I rec'd this message from a user who is having trouble posting, so I thought I'd get his question posted for him.

"I planted forage oats begining of June, ignoring the directions to plant in august. I doubted that the plants would grow sufficiently with such a short period of time before frost would arive (Minnesota cold weather). It is now July and my oats are between 6 to 10 inches. I have read that if the plants are allowed to grow too long that they will get "woody" and deer will not graze on them. Should I mow them? Any help would be greatly appreciated!"

I'd let them continue to grow and reach maturity (which should be in August) then mow and disk. Basically growing your own seed instead of having to purchase another bag. Could mix some winter Rye seed when diskin' the Oats for variety and the Rye will withstand frost and below freezing temps after the Oats has died.

After reading my post again, I believe I should have gave a little more reasoning as to why I wouldn't mow the Oats at this point.

If the oats were to be mowed, they would still try to rapidly mature. In cool fall weather with less day length the Oats will "hold" at a smaller size and stay attractive for a longer period of time.

Also, at this time of year, there's lots of natural vegetation that is likely more preferred than the oats. I'm assuming the goal here is to have an attractive plot to hunt over. If that is the case then mowing and disking the oats after they mature is the best option IMO. They will readily sprout and grow as if they were planted strait from the bag and be tender and much more attractive.

One more thing, many types of forage Oats can tolerate frost and cold temps before dieing and becoming unattractive. I grow a variety similar to Buck Forage Oats and they withstand temps in the teens without dieing. With snow cover, I've had them survive -4 temps and the deer continued to feed on them.