What's the best way to go for a deer plot? The BFO are $30 a bag and the Bob are I think $12-13 a bag. Not planting a ton, but will need maybe 20 bags. Are the Buck oats worth the extra cost?

I would plant something else.

A leafy green.

I plant plain ole feed oats . My deer seem to love them.


I have planted them side by side ,,, I saw no difference .

Bob oats have worked well for us. If the deer had a choice, the BFO may be better. I think they are also supposed to be more winter hardy, but I don't have any personal experience with them.

Thanks for your irrelevant input on my question...but since you brought it up, they will be planted with crimson clover, rape, kale, radish and turnips.

The BFO are supposedly more cold tolerant. On the old QDMA forum, there was a guy who planted Bob oats on one side of the field and BFO on the other and he said he saw no difference in preference. Now ole Dr. Kroll swears by them BFO, but of course he's being paid to say that. Feed oats will grow and deer like them, but are not cold hardy.

Cosaque black oats.

I’ve never seen Alabama or Tennessee cold hurt bob oats

BFO aren’t worth the extra price down here.

Not sure if those are available to me here locally. Bob and BFO is what the Pike coop has and Scott's in Goshen has Coker 227.

Y’all have petcher seed Co down there at fruitdale. Order your cosaque oats from him. Don’t just settle for what a rinky dink coop has

257, what kind did I get from you?

Cosaque.

I've planted the Coker oats the last 3 years and I'll probably plant them again.

257 enlighten us on the diff between the Cosaque Black oats and the Coker and Bob oats. Do the black oats seem to perform better tonnage wise, more palatable to the deer? I've been hearing a lot of people talking about the black oats but really dont know the diff between the types.

Black oats are more winter hardy. Yes more tonnage. Bob or Coker’s don’t stand a chance this far north on a normal winter. I’ve seen black oats tolerate really cold weather and keep on trucking.

I've always planted the Cokers down around Camden/Portland/Selma. Do the deer seem to prefer the black over them or is it your choice mainly due to the cold tolerance? Thanks for the info.

Mainly for cover tonnage and cold tolerance. I think you’d see a difference if you’d try a few bags

I can answer your question based my experience from this past season. I decided to plant two of our plots in strips of BFO, Bob Oats, and WMS blend. I put grazing cages on all of them. As far as deer preference they seemed to eat all of them about the same throughout the season. The BFO inside the cage did get more hardy than the other two but once it is eaten I don't see the value in paying for the BFO. I planted a ton and half of BFO last year, this year I will be planting none of the BFO.

Good info, thanks muzzie.

I'm going to do that this year. 50lb/acre on just the black oats portion of the mix, when used in a mix with wheat, rye, clover and rape??? Broadcast and cultipacked at overall rate of around 125lb/acre.

You're welcome.

Coker 227 are supposed to be the most cold tolerate regular oat. I've used them with good success.

Well, can't find any cosaque oats w/out a long drive. Found some of the WMS Triticoat locally, which has forage triticale and cosaque black oats. Just bought 10 bags to do some of the plots with, will do the rest in bob oats probably and see which one we like better. We'll plant it with a seeder with this in the large seed box and a mix of clover and brassicas in the small seed box. We probably only need 25 bags total of grain, so in the grand scheme of costs, if it's only $3-400 more for the WMS and we like it better, then that's probably what we'll stick with.