Ok I really have two questions..

1.) What do y'all plant and have the best success with during hunting season? (I know this can vary depending on location and deer preference) Just curious....

2.) What type of oats are the best to plant? ( I have seen the hunter targeted brands for $25 for 50lbs and oats for horses that are $12.99)

FYI: the plot I plan on planting will be a little less than an acre.

Any ideas or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

what location or area will you be putting in this food plot?

Around central Texas, I have had good luck with a mixed blend of Vans oats, Triticale, Austrian winter peas, Crimson clover, Barvetch, Hairy vetch, Arrow leaf clover , Purple top turnip, Chicory and Barkant forage turnip. We have a local feed store that mixes it up and sells by the pound. I usually buy a couple more bags of "feed" oats that I hand mix in a 5 gallon bucket with some of the blend and spread by hand on the small food plots, then lightly plow or drag back in the dust (mainly to prevent birds from eating).

I played around with my own recipe for likely 10 years, mostly feed oats (much cheaper) and then put in strips of blackeyed or field peas, milo, pumpkin and turnips. The deer love the blooms on the pumpkins, but they really will wipe out the peas first before going to anything else. The oats seem to be the longer term as they can survive colder temperatures & frost, where the peas are done upon first freeze/frost.

one year, I was really late in getting my planting done, feed store was out of peas, I went to HEB and bought several bags of blackeyed peas (like you would cook) and just slung them out after I put out the oats ... I was amazed but they came up like gangbusters and the deer loved them.

if you are up in the panhandle, where it can get very cold, wheat would likely be a better option as your basis or main seed.

Thanks for the input. I will be in the brown county area. I just wondered what was wrong with feed oats when they are half the price of the oats that are targeted for hunters.

There is a difference between a seed oats and a forage oats. Seed oats were developed to be planted and harvested for the seed for human consumption. Forage oats were developed as a forage plant for livestock and wildlife and is more cold tolerant.

Ok gotcha. I knew both would grow but didn't realize the cold tolerance. Thanks

Bob oats are probably the most planted Oat in the country, deer will eat the hell out of it. Any oat you plant will draw deer, the longer the leaves stay soft, the longer and better they like it. I have planted all kinds and have never seen a difference in preference between feed oats. Main thing is feed oats aren't certified as seed.

If feed oats get high and tough, all you have to do is shred them down, deer will hammer the new growth. In my experience, it has been very rarely I needed to mow, deer usually keep it growing fresh enough if you have the numbers of deer.

seed oats having a higher germination rate than feed oats, but not 2 to 1 better. I forget the percentages but something like 80-85% for feed oats and 90-95% for seed oats.

I used to do the wildlife management improvement for a friend, had to do so many acres of an old field (7-8 acres) each year and shred the previous years plot, rotating each year the area. Since I was doing all this for free access to the ranch year around, I opted for the cheaper route. Always had a very good crop. This is where I started playing around with other seeds to see if they would draw more deer or different times during the fall. The deer would wipe out the peas until the first freeze/frost, then pounced on the oats. Turnips were easy too and cheap.

Iv always planted race horse oats and always had good outcome and the deer love um.. always put rye in also. and then another cover of rye in January to keep any unwanted trash from growing up

I would just plant oats (mixed with wheat) and go to a seed/feed store and buy oats. You are not talking about breaking the bank with one acre of oats. I would get a variety for that area that will withstand the very cold temps. Plant it thick to handle a lot of grazing pressure. I hope you can keep livestock off or do not have livestock that will compete with the deer for the oats. If you can get buy Turner Seed Co in Breckenridge they will have all you need to blend or mix your own or buy a fall seed mix they have already.

Make sure you buy whole oats, not steamed or crimped. Been done before..

Thanks fellas. STX we do not have any livestock on the place. Pretty much everything I can find says; wheats, oats, and rye. So I think I will go with that and might mix in a few other things just to have a test run on them. It's close and I am like that rest of y'all, I'm eat up with deer season all year. Season is always too short and the wait is always too long. Thanks Again.

agree, but if you can put in peas early and have enough rain (before freeze) ... you are golden!