Winter Wheat

[Blue Duck]

I have a few questions about Winter Wheat.  Do the wildlife just use it when its young and tender or pretty much through its life cycle?   I had an area all disked up and ready to plant this late summer or fall, but missed the window.  It was a hot dry summer and the rains are just starting to come now (too late).  Im guessing a spring planting would not be much help for next falls hunting season.  Those who have some experience with winter wheat let me know what to expect.

[fatercat]

plant it right now. i will post pic for you to see later today.  planted mine two or three weeks ago. i live south va.  deer eat it all winter. they keep it mowed like yard. will come up less than one week

[Ranch13]

Winter wheat you can plant about anytime, when it gets enough moisture and the soil temp is right it'll germinate.
Most animals will graze on it until it get's to course and looses the leaves after it heads out. They will also pull it out by the roots if the graze it before it gets stooled out.

[fatercat]

here are a few pics. notice deer and turkey in middle pic.

[Blue Duck]

Thanks for the info.  I think its too late to plant it here.  Starting to get snow and hard frosts are coming.  Is spring an option?  I wouldn't think it would be much of an attractant by fall would it?  Probably have to wait to try again next summer.

[Ranch13]

Yes you could plant it now, and if the weather moderates it will germinate, and grow until the ground temps get low enough to make it go dormant.
 You can also plant it next spring when the frost goes out, but it may or may not make grain.

[Blue Duck]

If I planted it in the spring Im sure it would do fine, but wonder if it would still be used by deer in the fall.  I don't mind feeding deer all year, but I was shooting for a good fall plot.  We have snow on the ground now so this fall is out.

[Ranch13]

If you spring plant it, it will be mature by the fall, and it's not likely to be grazed much.
If you want it for fall grazing, planting about the 1st of august might be your best bet.

[cjclemens]

Im not sure where you are, but in central IL, we usually plant winter wheat in late September and early October.  If you plant it late, it wont have time get established and it will suffer a lot of winter-kill, but it will probably germinate and grow well until you start getting regular freezes.  I've planted some winter wheat at the end of October that still turned out decent.  If you have winter wheat seed, you might as well plant it now - deer will graze on it until its covered up with snow.  Winter wheat has to be vernalized - go from shortening days to lengthening days in order to complete its life cycle.  If you spring plant winter wheat seed, it will never get taller than 6 or 8 inches and it will never put on a seed head.  It will probably still burn out and die sometime in late June or early July.

If you dont have seed yet, you can get spring wheat seed and plant it in the spring - it will grow normally and put on seed, but it will still probably be burned out and dead by late August or September.  Deer mostly just graze on the young, tender wheat as it grows.  Once it puts on seed, its mostly birds that benefit from it.

[Blue Duck]

I appreciate all the input.  I was ready to plant by the first of August and would have planted as late as the first of Oct. but the rain never came.  Im in north Idaho and hard frost and snow can come any time from Oct. on.    I missed it this year.  Ill try it again next year.

[keith44]

99% of what has been said here is true, but deer will eat the seed heads.  I planted some last fall, and when some of it was ready tried to harvest some to save the seed for re-planting.  I cut it, and gathered it into a bundle, and laid it out to dry close to my house (with-in 30 feet of my back door).  The next morning there was no seeds to be had.  The entire seed heads had been nibbled off, and there were several deer tracks nearby.  They may or may not eat it while it is standing in the plot, but if you cut it they sure will take it.

[mannyrock]

 
  I don't know how things stand in the upper Mid West, but I've hunted in the south my entire life and have never seen winter wheat as a huge draw for deer.  If there are acorns in the woods, they will stick to that every time.  Yes, they may come in and graze it when it first starts coming up, but they switch off of it if there is anything else.
 
     I have found that planting white clover in the fall (Imperial Whitetail Clover) becomes a massive draw for deer the following fall.  It is a little harder to grow, and you have to lime it, but one acre of thick white clover will attract far more deer than 10 acres of winter wheat.  The deer come to it in herds, and stand there eating it, every evening.  They do this until mid winter, when the clover has been eaten down to nothing.  Good white clover is very rare in nature, and therefore this draws them like a magnet!
 
   Another huge draw, which you can plant in the late spring, is grain sorghum.   It is very easy to grow, is highly drought resistence, produces a huge head of sweet grain, and stays up through deer season.  They keep coming to it until mid winter.  This grain also attracts large numbers of turkey, and helps feed the quail as well.  Only negative is, that it puts down some serious roots like corn, and it is a little hard to till under the following year.
 
   Bottom line, having had a 45 acre farm myself for 15 years, that I converted into excellent deer hunting, I found that there are lots of better things to grow for deer than winter wheat.
 
   Be sure to put your food plot next to a wooded edge, that has about a 10 yard wide edge of brush and thicket in it.  Also, if legal, put down a salt block, just a few steps outside of the brush into the field.  This, plus an acre of clover, is deadly.
 
Best Mannyrock
 
 

[Land_Owner]

Only negative is, that it puts down some serious roots like corn, and it is a little hard to till under the following year.

I have NEVER had ANY difficulty plowing under the grain sorghum or wildlfie grain sorghum plants with the 20-blade disc in sandy soil.

[hillbill]

wheat seems to need lots of nitrogen. i have planted it several times in different plots that i dozed out of a post oak woods.it comes up then just dies because i dont fertilize much. i did a plot where i fertilized with turky manure and it did fine.however turnips, brassica and champion radishes did very well unfertilized. the turnips  and brassica are green and growing good but the radishes died from the hard frosts and cold weather.wheat is very nice and green also.we had a large deer die off from blue tounge and a good mast crop so im not seeing many tracks in my plots at all.

