Food Plots Brassicas

[AlabamaSwamper]

Am i the only one I know of that plants my brassicas in mid August? looking for others that do and their experiences.
I am taking a risk on drought but at $1.50 or less per pound if I do have a complete failure every few years I can come back and plant grains behind it. Most years the amount of forage compared to September planting is a huge difference. If Mother Nature cooperates I'll have rape and turnips well over knee deep and I'm 6'4".

i still add them to my other annual plots as well in September.

and I've noticed these early plantings get much more usage early rather than January and February when they eat the later plantings. I have no idea why.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

We plant anywhere from mid-august through mid-September typically. It all depends on the rain. Will plant right before rain is forecasted to come. If the ground is wet, we will plant if there is more rain in the forecast a little further out. If it is dry and no rain forecasted, NOPE, not doing it! I'm leaving for a CO elk hunt 9/4 so I'm really hoping to be able to plant a week or 2 before that - will be washing my truck for sure and doing my rain dance for sure!

I agree that those august plantings produce a LOT of forage. How many pounds per acre and what varieties do you plant?

 

[tellico4x4]

Yep, got 3-4 to do this year if weather allows. Hopefully getting sprayed end of week.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

I normally mix purple and 7 top, rape and radishes.

 

[BSK]

Agree with others that a mid-August planting of ANYTHING produces much more tonnage production for fall, depending on rainfall. Like JCDEERMAN, I plant by the rain. If rainfall is adequate I'll start prepping my plots first week of August hoping for a mid-August planting. However, I've had years where adequate rainfall didn't occur until mid-October.

As for brassicas, yes I've tried a few! For those that remember "BioLogic" seed blends (the seed blends that started the brassica craze), one of the Mid-South test facilities was my place. I was given about 10 different unmarked (other than "Variety A", "Variety B", etc.) brassica varieties, which I had to plant in randomized strips across multiple plots. Each variety had to be planted in at least two strips in each plot. I then had to keep track of growth rate and deer utilization on a weekly basis for the duration of the fall and winter season. From that and other locations' data, one of the mixes for our region was developed. Now personally, I've moved away from brassicas in my fall plots. Not because I don't like them, but because they weren't being utilized by deer until very late, often the end of deer season. Considering I had few acres of plots, and they were more "attractant" plots than "feeder" plots, I wanted every square inch of those plots in something that would draw deer to the property during deer season, especially November. The brassicas A) were not attracting deer in November (more like mid-December on), and 2) were simply taking up space that other November-attractive crops could have been utilizing.

However, now that I have enough acreage of food plot to spare, and they have become "feeder" plots, I may again start using brassicas. They are unquestionably attractive in early to mid-winter, and can produce a large tonnage of forage.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Agree with others that a mid-August planting of ANYTHING produces much more tonnage production for fall, depending on rainfall. Like JCDEERMAN, I plant by the rain. If rainfall is adequate I'll start prepping my plots first week of August hoping for a mid-August planting. However, I've had years where adequate rainfall didn't occur until mid-October.

As for brassicas, yes I've tried a few! For those that remember "BioLogic" seed blends (the seed blends that started the brassica craze), one of the Mid-South test facilities was my place. I was given about 10 different unmarked (other than "Variety A", "Variety B", etc.) brassica varieties, which I had to plant in randomized strips across multiple plots. Each variety had to be planted in at least two strips in each plot. I then had to keep track of growth rate and deer utilization on a weekly basis for the duration of the fall and winter season. From that and other locations' data, one of the mixes for our region was developed. Now personally, I've moved away from brassicas in my fall plots. Not because I don't like them, but because they weren't being utilized by deer until very late, often the end of deer season. Considering I had few acres of plots, and they were more "attractant" plots than "feeder" plots, I wanted every square inch of those plots in something that would draw deer to the property during deer season, especially November. The brassicas A) were not attracting deer in November (more like mid-December on), and 2) were simply taking up space that other November-attractive crops could have been utilizing.

However, now that I have enough acreage of food plot to spare, and they have become "feeder" plots, I may again start using brassicas. They are unquestionably attractive in early to mid-winter, and can produce a large tonnage of forage.

Good points on the acreage being more attractiveness driven versus actually feeding deer. How many acres do you have now in food plots?

Many factors come in to play (neighboring properties, acorn crop, deer density, etc...). We are the only ones anywhere around that plant anything for deer. No row crops and no food plots anywhere. That's why ours get hammered so hard. And only having 9 acres of plots, they were simply attracting deer for a limited time, not feeding deer. When those plots get eaten to the ground and especially years we have no acorns, the deer leave....totally leave.

I'll be posting updates on our place in a few weeks. Dozer got delivered 7/9 and we have it for a month. 1 new plot got done Saturday before the rain hit. We have about 17 acres more to get done - already clear-cut and now just needs de-stumped and everything pushed off to the side. So, I hope our dozer guy gets to it and the rain stays at bay. Unbelievable to watch a good dozer guy do his work. We will be in the same boat (Lord willing) - we will now be able to FEED deer. Transforming from 9 acres to a rough estimate of 27 acres

 

[BSK]

Good points on the acreage being more attractiveness driven versus actually feeding deer. How many acres do you have now in food plots?

