Gonna plant about a 2.5 acre food plot this year. Give me your opinion on which is best to plant and why. I am on MLD land and parts of the lease floods at times, normally 2-3 days and then back to normal. Thanks Daniel

I’m a wheat fan but if it floods both are going to be DOA of the water. I’ve had some survive being under water for a day but never over a day. I’ve planted in flood areas for over 20 years and the water will kill it pretty quick regardless what you read on the inter web. I wouldn’t waste the money if the land floods for more than a day, some years we flood and some we don’t until after the season so I risk it.

Not sure about the wheat but you are wrong about the oats. I was on another ranch that planted nothing but oats every year and the oats flooded nearly every year for 2-3 maybe 4 days at a time and sometimes 2-4 times a season. The oats did not die.

I’ve clueless about Oats under water but we’ve planted over 3,000 acres of wheat for close to 20 years and if it’s under for more than a day or so it’s toast. Obviously it’s not an exact science and if the tops are out of the water it will last longer but I’m talking completely submerged.

If your unsure plant them both, I always add turnips with my winter plots in flood areas and they grow like a weed and seem to grow better after their flooded and later in the season the deer hammer them pretty good.

Thumper, I have tried turnips also but with no luck. My lease is in the Sulphur river gumbo and they simply would not come up, I think the gumbo would not let the seeds germinate. I may give them another try this year.

What turnip do you plant? Do you plant the turnips at the same time as oats/wheat?

This is the brand we plant and yes we plant it all at the same time, any large feed store should have something that will work though.
We plant them in black land gumbo as well and they continue to grow through the spring.
https://mbsseed.com/product/purple-top-white-globe-turnips-50-lb-bag/

In the early 90's I planted a mix of madrid clover, purple top turnips, and oats in a 7 acre field that was up in a draw. There were springs in the upper end of the draw and a few more close on the sides of the hills close to the field that were only wet during the fall, winter and spring. I could plow in August and plant in Sept. It would come up with the first wet cold front and do well until Dec to Jan when the springs would start to flow better. Most years by March the whole field was wet and standing water. The oats, turnips and clover all did well were the plants were above the standing water. The clover did really well and grew some years to be 6' tall by late June into July. When the deer would walk in the field they would push up mud around their hoof tracks and that is where the plants grew the best on those higher spots. They were surrounded by standing water but did well. The first year the deer did not eat to much of the turnip and mainly the tops. This was only after a hard freeze to set the sugar in the turnips. The second year I planted the mix they wipe all the green tops of the turnips after the first freeze. By the next year they ate the green turnip tops after they came up. That year I only mixed madrid clover and turnips. That is all I planted after that while I was on the ranch was purple tops and madrid clover. The purple tops planted at 6#/acre with 20#/acre of madrid was a good mix. The deer ate on the turnips till late Feb. Then in March when the clover started to grow in the warmer temps the deer would eat on it till mid to late July when it started to die out. I planted oats and clover or turnips and clover in several other food plots but they usually did not have the springs to keep the field so wet.

I started planting a mix of Wheat, Oats and Rye. I added the Rye when I noticed the deer would walk right over the wheat and oats to eat the Rye in the yard. I can attest to the wheat not making it well in water, I have one spot of about 3 acres that hold water some years, and it is done.

I had good results with oats & cereal rye, not rye grass.

Oats fertilized after they're up and growing.

Due to hog infestation, I’ve given up on cereal grain crops. However, I’ve planted both oats and wheat. Due to hog infestation, I’ve quit planting anything.

However, I found , in a side by side test, 2 years, that there was no preference.

I tried turnips twice, pre hogs, and deer, coons and armadillos got them all.

Both.

My last plot on my old lease did very well when I limited it to oats. I even had good success with turnips. It was peas that had no chance with plenty of hogs in the area. They could smell and eat every one within a week of planting.

I also noticed hogs would root in the same spots on the roughly one-acre plot every year, as if there was some worm or grub that was in the soil at those places. They hardly touched the rest of the plot.

In my experience, wheat holds up to freezes better than oats. But the deer ate the oats better.

The winter deer mix we have used in the past contains oats, rye, wheat, turnips (Purple Tops), and austrian winter peas. In Leon County it all comes up and they keep everything mowed down except the turnips. Once we get the first hard freeze and the turnips turn sweet, we pull them up and lay them on the ground. Until we do that the deer don't know what they are lol. Once they do, they are gone. We have had purple tops the size of grapefruits.

Over the years using each one separately, they have all worked to attract deer but I have probably taken more deer eating oats than anything else. Don't have any experience planting in an area with flood issues.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Oats

This is correct.

We hunt down in South Texas near Campbellton. Every year we plant oats in 9 different sized plots around the ranch. At the same time, we add turnips to a few of the deeper, darker soil oat patches. If its a wet fall and winter than we will pick fresh tender turnip greens as well as turnips to eat for lunch and dinner when we stay at the ranch house. Ain't nothin better than a big pot of fresh turnip greens and bacon.

Which direction from town? How long you hunted down there?

Not all oats are equal also. Forage oats typically handle colder weather in NTX better and mature latter making them preferred longer.

With that said if it's the only thing green in Dec/Jan it doesn't matter whether it's wheat or oats there will be an attraction to it.

I do not want to say where our ranch is due to poachers. We have had this family ranch since the 1940's and I have hunted it since 1980.

Don't worry STx is way to old and fragile to poach

I agree. You buy the cold hardy oats and it won't freeze in the areas of the state I have planted it. Central Texas to South Texas is not nearly as cold as North or West Texas but they have oats that will grow there. The Buck Forage oats were developed in either Kansas or Oklahoma IIRC. I had oats grow and live thru 10-12 degree temps. My oats in Goliad County went thru several days of lower teens in Feb. It burnt the tops a little but within a week it was green as it was early in the year. I will say that they will eat oats better than wheat if both are planted at the same time and that oats will tolerate drier periods better than wheat IME. I have never had oats freeze out or killed from lack of rain. Had it not come up from lack of rain but once up never not make it to spring.

I am fully aware of the area as I had land just south of Campbellton and family still there. My Dad grew up in Campbellton. Poaching has been an issue since I was kid in the 50's. Whitsett was a haven for poachers and nowadays for meth. Those larger ranches were not hunted and the poachers new it. I seen trucks on the railroad tracks at night with a spotlight out every window(4) hunting deer. My aunt and uncle used to own the cafe in Campbellton from the 50's till my uncle passed away. I hunted east of town on a friends place in the 80's. Still go to visit them and hunt/fish when I can.