Whitetail Inst Forage oats

I planted 1/2 ac. of Whitetail Inst. Forage oats with triticale this year for the first time. I came up strong and full coverage. I got it planted a little late but still had about 8 in. growth.
The deer have just hammered it down to the ground. So I'm putting in 1.5 ac. for 2104.
I ordered enough for one ac. at their Thanksgiving special of 39.95 and free shipping when regular is 58.00 and 19.00 shipping.
I decided to add another 1/2 ac. so I sent Whitetail Inst. a email if they would honor the 39.95 price and free shipping. A VP sent back a reply since I was satisfied with the results they would honor the sale price. Ordering more tomorrow.

Whitetail Inst. describes in their Forage Oats write up that a University had new oats strains in a research development but the Forage oats had to be dropped from the study because of deer damage. After seeing the last 30 days of deer damage on my food plot I can see where a farmer planting it to harvest oats would never get much grain harvested. Of course a farmer would plant more than 1/2 ac. but still the deer love it.

I highly recommend it. It's a easy plant also just disk, broadcast the seed, and I drug a drag across it. This years crop will even be better as I'll get it out earlier for more growth and get the proper amount of fertilizer broadcast on it.

jagermeister said:

Good to hear you're having success with the WI oats. Oats of any brand/kind will almost always draw in the deer. They just flat out love oats. Winter Rye, too.

What date did you plant? 8" of growth is more than enough heading into bow season. With cereal grains, generally the taller it gets the less palatable and desirable it is for the deer.

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Looks like about Sept. 1st. The 8" was total height when the cold stepped in and stopped the growth. It was just barely up 1-2" when bow season started.

jagermeister said:

I see. You weren't too far off. I usually plant my oats around the first week of September and have really good results.

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I guess I wasn't. I just checked their site and they recommend Sept. 1 to Oct. 1. Shows what I know.

Gordo said:

When did the deer really start hammering them? December?

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I checked my other post of Field of Dreams. It looks like Nov. 14th the deer was feeding in it already.
I stopped hunting Oct.27th when I got my buck so I only viewed the plot off and on after that. I do know by late Dec. the oats plot was eaten down to the ground already.
I'm planting 1.5 ac. in 2014 instead of the 1/2 ac. for 2013. I'm cutting back on the turnips planting as I see no evidence of heavy use. I'm planting the turnips blend with sugar beets this year from Frigid Forage to see if the sugar beets helps. I've never heard of a farmer planting sugar beets in the area.

I believe my food plot did well at drawing the deer in because there is almost no farm crops planted near by. The one farm behind me is farmed and that's about it. My farm sets in the middle of 5 ac. building lots. And the large 100 ac. farm next to me is all hay and no crops.
I feel I have a good calling card with my food plot. Hopefully I'll be able to put in bigger and better this year.