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Wheat in food plots

I’m going to plant three 2-3 acre food plots that are on 160 acres. They’re 2- 300 yards apart. I have several brassicas mixes and winter wheat seed. Should I plant some of each in each plot in strips, plant all the variety of seeds in the same plot (mixed, not in strips) , or plant some plots to brassicas and some to wheat? Or is there another better option? Thanks

I would suggest mixing it in. Where I am from when the brassicas freeze and die the wheat will stay bright green.

I’d suggest planting them separately. If you get a decent stand of brassicas, they will shade out your wheat, somewhat. Also, brassicas usually are planted a month or more, then cereal grains. If you plant the brassicas first, and get spotty or poor growth on them, then I wouldn’t hesitate to overseed the wheat into them.

EDIT……I see you posted this in early Aug. What did you end up doing, Dale? Turn out good?

I planted Brassicus in central Mn first week of august. And planted wheat the same time. Wanted to wait and plant wheat a month or so later, but my travel schedule didn’t allow. I planted wheat separate from brassicus. The ground was quite dry when I planted but rain was forecast two days after I planted. Of course that rain never happened. However about 10 days later there was a good rain that got the brassicus and wheat up. Actually I have a pretty good stand of both, as of early September. I’ve not seen the plots in several weeks but my son hunted it opening weekend and had 10 does actively feeding in one of the plots. He said the plots looked very good. And the last several days there’s been good rain. I’ll hunt there in a couple weeks.

Like Dale I have to prepare the ground and plant when schedules allow. Without a no till drill I have to get the ground prepared when it's soft . Red clay in my part of Georgia can set up like concrete with long periods of dry weather. Started prepping in August after periods of rain softened the ground and planted brassicas the weekend of September 8th. Used a Brillian Sure Stand and the brassicas came up great. Planted a couple other wheat only plots and 5 wheat with brassica plots September 23 and 24th and thankfully had an inch of rain last night. Planted approximately 12 acres total. Will post pictures if I can learn how to do that. Good luck to everyone and stay safe.

Put the brassicas where you don't want the deer to go and plant the wheat where you want to shoot them. Just till and broadcast before a rain or if bare enough dirt they will sprout if you get a rain

I just plant wheat in my garden for a cover crop in October. Deer flock to it all winter.

I mix rye and brassicas and have zero issues with shading. Lush green forage from September through May.

I always plant wheat and brassicas together. If I plant nothing else, I plant wheat. It is a great winter food for deer and always comes up. Most all of my food plot work is to give them plenty to eat once it gets cold. There is generally lots of other good stuff throughout the rest of the year.

How much cold weather will brassicus tolerate?

Frist frost kills it, the 'distance' you get in time with brassica is the bulbs that linger under the snow and cold.

I plant rye in my garden every fall. Once the acorns and chestnuts start becoming less plentiful the deer will start hammering it.

Frost does kill it, but depending on the varieties (rape, kale, turnips, etc) the leaves will also stay attractive for a good while after dying off. Even more so, if they get covered up with snow. Prolonged cold will deteriorate them much quicker. Turnip bulbs usually stay viable later into the winter in my area of Iowa. Radishes deteriorate and turn to mush pretty quickly after a hard frost.

T-Roy is spot on. That’s why I like diversity in my plots.

Soybean forage = summer
Peas, grains, annual clover = early fall
Brassicas = late fall
Soybean grain = winter

I just started adding winter wheat and rye to add additional nutrition during winter months. But by far my unharvested beans are the single best draw in late winter.

Plant awnless wheat and you'll gain some summer nutrition when the deer eat the heads. Wheat grain has good protein during velvet and lactating season. But you have to let it head out instead of tilling it under and planting something else in the spring.

"What's diversity?" "I may be wrong, but I think it's an old, old wooden ship"

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