I would take some seed and put it in a wet paper towel and do a germ test on it to see if its actually the seed or something else before just blaming it on the seed.

Our plots have been as good as they have ever been this year. Got them in the first weekend of October, at the end of the drought. Seen a ton of deer in the fields already, so we are hoping the plots make it through the season. But as of today, our fields are really doing well.

I'm obviously doing something wrong. Y'all spending WAY more time around your foodplots than I do. I planted mine with strips of corn in the spring. So, the corn is there. Then planted my greens middle of October. Haven't been back and won't go back until I hunt them the first 7-10 days of season. That 11th day theyll get the N. Then won't go back until I start back hunting them in Jan. Even when hunting them I try to stay as far away as I can and still see them. I've only had 1 plot failure in 40 years and it was seed related.

Our plots look great. Don't know whats growing but it looks like a putting green. Me and my dad just bought several bags of some kind of cheap seed from the local co op for like $12 per bag, did a little discing and threw it out. No lime, not fertilizer, and it looks awesome. Don't even know what kind of seed it was but it came up great and its actually starting to look like its been eaten down for the most part. I haven't hunted over it during bow season, but every time I walk by one of the plots, there are does feeding in it. I will try to keep the pressure off of it throughout the year and hopefully get my wife a decent buck come late January. We planted 5 plots @ about an acre each and on the biggest plot, I built a shooting house on a platform about 5 ft off the ground. I was backed up to the platform working off my tailgate a couple weekends ago and while I was framing up the walls for the shooting house, 2 does came out in the field feeding around and watching me work. I had the radio turned up and my old lab Maggie laying there keeping me company, and none of it seemed to bother them. Either they liked listening to KIX 101.5 or the grass tasted so good they didn't care that I was there.

Even tho I had a hard time getting the Coker oats spread, the deer are hammering the plots, a little too much actually. I think next year I will use a 3 way mix combined with Coker oats and get the seed thicker. The dang turkeys aren't helping anything.

I did a test one year where I planted wheat, oats. rye, radishes, (and something else it seems like too maybe...…)all in separate 1/4 acre test plots side by side down through my big field. Then I monitored for the rest of the season to see what a happened. Oats got hit early compared to the other grains and would also probably be the most preferred it I had to call one such. Cereal rye was a close second but they didn't start concentrating on it until later in the season compared to the oats....By late winter they we using the oats and rye about the same. The wheat was noticeably in third place behind the other two but it was also struggling compared to the other in my poor sand. This was back before I started rebuilding my soil and when it was just nothing but harsh sand.....The wheat struggled and looked yellowy compared to the other two. If the wheat would have been in better growing conditions and fed more N then there may have been different results. Wheat does like to be pampered with good soil and lot of N compared to the other two..