Rye is the best for keeping other weeds down, it works in a couple of ways, first chemically the rye gives off a chemical it manufactures to reduce competion, secondly, most weeds need sunlight to sprout, which is why most can survive being buried until someone comes and brings them to the surface, BUT most crops only need warmth, not direct sunlight to sprout, so the rye gets so tall and thick so fast that it blocks out the weeds and they still think they are buried. Which is why reducing tillage is critical. Oats and wheat do the same but arent as good as rye.
Next, what do you have for equipment? Youd be surprised how well equipment will work for something its not designed for in a "food plot" situation. Remember that your not going for all out production.
From what I understand of your situation, heres what I would do, since you've already shredded, I would do your disking, or if you have a plow that would be even better then follow with a disk, then ASAP sow 60lbs/acre of oats along with a pound of PTT and radishes or if you can get some forage collards that would be good too, then about 2 weeks later, sow a bushel of rye and a bushel of wheat per acre . I would skip the burndown because you probably wont need it this time of year. Then next spring depending on what equipment you have, your best bet would be to go in and plant your beans in the standing rye/wheat, then if you have some kind of roller or cultipacker, pull it over the field and then do a burndown in case you didn't kill all the rye/wheat by rolling it. The rye/wheat will act like a mulch and keep a huge majority of the weeds from ever sprouting and will help retain moisture. Then next fall sow some oats/PTT/Radish into the standing beans, the brassicas will act like little storage containers for the N produced by the bean crop and then release it for the corn crop. Or you could keep with a LC rotation. I use corn because its something that the deer use for both food and cover, mine seem to like the corn more than my beans despite what everyone says, next year I'm going to do more interplanting corn/beans. What I just described is pretty much my plans, but my deer density is MUCH lower than yours is. I'm also going to plant a small patch of clovers just to mix things up and give them more options. One thing I'm going to try and do is to plant things the deer CANT find easily around here, trying to bring more deer around, the majority says that's a no-go but my thought is, it might just work. If your surrounded by nothing but salad, youll go out of your way to find a steak.
Everyones suggestion of more natural browse is a good one, I would assume that SE Missouri has quite a bit of hardwood trees etc. "Here" on the prairie its not as easy, not many trees and the ones that are here are mostly cedars, unless you get near a river or creek.
Like everyone said, read the LC threads, I know I came here with similar ideas as you and after reading them I really had my eyes opened.
Just some thoughts from a "professional" farmer whos trying to be a food plotter lol