Early on, we only had 2 acres of plots. Now we have almost 8. And we're in a somewhat unique situation in that although our property is all steep ridge-and-hollow hardwoods, we're in the inside U-bend of a major river system, so on three sides we're surrounded by massive agriculture bottomlands. Nowhere does our property touch those bottomlands, but in a few spots comes within a couple of hundred yards. In the summer, we have only a moderate deer density as most of the local deer are in the bottomlands. But once the acorns start to fall (if we have a crop that year) and definitely once the agricultural bottomlands start being harvested, all of the bottomland deer flood up into our hill country property. We can go from 4-6 bucks on the property in summer, to over 40 in fall. Now in a good acorn year, we can do great food plot-wise, as deer have acorns to fill up on. But in a poor acorn year, it's just the food plots, and they can get hammered QUICK once all those deer magically appear about late September. An early to mid-August food plot planting gets our plots up thick enough that they can withstand the browse pressure until late November in a poor acorn year, mid-winter in a good acorn year.

 

[megalomaniac]

Brassicas def need to be planted earlier than anything else in the fall. Late Aug is my favorite time on TN. In south MS, late Sept (fewer insects to eat the leaves) In a perfect world, id plant them 2 to 3 weeks before the wheat and clover, but that just isn't practical when planting a blend, so I just mix all the seed together and plant immediately before significant expected rainfall any time between the end of Aug and the end of Sept. Planting before a rain is more important than actual planting date.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

Good discussion and points and shows how different properties have different needs and requirements.

I'd estimate only 15% of my plots in brassicas. In years a drought hits and I lose them, they are simply converted to grains very easily later in the fall.

I noticed last year once they figured the radishes out, they mowed them down by Thanksgiving and the rest they hammered late season which was the plan.

plus we've had three bad acorn years in a row. Two complete failures.
Two years ago they completely wiped knee high turnips out in late October. Was zero acorns.

 

[tellico4x4]

Good discussion and points and shows how different properties have different needs and requirements.

I'd estimate only 15% of my plots in brassicas. In years a drought hits and I lose them, they are simply converted to grains very easily later in the fall.

I noticed last year once they figured the radishes out, they mowed them down by Thanksgiving and the rest they hammered late season which was the plan.

plus we've had three bad acorn years in a row. Two complete failures.
Two years ago they completely wiped knee high turnips out in late October. Was zero acorns.

Same situation as your acorns past 3 years. Was looking a bit this weekend & seems like we have this go around.

When radishes first got popular, I had some clover that was nearing end of life cycle & decided to try Daikon radishes. Took a tiller & made 2-3 ten foot wide swathes in in half dozen of the old clover plots. Was amazed at the usage the radishes received. Most of time the deer would walk straight thru the landino to eat the radish tops. Had all of them eat down to ground by Thanksgiving. Don't know if it was just something new or what, but have never seen that kind of usage since. That's also the only time that have planted in strips too, so that may have something to do with it too. Now just have it added to my annual mix so it is scattered in plot.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Same situation as your acorns past 3 years. Was looking a bit this weekend & seems like we have this go around

X3 on the acorn crop the last 3 years. 2 total failures and 1 we had a couple reds dropping. This year is looking good. We are due for a bumper crop for sure. If things still look that way come mid-August, our plantings will correspond with very early eating and late season eating in some of the plots.

 

[BSK]

I'm concerned about the acorns on the Plateau, as they had a late freeze. But in western Middle TN, see the attached picture. I can never remember being able to look up into white oaks in early July and be able to see all the acorns. They are LOADED. It's going to be a bumper White and Post Oak year (haven't checked Chinquapin Oaks yet). But not seeing much on the Mountain Chestnuts, nor any variety of red. I did find a few reds carry (true Southern Reds), but nothing on the Black and Scarlett oaks. Haven't checked Northern Red or Pin Oaks.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I do remember the plateau getting that late freeze. They have had several years of great acorn production, except for last fall. It is some tough hunting in those steep hills when there aren't any acorns.

I'll check our oaks this coming weekend. I'll take a look at the mountain chestnuts too - we have a lot of those and they rain down early. Took my binoculars with me this past weekend, but forgot to look. We are due for a bumper year! Thanks for posting - this is very uplifting.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I actually have good luck with pure stands even as early as Late July up on the mountain.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

I called my friend in Nebraska once. Just small talk and asked him what he'd been doing. He said he just finished planting our turnip patch field.
I'm early June! Then I realized they get frost in September

they were as usual mowed down by mid November.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Not because I don't like them, but because they weren't being utilized by deer until very late, often the end of deer season.

Tried a couple different brassicas mixes here in west Tennessee. Plots were beautiful. Deer nibbled on the greens right after first frost, and that was it. Think I planted them three years in a row, deer here just didn't seem to care for them.

Deer walked through the plots to graze in pasture grass. Rather plant beans and leave then standing or winter grazer rye.

 

[BSK]

I called my friend in Nebraska once. Just small talk and asked him what he'd been doing. He said he just finished planting our turnip patch field.
I'm early June! Then I realized they get frost in September

they were as usual mowed down by mid November.

Surprisingly, in far northern climates, we planted brassicas as a summer food plot crop. Hunting properties up their don't use fall/winter plots because they're under 2 feet of snow by gun season. In northern Lower Michigan and Upstate New York, we had really good success with summer brassicas, although they were a different blend than what is used in the Southeast for fall/winter.