Broadcasting grains into clover

Bigeight

Bigeight

Active Member
I've seen ok use out of Winter rye, not great use out of oats, but neighbors fields seem to get tore up when they have wheat.

Which do you guys like the best for overseeding perennial clover plots? I've always used rye as I like the soil health attributes and like the oats because it's low maintenance the next spring, but have never tried winter wheat myself.

Thoughts?
 
Lol, I've made the claim many times that wheat is the most attractive... and just as good for the soil as rye. Not everyone agrees. I plant awnless wheat in my clover plots every yr. Works great for me (with my deer, my soils, and my weather patterns).

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
WR is much better than WW. And WW is much better than WR.
Seriously I have fields w both. Sometimes mix the two together. Deer seem to like both w slight preference to wheat. Weed control is better with rye slightly. I do know nothing greens up sooner in the spring than WR by at least 2 wks.
And watch advice from that Catscratch dude as he’s from KS and they plant approximately 82000 sq miles of WW each fall from what I’ve seen!! Beautiful stuff in early June.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Dogghr might be somewhat right in that there is an acre or 2 of wheat is KS... but I've planted plenty of WR (and still do) and have given it many chances to out perform wheat. It just doesn't draw the same here. Really can't go wrong with either one unless one just won't grow for ya.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
I won’t broadcast either alone, except for a couple places farmer landowners don’t want rye around. I’m a big fan of mixing them. Cat has made me a fan of awnless wheat as well, rather than the conventional ww.
 
WW for me. I have planted plots of WW and WR side by side and my deer will walk through WR to get to the WW. If in a plot by itself, they will eat WR fine. My deer, coons and hogs and doves will eat awned wheat seed with no problem.
 
Bigeight said:
I've seen ok use out of Winter rye, not great use out of oats, but neighbors fields seem to get tore up when they have wheat.

Which do you guys like the best for overseeding perennial clover plots? I've always used rye as I like the soil health attributes and like the oats because it's low maintenance the next spring, but have never tried winter wheat myself.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
My preference is awnless winter wheat. Cat converted me on that as well. I am also one that still uses rye. If I have soil challenges like planting a new plot for the first time, or if I have warm season weeds I'm trying to get a handle on, I will plant rye. Where I've got my soils biologically built up and functioning, it's WW all the way.

I also tried throwing spring wheat in with it for tonnage. The spring wheat is going like gangbusters now. Next is to see if it gets eaten.
 
MarkDarvin said:
My preference is awnless winter wheat. Cat converted me on that as well. I am also one that still uses rye. If I have soil challenges like planting a new plot for the first time, or if I have warm season weeds I'm trying to get a handle on, I will plant rye. Where I've got my soils biologically built up and functioning, it's WW all the way.

I also tried throwing spring wheat in with it for tonnage. The spring wheat is going like gangbusters now. Next is to see if it gets eaten.
Click to expand...
I thought you only plant barley :)
Bigeight said:
I've seen ok use out of Winter rye, not great use out of oats, but neighbors fields seem to get tore up when they have wheat.

Which do you guys like the best for overseeding perennial clover plots? I've always used rye as I like the soil health attributes and like the oats because it's low maintenance the next spring, but have never tried winter wheat myself.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Whichever one you pick,, I suggest you consider a throw n mow if your clover is thick. Broadcast grain establishes much better in weed free clover than in weedy clover, due to a much thicker thatch. Clover itself doesn't generate much thatch, especially ladino clover. Our deer don't eat rye well until after some hard freezes, then it becomes the food of choice, mostly because the other choices become much slimmer.
Rye and oats is our go to, the main reason we don't put out much wheat is, we have poor soils and spent all our money on a notill drill so now we can't afford fertilizer :)
 
Mennoniteman said:
I thought you only plant barley :)

Whichever one you pick,, I suggest you consider a throw n mow if your clover is thick. Broadcast grain establishes much better in weed free clover than in weedy clover, due to a much thicker thatch. Clover itself doesn't generate much thatch, especially ladino clover. Our deer don't eat rye well until after some hard freezes, then it becomes the food of choice, mostly because the other choices become much slimmer.
Rye and oats is our go to, the main reason we don't put out much wheat is, we have poor soils and spent all our money on a notill drill so now we can't afford fertilizer :)
Click to expand...
I would like to dispel the myth that wheat needs fert and rye doesn't. I believe its "common knowledge" that comes from farmers where seed production is the ultimate goal. Rye doesn't have that stigma as it isn't a traditional cash crop. Wheat can grow in the worst of soils right along with rye until head development, then it falls on it's face without nitrogen. Of course as a winter forage crop this is no concern. I've never fertilized one of my wheat plots other than using nitrogen credits from legumes, and my dad has a wheat field that hasn't seen a legume or fert for over 20yrs. It's nice and green every winter though.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Mennoniteman said:
I thought you only plant barley :)

Whichever one you pick,, I suggest you consider a throw n mow if your clover is thick. Broadcast grain establishes much better in weed free clover than in weedy clover, due to a much thicker thatch. Clover itself doesn't generate much thatch, especially ladino clover. Our deer don't eat rye well until after some hard freezes, then it becomes the food of choice, mostly because the other choices become much slimmer.
Rye and oats is our go to, the main reason we don't put out much wheat is, we have poor soils and spent all our money on a notill drill so now we can't afford fertilizer :)
Click to expand...
There's always a place for barley, but also the others. Right now my big thing is spring wheat. My current thinking is spring wheat should outgrow the winter cereals in the fall and then winterkill. That outta leave more tillering space for the winter wheat in the spring. If I had a bad flare up of sedge grass, I'd be putting barley back into the rotation to test the allelopathic effects on sedge grass. I dug up a study somewhere that showed it could greatly reduce the incidence of sedge.

