Spring vs winter wheat and deer preference

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Elite
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Re: Spring vs winter wheat and deer preference

Unread postby Elite » Tue Sep 08, 2020 2:00 pm

andersta01 wrote:No, deer won’t eat the actual wheat head usually, unless it’s awnless (those little spines off the seed are called awns) they like it when it is small & green & kinda looks like grass, they will start hitting it mid Oct-mid Nov, then after the snows it will go dormant until spring. This is based on me being in Western New York as far as a planting climate map, even with MI but across the lake! I just planted mine last week, you want to get it in about 6 week before hard frost. It’s called Winter wheat and you plant it in the fall.


The farmer said it was spring wheat and it was harvested about 2.5 weeks ago. Now there's grass popping up all over after the harvest.


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Re: Spring vs winter wheat and deer preference

Unread postby andersta01 » Tue Sep 08, 2020 2:17 pm

It doesn’t matter what wheat it was. It’s dead and gone. Wheat terms out like a lot of other annual plants, it means it only grown for an annual period. If you have grass coming up, spray it, then broadcast winter wheat in the stubble, it will grow, deer like it.
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isitseasonyet?
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Re: Spring vs winter wheat and deer preference

Unread postby isitseasonyet? » Tue Sep 08, 2020 2:32 pm

Lockdown wrote:Around here, almost everyone plants wheat in the spring. It gets planted before everything else because it can handle colder temps.

It usually gets combined in August. Generally speaking, deer around here ignore it. On occasion during the summer months I’ll see deer in tall/green wheat before it dries up. In certain situations I’ll see them hit the regrowth pretty hard after everything else freezes and dies. The regrowth will stay green really late. To me that’s when the biggest draw is. That said, corn stubble is just as much of a draw.

The only time I get excited when I see a wheat field is when I’m in western SD. It can be a gold mine out there.


Great info lockdown. Your post is the one I’d agree with most.

I have a degree in ag, and grew up farming. Lots of mis-information in this thread.

Wheat planted in the spring in MN is usually Hard Red Spring Wheat.

Wheat planted in the fall is usually winter wheat.

I say usually because sometimes farmers do strange things for insurance purposes....

As far as it relates to deer....

Deer tend to like the young shoots of wheat. Regardless of variety. The “grass” popping up is wheat that germinated that was left behind from harvest. If there are no green beans, or acorns around. The deer will likely hit it.

Think of it like a “next best choice” the deer will eat it, unless there is something better.

Once it is chisel plowed. It is pretty much a dud. But if it stays not worked. I would keep an eye on it.

Spring wheat regrowth is usually a “second or third choice” through the fall.

Winter wheat germinates, goes dormant, and then grows again. And stores starches and such for regrown Lrb in the spring and can be quite a draw for deer.

If you can find a RYE field in MN you better be there I. December when the snow is deep. I’ve had 200 deer sits in those fields in late season.


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