Vet Judy

Let’s take a closer look at rye and ryegrass and their use in deer food plots.
 

   Annual ryegrass (Lollium multiflorum).is a cool-season annual grass commonly used in deer food plot plantings.  It is not to be confused with rye (Secale cereale).  Rye is also an annual grass, but is more commonly grown for grain than for forage.

 If you’re planting for deer forage in a warmer season, rye can be an excellent choice.  A disadvantage in cooler weather is that lower temperatures cause the rye plant to bend over (a condition called “lodging”).  This puts the plant on the ground rather than up in the air.

• Still, rye is a very valuable food source for deer and other wildlife.  In northern zones, some university research has recommended simply seeding rye into forest openings each year in the spring to improve food value for wildlife.
• My experience with the deer food plots on the ranch, however, is to treat crops as annuals with a “harvest” by the deer in the fall and winter.  Annual ryegrass really meets that purpose.  It contains about 16% crude protein.  It is also relatively high in calcium when compared to other common deer food plot crops.
•  As I’ve noted when writing about cool-season grasses, be sure that you don’t select a perennial ryegrass variety.  The perennial version can be aggressive and hard to get out of your food plot.  In addition to avoiding perennial varieties, there are some disease issues in ryegrass that can occur, especially in warmer climates, if it is seeded continuously.  (That’s another argument for rotating crops in your food plot.)
• Annual ryegrass will perform well when seeded into a food plot with a moderate pH (between 5.5 and 7.5).  Another advantage to annual ryegrass is that it is more tolerant to soils that are not as well-drained. 
•  Annual ryegrass is a great crop to use in a crop mix, as it serves as a good “companion” for some clovers and other shorter crops.  It’s quick growing and rapidly establishes, and it can be effectively used as a standalone crop to provide food value in spots where other grasses might not grow as easily.  I like to seed it on our fourwheeler trails to provide some deer cover and forage value on hard-traveled paths.

 For more free information on annual options for deer food plots visit: www.diydeerfoodplots.com/

brassica All-Stars: Turnips

            Imagine a food crop that you could eat several times while it’s growing…then come back later and get some decent nutrition by digging up the roots.

            That is, essentially, what a deer gets out of a turnip.

            The turnip, whose scientific name is Brassica rapa, is one of those gold-plated deer forages in the brassica family.  Turnips have the reputation for being a humble crop, but they’re a critical part of many deer food plot stands.

            You’ll want to seed turnip in the late summer in northern climates; locations farther south can get away with early fall seedings.  Peak forage growth for most varieties is 60-90 days, with the best leaf nutrition coming about six weeks after planting.

            Turnips will keep growing after the first grazing—that is, if the point where the turnip greens grow, located at the tops of the roots, isn’t removed.  This is why it’s important to offer other crops in the food plot mix besides turnip, especially crops like cool-season grasses that can be managed for early fall deer forage.  The idea is to let the deer get a nibble of the turnip while there are still other things to eat.  Then, when there aren’t as many other forage options, the deer will return to graze the turnip.  Like other brassicas, turnips promote this feeding habit naturally as the turnip greens can taste more bitter before frost.

            At my ranch, I’ve seen turnip stay green well into the winter and even be available underneath the snow.  Deer can also dig up the turnips for nutrition in the mid-winter.

            Agronomists have selected lines of brassica rapa that are best suited for grazing.  Be sure to use a grazing variety when you put turnip into your deer food plot mix.  Then watch turnips become a part of your deer food plot that you’ll wonder why you never tried before.

            When it comes to forage crops that can grow in the late summer and the fall, you have to talk brassicas.  Unlike cool-season grasses, the growth of brassicas isn’t as affected by the cooler fall weather and shorter periods of daylight.  At my ranch, I’ve found that brassica crops are some of the best performers for deer food plots.

            Remember the importance of protein in the deer diet in Deer Management?  Well, brassicas are typically 16-18 percent “crude protein”—that’s nearly the same level as a premium, warmer season forage legume such as alfalfa.  Brassicas tend to be a very productive crop, and are very digestible for deer.  They are seeded in the summer and then provide forage into the fall and winter.

            As I’ve noted in my book, Deer Food Plots Made Easy, the neatest thing about brassicas is that they naturally repel the deer early in the season, before frost.  Leaves are bitter before they’re hit by frost; after frost, they naturally sweeten as starches in the leaves are converted to sugar.

            Turnips are a popular brassica crop, and are examined in more detail in a separate blog posting.  Turnip is also a good example of a multi-use brassica, for deer can forage for the edible roots long after the turnip tops, or “greens,” have been eaten.

