2 acre with the largest being .6 acres. We are trying to do a wheat, oat, clover, and radish or rape mixture. I've been doing research on pure stand seeding rates so would I just adjust the pure stand broadcast rate and cut it in half due to size of the plot? My brainstormed amounts were Wheat 25#, Oats 25#, Clover 3#, and Radish 5# per food plot Any feedback or ideas of how to calculate this would be much appreciated.
You have to decide what percentage of each you want in in your mix. If you want 25% oats, Take the acre seeding rate and multiply by .25 to get the pounds per acre. Do the same for each of the seeds in your mix.
get the wheat and oat out soon , i adjust my spreader to one seed of these every 2-3", and use the clover and radish as a border for your plots , at one seed per 6"squared . They may have rates recomended on the bags too.
This thread brings up a question ref wheat and oats. Do the deer eat the wheat and oats when it's green or when it seeds or both?
Fall plots will be green forage
I did roughly the same mix last fall. I was broadcasting (no till) so I went a little heavy on the seeding rate. ~100 pounds of cereal grain (Rye, oats, wheat), 15 pounds of annual clovers (Crimson and medium red) and about 8 pounds of brassicas (turnip, radish, rape).
I added 20 pounds of Winter Rye (NOT RYE GRASS) in November. By the first week of May (zone 6b) there was a great looking stand of cereal grain and clover, all over 12" at that point. I have an exclusion cage in the plot, the deer never let the plot get over 3-4 inches this fall. It wasn't much taller in the cage but you could definitely tell the difference.
I'm using a similar mix this fall (minus rape and PTT). Again I'll use fairly heavy seed rates with no tillage.
I’d say your seeding mix rates look pretty good to me. It won’t hurt if your oats, wheat and clover are a little on the heavy side. Brassicas are a different story. Don’t seed them too heavy.
DL...... long answer is both, depending where you are located. Fall planted oats and wheat are most often planted for their attractiveness as green forage for fall/winter. In more northern areas, oats usually freeze out and die in the winter if they get a hard frost or two, whereas wheat, rye or triticale is more winter hardy and will usually survive and green back up come spring. Further south, the oats have a better chance of making it through the winter. Deer and turkey will definitely utilize them in the spring as well, but IMO, they are not that big of an attraction once they get taller in the spring or after they head out and ripen. Turkeys might be more attracted to them then, but deer, not as much.
This is the rate per acre so take these numbers and do the math to get the rate you need for the size of the plot you are doing. Your numbers seem right in the park. To heavy on the Radish IMO and I think you should add Winter Rye and peas. Winter Rye......don't leave it out very good soil builder and deer love it.
This is the Double Tree Roatation.......my he RIP
Per Acre
50 Winter Rye or sometimes called Cereal Rye(NOT RYE GRASS!!)
50 Jerry Spring Oats
50 Winter Peas or 4010 Forage Peas
10 pounds Red Clover or 6 pounds White Clover
5 pounds Forage Radish
Thanks everyone for the input
