Dan O. - as for cereal grains, I think its important whether it spring planted or fall planted. No question the deer get more use in the fall, it grows to about 5-6" then goes dormant, yet stays green all winter providing a high carbo food source, the deer will often eat it right to the ground. Once the seed stalk shoots up in the spring, the plant begins to channel nutrients into the seed head, the leaves become much tougher, and offer little in nutritional value. Some people tell me that deer will eat the seed heads while they are in the "milk" stage, but I've never observed this to any degree, probably because summer foods are abundant in my area. The plant is nutritionally not much better than the straw farmers get out of it, once the seed head begins to cure. Some farmers will cut wheat, rye or oats just as they start to seed out for Hay, and feed it to their herd. Apparently oats are cheaper to buy than grow, and clean farming practices these days do not utilize straw like when I was young.

If the crop is spring planted for deer, it offers a good food source if planted prior to green up. However this period is short lived as the plant grows rapidly. Also, once green up occurs, food is plentiful again, and deer key in on higher protein foods, not carbohydrates.

If you have the equipment and time, a spring plot can be beneficial because you can provide a food source for a month or two, a mowing prior to the "stalk" shooting up will delay this a few more weeks, though it may go underutilized. It would be better to let it get to its "milk" stage, the mow and plow it under (green fertilizer) at this point the plant has taken all it will from the soil, and when plowed under, it breaks down quickly, providing more concentrated nutrients for a fall crop.

Also, apparently (oats especailly) manufacture a chemical that inhibits weed growth. When reclaiming a feild, its a good idea to plant, and plow under several times prior to a clover planting or other perenial crop to reduce weed competition.

Sorry for the long answer.

farm hunter; based on the current discussion it doesn't sound that bad having weeds in the oats/rye as long as the weeds aren't grass. From what you're saying the best plant for anyone planting legumes would be to use wheat/oats/rye as a nurse crop.

Dan O.

Wheat for the cover crop...

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BSK,

My recent observations of deer on our ranch here in south Texas agree with your post on weeds. We have a 140 acre field inside our high fence in which we farm milo and soybeans commercially. During the winter, instead of intensively working the soil i.e. discing for next springs crop, I just let the field go fallow. There are all kinds of weeds currently growing in the field. The deer uses this fallow row crop land immensely during this time of year. The idea to include some of our commercially farmed row crop land inside the high fence was one of the best management decision I ever made. The deer feed in this field all season long. They eat soybeans from Feb. to late May. Then I come in with a later maturing variety of bean from June to Oct. They have the white-grain milo from about June to Aug. Then, they are eating weeds from about Oct. to Feb. Plus, I plant about 10 acres of lablab in the summer and about 10 acres of Austrian winter peas in the fall. Currently, the deer are walking right through the Austrian winter peas to get to the weeds growing in the row crop land. They must really like weeds.

I know they like ragweed, milkweed, goldenrod, asters, dog-tooth violets, and trout lilies and even poison ivy. Are there any other known preferences for weeds?

Dandelions? Burdock?

Dan O