            So if brassicas are such a wonder crop when it comes to deer forage, why doesn’t the deer food plot manager just plant an acre of brassicas and watch the racks roll in?  One word: fiber.  That’s right—for all their positive protein content, brassicas are notoriously low in fiber.  This is a big problem in ruminant nutrition, because ruminants need proper fiber levels to keep the bacteria living in their rumens happy and productive.  Sheep and cattle managers have discovered that brassicas shouldn’t make up more than about 75% of a ruminant’s diet.

            So while brassicas are absolutely essential for the deer food plot, they’re not the magical “silver bullet” crop that will guarantee food plot success.  That success will only come with proper deer habitat management, good crop seed mixtures, and well-thought location for your deer food plot plantings.

            The bulk of most deer food plot crops are cool season — crops that produce during cooler weather.  In today’s blog, I’ll explore cool-season forages, focusing on cool-season grasses and their value in deer food plots.

            Generally speaking, there are two strategies for cool-season crops used as deer forage or other grazing animals.  The plot manager can select a crop to “stockpile,” allowing a crop to grow during the late summer months for grazing in the early fall, when temperatures drop and the crop’s growth slows. 

Birdsfoot trefoil, a legume, is a good example of a crop used in many deer food plots that is suitable for stockpiling.  Birdsfoot trefoil is a popular selection for this practice because it does not lose its leaves as easily as some other legumes after frost.

            Many cool-season grasses, however, are selected for deer food plots because they are able to keep growing in lower temperatures.  This allows for deer to potentially utilize the grasses as a food source over multiple months.  Cool-season annual grasses often grown for grain—such as ryegrass, wheat, and oats—are often used in food plots. 

            If you’ve grown these crops for grain use, such as winter wheat, using them in deer food plots will require some adjustment to your past experience.  Cool-season grains like wheat and oats grown for fall grazing should be planted almost a month earlier than they are typically planted for grain production.  As always, be sure you’re using varieties that are suited to the typical severity of your fall and winter.  Fertilizer application at planting (equivalent to 40 lbs of nitrogen per acre) is also vital for cool-season fall grass growth.

            One note on ryegrass: be sure you’re using an annual ryegrass, as there are many perennial ryegrass varieties available.  On my ranch, I’ve found ryegrass is used best on small spots that are harder to access.  We also seed ryegrass on our four wheeler trails to provide some grass cover and forage availability.

            perennial cool-season grasses can often create problems in managing land for deer forage, because they can crowd out warm-season grasses in the spring.  For this reason, I keep clear of perennial cool-season grasses in deer food plot plantings.

  You may be reading this blog or ordered my book because, in the past, you have attempted to plant a  food plot.  Everything looked good the first year—then the miracle grasses promised to give you happy deer and huge rack year after year never came back the next season.  Or perhaps the lush, green grass that you had growing so well in the summer barely lasted a week into September.

 I’ve found these horror stories far too common among hunters and landowners.  But here’s the good news: the reason why many food plots grass plantings may not perform well is due to a fairly simple difference in grasses.  These differences can be summarized in an explanation of warm season vs. cool-season.

In this blog, I’ll describe the difference between a warm-season and cool-season grass and talk about how warm-season grasses might be used in food plot plantings.  In the next blog, I’ll focus on cool-season grasses which are an essential part of prime white-tailed deer habitat.

Warm-season v. Cool-season crops

            The difference between “warm” and “cool” is intuitive: warm season crops are those crops which produce in warmer temperatures, while cool-season crops produce in cooler temperatures.  I like to think of it as the difference between a turnip and a tomato—a turnip will germinate and grow in the early spring or fall and usually produce a turnip under cooler temperatures.  A tomato, on the other hand, needs summer’s heat and plenty of moisture to produce.

            There are similar differences in food plot crops, especially grasses.  A careful selection of the proper grasses goes a long way towards insuring forage for your deer.

Warm-season grasses

            I’ve found the best warm-season grasses for deer forage are often those grasses that naturally thrive in the local habitat during the summer. 

           Here’s an important note: warm-season grasses do not do as well when there’s a cool-season grass in the seed mix.  This is because cool-season grasses grow and thrive in the early spring, choking out potential for warmer season growth.  So if you’re seeding a warmer season grass for deer food plots or other habitat, be sure to eliminate competition from cool-season grasses.  Some warm-season grasses that provide good nutrient quality in the summer, as well as desirable habitat, include some of the native prairie grasses like switchgrass, big bluestem, and Indiangrass.  Other warm-season grasses like little bluestem, side-oats grama, and Eastern gamagrass may also be habitat possibilities.

Taller warm-season grasses could be important plantings for habitat and deer food plot borders.  The more important cool-season grasses are discussed in the next blog.  And remember: Whenever planting warm or cool-season perennial grasses, remember to always plant those varieties that are rated to withstand the normal extremes of your local winter.