I'm thinking about planting a mix of buck forage oats and austrian winterpeas ina 5 acre food plot.Are these plants nutritious or are they just attractants? Anyone know their protein content? Thanks.

Farmers around here regularly plant oats and peas to feed to their livestock, so I'd guess the mixture has good nutrition. I think a problem might be that it's pretty much done by fall. They use it as a nurse crop for alfalfa. They'll harvest it late summer. The alfalfa is leftto grow. You might think about having something along with it to continue to provide forage into the hunting season and beyond.

I live in S.W. Okla. and I can't seem to get the deer to really like the Austrian Winter Peas. The oats are a different matter. They love them and being a grain like wheat I'm sure it has plenty of nutrition. Oats don't like the freezing weather but here, they sometimes actually survive the winter. I'm betting that you'd have good luck with them too and seeing that you are in Texas, yours might just survive unless you have an unusually cold winter for your area.

The problem I saw in the winter peas blend I saw was that when the peas got about 3" high the deer would bite them off and they would not grow back from the stem. I've got the protein levels on grainsin an article somewhere around here and I'll try to find it later today.

I use peas and oats as a cover crop over clover and alfalfa. In the mid to late summer I have the local farmer chop it off pretty high. I like it, and it's pretty cheap.
Brian

Planted spike plot oats for the first time lastyear atour place in Garvin county, OK. The deer loved them and they did not freeze out. The oats grew all winter and are now mature for the quail. Will plant a really big patch of spike plot oats there this fall.

I can't remeber what the protein content is for buck forage oats. I think about 20 some % allot higher than normal oats. we plant them in late fall and harvest in June. the deer love em
here is what they looked like in may. theyare being combined now

Buck Forage Oats run about 12% protein, but the deer love them.......