Is this "Winter" Rye?
Whitetail Deer
So I haven't been getting my minimum daily requirement of mosquito bites at home, so I decided to wander over to my food plot today. Had to pick up a cam left last fall in the bush and check some equipment. I planted fall rye in a couple of areas hoping to choke out some weeds and provide some early green. The stuff didn't take at all in a few spots, but I have a pretty thick growth of what I think is rye in another area. The landowner had rode his horse through there a week ago and he said it was just grass, but today some stocks had heads on them like rye. A couple of pics for those that know this stuff.
Head on stalk
Head on stalk
The plant
The plant
Crapping in my clover!
Crapping in my clover!
Found a goofy shed from a moose I had on cam.
Found a goofy shed from a moose I had on cam.
Not sure why I leave home to hunt bears??
Looks just like the Winter Rye I have in my plots here. I would be surprised if it isn't.
There is rye and there is rye grass
Looks like rye to me as well, Rod. You need to bolt some pieces of angle iron onto your new cultipacker and use it as a roller/crimper to terminate it!
Yes! I grew something!!
When should I roll it? I have to do some Round Up on a few dandelion spots, which are bear magnets. And if it ever quits raining I can flatten the rye at the same time.
Will the rye reseed itself? I have it in one area where nothing else will grow except weeds I call it the Cursed Ground.
Two other small plots, will be planted with a turnip, radish, beet mix sometime in late July.
Pretty certain that is Winter Rye.
Yes, your rye will reseed itself, but you might only get spotty regrowth vs actually reseeding by hand. Rye has a kind of bluish tint to it. If you’re thinking of letting it reseed itself, I would just let it go until it matures and dies off on it’s own. Then you could burn it off if it’s pretty thick, or disc it under. Burning it off doesn’t seem to hurt the seed heads much, if any.
If by burning you mean fire, that’s not possible. Should I roll or disc now, the areas I want to plant in late July.
Should I just plant rye now in all the dead zones and areas that I killed the thistles and weeds in last fall. I’d like some ground cover to inhibit regrowth. I can disc or rototill later before planting anything else. The one piece in particular needs some organic matter back in the soil.
Do you have access to getting any buckwheat seed, Rod? That stuff grows faster than anything else I’ve ever planted. It will shade out the weeds in those areas, plus it will also put some organic material back in your soil.
If you can’t burn it (with fire) mowing it before you try to disc it in will definitely help to get it worked into the soil. Trying to disc in 5’-6’ tall rye is a major PITA!
Mow it off in a month. Reseed winter rye in late august. Maybe sooner up by you. But now is too soon.
I’ll check for buckwheat at my local store. We don’t have any real crops here, so not much for seed available, but rye I can get. If I head over to Alberta to visit family, I have way more options.
Is there something I can over seed in the rye then roll it for cover and moisture retention. July and first half of August are usually hot and dry.
I’m itching to flatten something with my cultipacker!
The buckwheat will work great to keep the weeds down.
We need this food plot top notch, we will all reap the benefits!
Check out wildlife habitat solutions in YouTube..... he’s got a ton of videos on this very subject
Looks like that big pile of bear scat would be prime candidate for a test run on the cultipacker, Ambush. Just be careful not to tip your atv over in the process!
Grubby, that's some good stuff on the Wildlife Habitat Solutions channel! Thanks.
Sounds like I better try real hard to get some buckwheat on the ground pretty quick.
Troy, I gather all the bear crap up and make one HUGE pile to scare the other bears off.
Buckwheat is not the easiest to get and can be pricey. I paid $1 a pound this year which was rather high. You could also use millet depending on your fall plans.
looks like cereal rye, it can get shoulder tall, easy to crimp and plant into.
A GE view of the plot and area. The yellow line is a creek ravine that runs east/west for about a mile either direction from the plot. The black lines encircle dog hair thick poplar regeneration. Blue line encircles there actual plot with the east end being the Cursed Ground. The trails and edges get brushed out to create more natural browse. Anything that is not cleared is steep hills and knobs, and the bush is cut up with steep, narrow ravines and knife ridges.
I’d love to say that my farming skills is what keeps the deer traveling through here, but that would be a lie. The topography makes this exact location a hub. But I do think the early and fall forage does enable more deer to survive the winter. From fawns and soon to be pregnant does to rut worn bucks.
Ambush, it certainly looks like winter rye to me too.
I like the looks of your place. I would recommend adding gypsum to your soil and establishing a mix of clovers this fall. Periodically overseed winter rye into your clover once established to pull off extra nitrogen... which will reduce weeds and grasses. This will give you several years of plots without opening up the seed bank. Research gypsum some, it tends to make clovers more attractive to deer. I know a guy up north and this has worked well for him.
Part of my entertainment while sitting in the blind.
Part of my entertainment while sitting in the blind.
Thanks Catscratch. I only have one strip of clover about ten feet wide and one hundred feet long, right along the thick poplar. Nothing else grows there and the grouse feast on it in the fall until the snow covers it. But clover is a bear magnet and I don’t want them around, so that’s all I’ll have. They’re just a big pain in the butt. Sometime in mid August, I run a chain link fence drag over it a few times and it comes back fresh for the grouse.
That bird is awesome! I bet they are a blast to hunt.
Is there anything that doesn't attract bear... that deer like? It's an honest question as I don't have bear experience. Maybe you could guide some bear hunts and thin your local population some?
I don’t hunt these grouse, they’re just fun to watch. They can pop in and out of the poplar regen and not get picked off by hawks or owls. The super thick poplar is also a great place for does to stash the new fawns.
So far the bears don’t bother too much with the brassicas and thankfully they either don’t like or haven’t discovered the bulbs. Actually only a few of the deer will eat the bulbs, but these are mule deer, so maybe that’s why. The deer eat the brassicas down to the stems over about a two week period in late September/ early October. Ideally we get a fairly deep fluffy snow to cover them. Then the deer dig through and the stuff is fresh and green still, even in December, plus the ground doesn’t freeze. Last couple years have been wet then very cold with no snow so everything gets frozen in.
If it was up to me, there’d be a NR draw for black bears (and I mean several thousand) and I’d happily have folks come shoot a bunch.
My deer don't eat turnips. They like radish tops but won't take to the bulbs.
Too bad you have to many bears. I hear they are a problem from most people that have to deal with them.
I can’t get buckwheat or millet locally. Only the same fall rye that I planted late last year. Maybe I’ll just throw some of that down in all the bare/ killed spots.
Canada has half the seed and 1/100 of the chemicals the US does.
