some of you may know i have had some trouble with my food plot this year and am still new to it. i went and checked cams today and my oats are as tall as my legs and very very thick. my clover and chicory are not doing so well under it. the little bit of brasicitcas are doing ok. my main concern is if i mow it now will the oats come back cause im counting on it to be a good winter food source for late season hunting and shed honey hole. thanks!
The oats are done. They are not coming back. You should mow them and let some light on the rest of the plants. Or, you could mow it and plant some more oats.
Yep cut it...as said ull let light on the greens and get some good growth out of that that the deer will absolutely love....we will be cutting our oats 3-4 weeks before the opener here and that has served us very well in the past Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
alright i dont have a bush hog and thats what i really need so i think ill go down there with the weed eater tomorrow morning.
Mow it so other stuff can grow i think like this. I dont wanna eat cereal all the time so the deer dont wanna eat oats all the time. Hope this helps
I agree it should be mowed but the prospect of walking towards a food plot of oats with a weed eater just makes me shiver, lol.
Because I'm lazy... If that's all you got and want it mowed (and have the energy) then go for it. Just be careful you don't get a heat stroke. I don't know about there but it's been hot as heck here the last week.
my food plot aint but a acre. and yea it has got humid the last few days but it was geting down in the 50s at night and i was loving it!
so i got out to my plot about 10 am and had to do it with my lawn mower (more work than weed eater) i started going around it then started to think, "if i just mow paths threw it i can get the deer to go where i want them." well that led into, "ill just leave big squares of tall oats to make them feel safe or if something happens to the rest of my plot i will still have that. so here is what i did let me know what you guys think.
Looks good to me. Depending on your rain situation hopefully the clover and brassicas keep growing. Sometimes if yiu mow short and don't have any rain for a while they'll die for a little while. I'd topseed clover the next rain you get to make it really thick and green for next year. Tyler Rector BHOD prostaff
Spread some winter rye in and that will take just do it just before it rains. If you want then spread clover over that and mow in late spring your clover will have time to get established.
i planed on frost seeding in the spring. i may mow it one more time before the season but i will just have to see what happens
Keep us updated on how it turns out come winter and if the oats grow back. Frost seeding it is a great idea. As far as a winter food source, oats are not it. They will turn yellow after a few frosts where winter rye stays green and is back growing and first thing green in the spring. I had winter rye grow two inches after a few frosts.(central Wisconsin). I put a cage up in a plot in October and noticed it had grown a little in the cage. The oats I planted in that plot(Buck Forage) were starting to turn yellow in early October. I personally like winter rye better as it is easy to grow, better for the soil, stays green all winter and is the first thing green in the spring. Not saying oats dont have their place, I still mix a little in with my winter rye planting. We did a 5 acre hay field in the spring with oats as a cover crop. We didnt cut that field till after the oats went to seed. Guess what happened when we knocked all that seed to the ground and got timely rains= new oats growing up for early bow season.
yea i really thought the oats was a good thing for winter food source. the main reason i planted them but we will see how this works out. deffinatly gonna do something like winter rye, or all braciticas next year
ya for sure doesnt hurt to try and see what works on your land. But ya for a winter food source winter rye/brassicas.