My original plot was solid sedge grass. It's never come back since I've been pushing cereals into my clover. some years are better than others, but when I get a good take on them, the weeds really hold back.
 
MarkDarvin said:
There's always a place for barley, but also the others. Right now my big thing is spring wheat. My current thinking is spring wheat should outgrow the winter cereals in the fall and then winterkill. That outta leave more tillering space for the winter wheat in the spring. If I had a bad flare up of sedge grass, I'd be putting barley back into the rotation to test the allelopathic effects on sedge grass. I dug up a study somewhere that showed it could greatly reduce the incidence of sedge.

My original plot was solid sedge grass. It's never come back since I've been pushing cereals into my clover. some years are better than others, but when I get a good take on them, the weeds really hold back.
Click to expand...
Yes, I knew full well that you plant each one of the big 4 in cereals. I was just jerkking your chains a little bit to keep things interesting. I enjoy reading along on your different experiments.
catscratch said:
I would like to dispel the myth that wheat needs fert and rye doesn't. I believe its "common knowledge" that comes from farmers where seed production is the ultimate goal. Rye doesn't have that stigma as it isn't a traditional cash crop. Wheat can grow in the worst of soils right along with rye until head development, then it falls on it's face without nitrogen. Of course as a winter forage crop this is no concern. I've never fertilized one of my wheat plots other than using nitrogen credits from legumes, and my dad has a wheat field that hasn't seen a legume or fert for over 20yrs. It's nice and green every winter though.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
You are right,, and the correct fertilizer that soils tests call for is good for all food plots, just because it grows doesn't mean that its nutritious for wildlife.
 
Mennoniteman said:
Yes, I knew full well that you plant each one of the big 4 in cereals. I was just jerkking your chains a little bit to keep things interesting. I enjoy reading along on your different experiments.

You are right,, and the correct fertilizer that soils tests call for is good for all food plots, just because it grows doesn't mean that its nutritious for wildlife.
Click to expand...
I know. I'm excited to watch this year's planting go, for a few reasons. I had two spots, a half acre each that were bare dirt due to construction, and they got seeded from scratch with everything. The core perennial blend in each one was:

1lb alfalfa
1lb dutch
1lb ladino

There were trace amounts of tons of other things as well. I intentionally underseeded (I think at least) those three to leave a little room for other stuff to fill in at least for next year. I expect the clover will flex and fill in completely after that. I'm very curious to see what the spring wheat does as an alternative to oats. I'm short on equipment and trying to see if that spring wheat can get to the ground better, being heavier and smaller than an oat. I'm also anxious to see if I can get it to the sweet spot of max forage but not gone lignous at the point it quits growing for the fall. And of course if deer will eat it as well and at the right time.
 
I’ve tried several times to broadcast wheat into Durana clover plots. Doesn’t work for me. The clover just chokes it out.
 
THE LLC said:
I’ve tried several times to broadcast wheat into Durana clover plots. Doesn’t work for me. The clover just chokes it out.
Click to expand...
I'm no expert on Georgia plots, but here in the north we'd never interseed wheat into clover. Wheat is the Cadillac of cereal grains, but also more finicky than the poor man's cereals, aka oats and rye, which seem to establish more readily. When I think wheat I think tilled and cultipacked soil with lime and fertilizer. For us, the key to Interseeding anything into clover is doing a throw n mow, with the mower set short, and not having had much grasses in the clover beforehand. If it's late summer, the clover was more or less weed free, the interseeding rate was 200 lbs per acre,, and the clover was cut pretty short and cut just prior to a good rain I'll stick my neck out and say that it is guaranteed to work.
 
Here in Georgia and on my place in Kansas, winter wheat will come up on concrete if it gets water on it. Rye generally will, too, but oats no way.
 
I broadcasted winter wheat into a field of what I believe to be smartweed. I mowed it and I have winter wheat growing.
The deer are starting to find the wheat.
1074DDE6-95FB-45E2-925A-D61C20B2C6A6.jpeg

Around the beginning of September I broadcasted winter rye into a clover field, not the thickest, at 100 lbs to the acre. I see some growing but upping my rate would have been beneficial.
 
Instead of starting a new thread I figured I would ask here. I let winter rye mature in my clover fields last year in hopes that it would reseed itself, but the deer ate all the tops. I ran out of winter rye and wheat during fall planting and never got around to getting more.

I just picked up 300 pounds of barley for 1.5 acres of clover. My plan was to frost seed it around the 15th of this month. But the extended forecast doesn’t look like frost seeding will happen. Do I wait to see if temperatures drop again, which I’m sure they will, so I get the freezing thawing effect to suck the seed in. Or do I broadcast it when I get the chance.
 

Attachments

  • EBB7B4FF-45F3-4449-9B2C-9975702CB41C.jpeg
    EBB7B4FF-45F3-4449-9B2C-9975702CB41C.jpeg
    116.2 KB · Views: 0
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cutman
Fall plots in South Carolina
Replies
3
Views
518
cutman
cutman
M
Mixing turnips, radishes, and/or rape with Crimson Clover and Awnless wheat?
Replies
13
Views
1K
bossgobbler
B
G
Too late to spray my clover for weeds?
Replies
8
Views
2K
dogghr
dogghr
G
Need advice on my plots please
Replies
5
Views
1K
Mennoniteman
Mennoniteman
Weatherby308
Clover food plot maintenance
Replies
13
Views
3K
Drycreek
Drycreek
Back
Top