Now that cows are off my place in the Panhandle I’m considering doing a winter wheat food plot for mule deer next to the canyons to attract mule deer. Any tips on how I can do this? Where and what type of seed do I buy? Do I have to plow? Or would I be better off planting something else or feeding protein? Any tips are appreciated.

my BIL used to just use a grain drill in a large CRP plot (not allowed to plow in that plot area) around Clarendon. He would line a 1 ton pickup bed with a large tarp, filled from grain bin I think around Shamrock?, pull tarp over the seed and tie down to drive back, the use shovel into grain drill. Brought in MD from miles around.

Plowing once every other year or every two years would be my advice to break hard pan and control native, I’ve drill straight no plow before. Also over seeded alfalfa with WW with billion drop seeder and that worked well.

A No-till is ideal but you not needed

Land owner gets a spreader loaded with oats and wheat and fertilizer mixed from their feed store, spreads it on part of the pasture then shreds the grass that was put out in. Gets a pretty good stand if they get rain. That is winter grazing for the livestock.

RAIN thats the key ingredient, you can do all the above, with out rain its a lost cause, also this time of year, freezing weather can be hard on newly growing plants, again with out water is bad news

WW is a major crop here around us in SE Idaho, and the mule deer love it. Very healthy and nutritious for them, high in protein, and very digestible. Gets them thru some of our worst winters. Several of my farmer friends do it just for the wildlife benefits on select plots.

When I hunted both Caprock Canyon and Matador WMA a couple years ago, there were WW fields all around, and deer by the hundreds were in the fields daily!!!

Great to hear, our landowner planted WW on our lease at the end of September and after 6 days we had already seen growth. I haven't been back since then but am looking forward to seeing the field and all the deer standing in it

Just my .02 cents, but a winter triticale variety has a higher protein content than wheat and on our ranch where we had it planted side by side, the deer definitely preferred it. PM me if you want a number for a seed dealer up in the panhandle.