help with seed choice

[Slugger]

i called a local farm store today to get prices on seed

iwas wanting them to make a mix of winter wheat, rye, and oats i told them it was for a deer plot

they told me thier oats were spring oats and didnt carry winter oats and suggested lidyno clover instead of oats what do yall think? if oats are better what kind do i need.

[wtnhunt]

Dont know if they still have oats in or not, but might check with http://hamannfarms.com/seeds.htm on their deer creek deer oats. As far as an annual rye, have had great results with wintergrazer rye, which is a rye grain. Planting a perenial rye grass from hamann farms this fall here, looking forward to seeing how it will do.

Far as ladino clover, there are a lot of mixes that use ladino clover, have had the stuff in several blends here and it does well and the deer do eat it.

[Guest 257Roberts]

Speaking from MS I've planted it all. Ladino clover, wheat, oats, rye, rye grain, rape, kale, turnips, ect ect. We planted a trial field last year which consisted of a two acres and divided it up into strips and planted rye/wheat/rape/rye grain/clover and set out utilization cages to decide what varieties the deer prefered. The deer absolutely walked over the rest of the field to get to the rape in the early part of the season. After the first hard frost they left the rape alone and ate the other crops in equal amounts. Once the wheat got over 6" tall the deer started eating the rye grass more. Deer are brousers so it suffices to say to plant a variety. As far as the oats go i have planted oats and wheat together and as far as i am concerned they are interchangeable. Clover is also good but you need to plant either wheat or oats with it to take the pressure off while the clover gets established. Barring a drought, if you mantain the clover it will produce throughout the year and next year you will have a nice stand of clover. Just bushhog and apply 0-20-20 at a rate of 200-300 lbs per acre twice a year. The reason you want to use 0-20-20 is because clover makes it's own nitrogen and any nitrogen you broadcast on the field is going to fertilize the competing grasses and weeds. A tip for planting clover is as follows. Broadcast the wheat and fertilizer first (on a well tilled seed bed) and cover with a section harrow. Then (preferably before a rain) with a small hand spreader lightly sprinkle the clover seeds on top of the ground and DONOT COVER. Clover seeds need less than 1" cover to grow and you will do more dammage than good. Almost all the seeds that you sprinkle on top will come up whereas if you cover the seeds only about 1/4 will come up. I'm speaking from exsperince here. It took us several years to figure this out and cost us a ton of money in clover seeds. I also recommend using 10-15 lbs per acre instead of the 5 to 10 lbs recommended by some sources.

[Ravin R10 man]

257 your absolutly correct with clover..do NOT cover it, plain rain shower is all it takes

[Slugger]

thanks for all the helpful input guys its appreciated

so i guess my next question is how many square feet are in an acre and what fert. do i use at planting and how many pounds per acre do i fert.

thanks in advance for your reply.

my friend has a harrow hes gonna let me barrow you called it a section harrow i guess its the same thing any way a guy at work told me when i use it to cover the wheat and rye use it upside down shoud i do that or use it the right way?

[wtnhunt]

so i guess my next question is how many square feet are in an acre and what fert. do i use at planting and how many pounds per acre do i fert.

One acre is 43560 sq ft. Here is a link to a fertilizer calculator http://www.tulsamastergardeners.org/blackbox/fertcalc.htm. If you have your soil test it will help you know how much fertilizer you need.

my friend has a harrow hes gonna let me barrow you called it a section harrow i guess its the same thing any way a guy at work told me when i use it to cover the wheat and rye use it upside down shoud i do that or use it the right way?

I use a light drag made from chain link fencing for covering my seed, it works very well. Rye and wheat like clover do not need to be covered deep.

[Slugger]

well i got my ground worked yesterday. bush hoged and tilled gonna wait until the first weekend of sept. to plant . im gonna till it again and plant. was going to put on 20-20-20 with the seed but didnt know how much and dont know the soil ph.

[ousoonerfan22]

A soil test here takes about 10 days you might try that and still have time to plant.

[Guest revrnd]

White Dutch Clover

My parents are having their woodlot in central Ontario logged right now & there is quite a large landing which will be great for planting a food plot. The forest consultant mentioned that white dutch clover would be good to plant there. Has anyone had any experience using it as compared to commercial brands of food plot seeds?

I'm not sure when the loggers will be finished, but would this fall be too late to plant? Or should we wait until next spring? We'll be hunting on the property this fall.

[Guest revrnd]

Ooops

[wtnhunt]

My parents are having their woodlot in central Ontario logged right now & there is quite a large landing which will be great for planting a food plot. The forest consultant mentioned that white dutch clover would be good to plant there. Has anyone had any experience using it as compared to commercial brands of food plot seeds?

I'm not sure when the loggers will be finished, but would this fall be too late to plant? Or should we wait until next spring? We'll be hunting on the property this fall.

Welcome to the forums. Might be best to start a thread asking on this topic here in this room.

Here fall plantings are perfect for perenials, but further north I am not too sure how late you could get away with plantings. White dutch clover is comparable to ladino clover and would be just fine for food plots, and is in a few commercial blends.