A little story about Rye

[Ultradog]

 

After several years of plowing and discing then planting a Big Rack Mix of seed the weeds had completely taken over my deer plots. So much that basically got nothing to attract deer in 2016.

So in 2017 I did not plow or plant but in late June that year I did a glyphosphate burn off. That August I disced the plots very well and then broadcast in some rye.

In September I was disappointed with the germination rate but by that time of year it's too late to start over. The deer did hit the plots but there wasn't a lot there.

In spring of this year the rye  really came back in strong. More and thicker than last year. Early too. My tennant up there said  as soon as the snow receded the rye was coming up and the deer were hitting it hard. Probably they were happy to get some fresh, early greens after a winter of eating brush.

In August of this year just as the rye ripened and was falling off the stalk I bush hogged it all down and disced it back in.

We were blessed with some good rain after that and boy did it come back strong and I have two good stands of fresh greens for the deer. I mentioned in another post that my wife and I sat in the blind for a while last weekend. It was really interesting to watch the deer eating. We saw 7 deer and it was like they were chowing down big mouthfulls of the stuff and couldn't seem to get enough of it.

I'm assuming it will winter over again and come back next spring.

I don't know what I'll do then but I'm thinking a guy could keep this routine going for several years.

One thing about it is that both plots that were completely covered with weeds are essentially weed free now. I guess the rye dominated and choked out everything else.

 

 

[wtnhunt]

The wintergrazer rye I planted with clover last fall did very well, so much so that it grew to over 6 ft tall by the time that we were into April.  I cut some of it and fed it to my cows when I got short on hay.  Unfortunately it seems it choked out some of the clover that I did not get to mowing early enough.  I ended up putting beans in the part where the clover had not come back earlier on this year.