Best Nutrition?

It is time to start shopping for seed for the fall plots and I am looking to mix it up this year. I have had some good results with brassicas but am looking to add some different variety into the mix. Here’s the deal, I want something that will last through december and provide plenty of protein and nutrition in the spring . Tall order? I recently read an article in QDM that was explaining how even when the woods are greening up and coming to life, the proper nutrients are not yet developed in most plants and are essentially fillers for whitetails when they need protein and other things the most. I will be planting as much clover as I can afford to this year and adding a large stand of winter wheat into the mix. My harvest plots that have all been brassicas in the past are normally eaten down to the dirt before opener. What are some other reccomendations that have worked for you boys in the past? I am in the Mille Lacs area and the soil is not ideal but not horrible. Sorry to ramble but I am getting overwhelmed .

Im sure Bob will chime in with this post he sure knows his plots pretty well from what I can tell!!

Winter rye provides free nitrogen when you till it under for the next plot. Im doing a mix of groundhog radish,peas,rape seed and turnips. Half the plot will be winter rye and the other half will be that mix. Winter rye will grow anywhere

What time of year are you putting in the Rye?

Last week of aug to mid september. If your goona add peas or clover to it,try to shoot for end of august. You dont want it to get to tall it gets less palatable

I put my rye in Labor Day weekend or the weekend after. I mix in Austrian winter peas too. No worry around here about the peas getting too tall. I have never had one single plant make it over 6″. Most of the time, they don’t make it past 4″. The plots will look like a golf green until the third week in October. By then the deer seem to shift to corn hard and let my plots recover slightly. They will begin to hit the plots hard again in late November. I hope my fall plots do well this year. My corn isn’t doing so well in this sand country. I broadcast seeded beans in too but they were all eaten as soon as they sprouted. We need RAIN!

I would give a to Winter Rye as well. You said you are going to plant clover and winter wheat, which are also very good early spring nutrition sources.

One thing that has worked well for me, and is in line with what you are looking for is forage Chicory. I plant forage Chicory in with both my spring and fall planted brassica mixes. This plant is a biennial meaning that like winter wheat and rye, it will go dormant over winter. Upon spring thaw it will begin to grow again, and deer around here love it just as much as the small grains.

I think if you add chicory to a few of your brassica mixes, especially bulbed brassicas, you will be meeting what you are looking for. A plot with mid to late season attraction, late season and winter nutrition, and early spring palatable regrowth in the chicory.

It is very easy to grow, sees great use in spring as well as early and mid fall, regrows very well after browsing or mowing, and has great weed competition.

Good luck with your plots