[cjclemens]

N rate recommendation for wheat is ~1 lb N per bushel of expected yield. For example - if you expect your wheat to yield around 60 bushel per acre, you'll need 60 pounds of nitrogen per acre. If you're just feeding the wildlife, I don't see why you couldn't apply a bit less and still have a decent crop. I usually apply urea in the spring. It seems to give me the best results.

[Land_Owner]

Yes, I pea in my plots too...

[FPH]

If you use urea, make sure it is watered it into the soil within a few days of spreading it, or you are wasting a lot of money.  Or so says my fertilizer salesman.

[cjclemens]

Landowner- you must drink an awful lot of water before you head out to your plots...

FPH - your salesman is absolutely right. Granular urea (46-0-0) is highly volatile. Nitrogen losses can be significantly reduced if you get a rain within 12 hours of application. That's usually what I shoot for when I apply mine in the spring. Key is - you need a good 1/2 inch or so of precip to really soak it in...

[FPH]

Landowner- you must drink an awful lot of water before you head out to your plots...

FPH - your salesman is absolutely right. Granular urea (46-0-0) is highly volatile. Nitrogen losses can be significantly reduced if you get a rain within 12 hours of application. That's usually what I shoot for when I apply mine in the spring. Key is - you need a good 1/2 inch or so of precip to really soak it in...

I irrigate......I schedule my fertilizer spreading to coinside around my irrigation.

[Empty Quiver]

If you use urea, make sure it is watered it into the soil within a few days of spreading it, or you are wasting a lot of money.  Or so says my fertilizer salesman.

Tilling it in accomplishes the same thing ... and will kill the wheat too I suppose.   So says this ex fertilizer salesman.
 
I shot a fat doe near the last day of Illinois January deer season. It was full up with bright greeen grass , winter wheat. I'll tell you one thing, those late season deer eat better I think, as the tannins in acorns make the meat a bit off flavored in comparison.

[FPH]

If you use urea, make sure it is watered it into the soil within a few days of spreading it, or you are wasting a lot of money.  Or so says my fertilizer salesman.

Tilling it in accomplishes the same thing ... and will kill the wheat too I suppose.   So says this ex fertilizer salesman.
 
I shot a fat doe near the last day of Illinois January deer season. It was full up with bright greeen grass , winter wheat. I'll tell you one thing, those late season deer eat better I think, as the tannins in acorns make the meat a bit off flavored in comparison.

I use on pasture ........ so tilling it in isn't really an option......but good to know.

[cjclemens]

If you can't till it in, it's best to watch the weather and try to apply before a rain. There are also some slow release urea products that are encapsulated, to prevent volitilization losses.

[FPH]

If you can't till it in, it's best to watch the weather and try to apply before a rain. There are also some slow release urea products that are encapsulated, to prevent volitilization losses.

Heck with the weather.....I watch the reservoir.  It doesn't rain much here.

[cjclemens]

You might check with your local extension service. They'll have better site specific recommendations on fertilizer formulation and application practices. I'm just afraid if you broadcast urea without any rain, you're not getting much bang for your buck.  Surely your local extension service will have some suggested management practices that'll help you get the most out of your fertilizer dollars.

[FPH]

Operative word is irrigate.  I flood irrigate at my calling , if water is let down from the  damn.

[Empty Quiver]

You might check with your local extension service. They'll have better site specific recommendations on fertilizer formulation and application practices. I'm just afraid if you broadcast urea without any rain, you're not getting much bang for your buck.  Surely your local extension service will have some suggested management practices that'll help you get the most out of your fertilizer dollars.

I think you are absolutely right. One labor intensive practice is foliar feeding. Spraying on N at light rates will introduce the fertility directly through the leaves. Being careful of the Snakeoil types out there, you can find gentle formulations that can be used.
 
Another strategy is to apply the liquid type in a stream injected every 30" or so. Less of the product is exposed to weathering, but you have to account for the crop and how it could deflect the stream.
 
A fertilizer dealer willing to help, and a budget able to absorb the increased costs involved with alternatives is the key here. Those injector type applicators are a spendy proposition in and of themselves.
 
But if you find a willing dealer and have a good deer hunting opportunity for him you might be surprised at what sorts of discounts are available. 

[FPH]

You might check with your local extension service. They'll have better site specific recommendations on fertilizer formulation and application practices. I'm just afraid if you broadcast urea without any rain, you're not getting much bang for your buck.  Surely your local extension service will have some suggested management practices that'll help you get the most out of your fertilizer dollars.

I think you are absolutely right. One labor intensive practice is foliar feeding. Spraying on N at light rates will introduce the fertility directly through the leaves. Being careful of the Snakeoil types out there, you can find gentle formulations that can be used.
 
Another strategy is to apply the liquid type in a stream injected every 30" or so. Less of the product is exposed to weathering, but you have to account for the crop and how it could deflect the stream.
 
A fertilizer dealer willing to help, and a budget able to absorb the increased costs involved with alternatives is the key here. Those injector type applicators are a spendy proposition in and of themselves.
 
But if you find a willing dealer and have a good deer hunting opportunity for him you might be surprised at what sorts of discounts are available. 

We use zinc thru through the leaves on the pecan trees.  We also may use sulfuric acid in the irrigation water for the pecan orchard.  Amonia is also drawn into the irrigation water on a few crops.  I broad cast the urea for my pasture