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help with clover/wheat plot

rsmith

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I have a wheat and clover plot that is going very good. Wheat is about waist high and clover is nice. My question is should I cut the wheat at any point or should I just let it go? Also will it come back or do I have to seed it in the fall as well?
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
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I doubt much of the wheat will come back as I would think it would have to be tilled under. I would leave it be and the deer, turkeys, and wildlife will eat the wheat grains when mature. The wheat served well as a cover crop to get the clover started.
 

rsmith

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I doubt much of the wheat will come back as I would think it would have to be tilled under. I would leave it be and the deer, turkeys, and wildlife will eat the wheat grains when mature. The wheat served well as a cover crop to get the clover started.

Okay, thanks much!
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
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Okay, thanks much!

If you develop a weed problem in the clover I would wait until the wheat is finished maturing the bush hog it down to cut the weed seeds off. That's what I do with last years forage oats.
 

rsmith

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How tall is the clover/wheat?

The clover is vining up the Wheat along with keeping a solid canopy on the lower half so about 7-10 inches tall. It's mostly wheat though and that's about 2 1/2 or 3 foot tall. I'm 6'2 and its at my waist for a height estimate . I will take some pictures tomorrow to help show better.

What is your goal for this plot? Shoot doves over it or kill deer over it?

Kill deer and turkey in it, turkey love it and are constantly conning in. They are hitting it now but didn't know if I should mow it and overseed it with clover and wheat mix at the end of July/early August.
 

jagermeister

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You could go either way with it. I would probably leave it standing, kind of as an experiment I suppose. Yea the clover is suffering a little bit now because the wheat is thick and green...but soon that wheat will dry up and the sun will get right through it, getting down to the clover again. You could mow it in July or august and still have time to overseed some more clover or till it and start over... At that point you'd have several options to choose. You can't really go wrong either way here. I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of 'what's going to benefit the most critters?' If the turkeys are loving it right now, I say leave it go. That tall wheat is providing turkeys and especially poults with great cover and food with the seed and bugs that are available. From what I've seen in the past does with fawns love hanging out in/around tall grains left over from the fall too.
 
I'd mow it. I'll let the experts chime in, but that seems to be the best choice IMO.

The clover is vining up the Wheat along with keeping a solid canopy on the lower half so about 7-10 inches tall. It's mostly wheat though and that's about 2 1/2 or 3 foot tall.

If you're goal is to have a good crop of clover that both deer and turkeys will love then I'd consider mowing it like Jesse recommended. Only because you mention that it's mostly wheat it may choke out the clover or hinder it from growing well.
 

MoonLab

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.
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20150513_200542.jpg my BIL and I put ours out. So we'll see how it goes by fall hope to see little in ground to see its growing.
 

jagermeister

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These pics show what I was talking about. The wheat is starting to mature and thin out. You can see the clover underneath is getting plenty of sunlight and is doing just fine. I say leave the wheat standing for another month or two.

uploadfromtaptalk1434638877414.jpg
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
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From that picture I would also let the wheat mature before mowing and then I would only mow if there is lots of weeds going to seed.
 

tjeep

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I've planted a similar plot for the last 5 years. I would imagine your wheat is dying off now and has seed heads. I plant 3 acres every year with a mix of Forage Oats, Rye, Winter Wheat, Austrailian Peas with Red and White clover. I plant anywhere between the last week in July and the first week of Sept. By November you will have a lush greenfield that will last through the winter. I have deer pawing the snow to get to the greens. By March, it looks like a dirt field, it will pop back up through turkey season. I mow one time Memorial Day weekend and burn it down by the end of July and replant. The deer and turkey love it. I got this of the Quality Deer Management fourm, it was a professor from the University of Iowa, that posted.
 

rsmith

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Well, I ended up mowing it down and am going to spray glyphosate than seed with Eagle Seed Broadside. Got a great deal on it and already have a solid clover plot established so I figured why not give something else a try. Probally not what I should have done/will do but I got it for a great deal so I figured I would just replace the wheat/clover with that and than spread Eagle Seed Buck Monster wheat throughout the entire 1.5 acre plot and add clover to it too
 

Buckmaster

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I personally would let it go until next year, then mow it. It won't grow much more after July 4th.
With its height you have instant cover the critters crave. After it dries out the critters will find your clover....no worries there.
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
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I personally would let it go until next year, then mow it. It won't grow much more after July 4th.
With its height you have instant cover the critters crave. After it dries out the critters will find your clover....no worries there.

Same as I would do. But if there is plenty of other good crops to keep drawing the deer in it'll be OK to.
For 3 years now I've had great luck with drawing deer to my property with 2 clover plots. Then when the clover goes down in extreme cold temp the Forage Oats is there to carry the deer through the winter and early spring until the clover is growing tall again. I let the Forage Oats plot go to mature seed and mow and till under.