RE: clover or rape?
Plant BOTH!!
Clover is a great draw spring through early fall, but in my experience, brassicas win hands down when the going gets cold.
I have had great experience with brassica/clover mixes.
I moniter my food plot usage with 3 cameras and 700-800 photos each year. My clover fields are tops all summer long, but come fall, my cameras need to be where the brassicas are.
Call me gullable, but I believe that the large companies, that choose their seed for cold-tolerance and varying maturity times, are indeed the best to buy.
My main, 2 acre, central, largest plot will be planted in Biologics Premium Perinnial this year. You get the best of everything. A perinnial clover/chicory mix, and a good dose of brassicas for the fall/winter months. You can then top-dress this planting in the following spring, with a dose of a straight brassica mix, such as Biologics Maximum.
I' ve been planting these combos for 3 years now(clover and brassicas), and I can' t imagine planting one, without the other.
Jeff...U.P. of Michigan