Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management WMS Deer Magnet

One of the reasons we planted it was it was supposed to provide food into the summer with all the clovers. We are definitely seeing more plot usage right now compared to previous years. Just thought I’d pass on my observations.

WMS seed is really good product. We have been using the Deer Magnet for years. Also use some Buck Buster's seed. Both have came up great. We only plant the fall mixtures and they last well into the spring and early summer. We plant in mid Sept.

I'm noticing the same thing. I planted Alabama blend and the Magnet blend. Their still using my fields. I will never plant anything but WMS from now on.

I’m a firm believer. It’s a drastic difference in the deer sightings on camera and hunting wise from when we plant it to when we go just oats, cereal rye etc.

Not to hijack but thoughts on that bama blend? Considering experimenting with it as well next year. I tried the Mississippi blend on my place as it did pretty good as well.

To add to the discussion: Discussed with the main guy at wms on the phone where he said the Mississippi blend actually can be turned into a perinneal as it offers solid summer food. The deer magnet is good in the summer as well he said which is verified by y’all’s observations

I hav had good success w bama blend - but it plays out in early summer - they hit it very hard during season - very attractive to deer

I know a club about hour south tville that has used magnet for several years and it feeds thru the year - they produce some big deer for that area - they really like magnet

They make an excellent product.

I love the Bama blend to. It was the first year I planted WMS and I saw more deer use my fields all year. I mixed the Magnet and Alabama together and they turned out great

The magnet will plant 1 ac. per bag and the Ala. blend only does half ac. Now a lot of difference in the two blends, but the magnet will go twice as far.

Anyone ever used the wms clover fest?

Have not used clover fest, but would not be afraid , as all their seed is first class

There are several clovers n that mix. Frosty and balancia finished 1-2 in a deer preference study performed by miss state - thats also in the description of it - should work good

Not sure what i planting yet. Either bama blend or magnet but prob magnet and i may get some crimson and aeroleaf to go with it

I’ve planted Deer Magnet in the past. There’s no way I would only plant one bag per acre. It’s very thin at that rate.

I agree. I feel under seeded unless theirs two bags in the hopper per acre. Clover is worse.

Nah the 1 bag per acre is legit per their guy insisting. I did overseed with a bag of their triticale oats which was a lot cheaper then another deer magnet bag this past year and even with not getting rain on it for a month with turkeys hammering it, my field turned out great. Even more of a reason to use their stuff with the seed coating on it…it’s legit. Couple of pics at the end of January with no added nitrogen. Deer hammered em all season. Bottom was Mississippi mix and top 2 deer magnet.

The devil is in the details here. They don’t claim to be 1 “bag” per acre, they claim 50lbs per acre of pure live seed. Well, a bag is 50lbs, correct? It would be if ALL the seed in the bag were viable. The only label for the Deer Magnet that I could find shows Seed Purity at 93.24% with an 80% germination rate. So if you use the Pure Seed percent formula of Pure Seed x Germination x 100 you come up with .9324 x .80 x 100 = 74.6% pure live seed. So a “50” pound bag only contains 37.3 pounds of pure live seed (50 x .746). So at a recommended rate of 50lbs per acre, you really need to plant 67lbs of seed (50/.746). Every bag of seed has to have the pure seed and germination percentages listed on the tag. Legumes are usually the worst when trying to figure out how much seed to plant. If you buy a “coated” seed, there’s a good chance that 30% of the bag will be “inert” coating and with an 80-85% germination rate, you are looking at close to only 50% pure live seed so a rate of 20 pounds per acre actually takes closer to 40 pounds. This stumped me for YEARS until I stumbled onto a YouTube video which explained it and then it all made sense.

Google “calculating the true percentage of food plot seed in a bag” and watch the videos. It makes perfect sense after seeing someone explain it.

Here’s another very good explanation:

https://fwf.tennessee.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2020/07/Calculating-Proper-Seedling-Rate.pdf

In the example above, they use a bag of Crimson Clover. The tag showed only 48.73% pure seed(50% inert matter) and a germination rate of 80%. That gives you a 39% pure live seed percentage. Their example uses a 25 pound per acre rate of PURE LIVE SEED which would mean you would have to plant 64 pounds of seed from this lot to get that amount. Now, ever wonder why your plots look sparse if using the “recommended” planted rate?????

I’ve stumbled across that, too. It’s good info. Even the folks at WMS recommended adding 25 lbs of triticale to a bag of Deer Magnet per acre.