Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management Whitetail Inst. Seed

Who has used Whitetail Inst. seed in food plots in central Al. and what have been your results.
These seeds have a good reputation but cost a lot if you have a lot of green fields. Which ones worked best in clay and sandy soil?
We have an average of 6.0 PH as do most clubs in my area. The cost is the real thing holding me back at this time. Still don't know cost of fertilizer by the middle of next month.

Excellent question.....following responses.

I know a guy who has their clover fields and swears by them. I’ve done the no till and it did good in south west bama. Still think ur best option is a bag of deer magnet and half a bag of oats per acre and you will be impressed

I think Lockjaw has used WI clover

I have been using the Deer Magnet for years. It also is getting very expensive.
I want to plant seeds that attract deer, but also provides nutriments for them. WMS and Whitetail Inst seeds do this, but I haven't used Whitetail Inst seeds and need to know if they are worth the extra expense,

Many years (decages) ago I hunted with a fine man named Sonny Mills. He and his family lived not far from Ramer Alabama. Sonny knew all about agriculture!

To this day, I don't believe I have ever seen better green fields anywhere I have hunted. I don't remember the specifics, but I do believe he used Whitetail Institute Imperial.

In the big community of Briar Hill! They have some really good deer. His grandson killed one 4 years ago that grossed 174" down there.

I've had good luck with it.

I just came across a blend of seed advertised for deer at Marvin's/
It is made up of-Pombroke Wheat 54.8% -- Old Moss Blake Romer Oates 24.6% -- Rye Grass 5.5% -- Rape 4.7% -- Field Peas 3.8% and Clover 4.5%

Any thoughts on this mixture??

Rates/percentages of each are about right for a mix of this type, but I'd rather see triticale, instead of pembroke wheat (see below), black or coker oats (never heard of Blake Romer Oats), dont want rye grass in any of my fields, field peas are good and there are 100 variations of clover, some attract deer really well, while deer dont care much about feeding in others.

You've got to be careful about some mixes. Seed choices and types in the mixes are very important. All clovers, oats, peas and rape are not created equal. Some mixes are designed and incorporate highly attractive sed types/plants that are highly palatable to deer and draw and hold them (these are normally expensive blends, WMS, Whitetail Inst. Buck forage, Backwoods, and others). Others are designed to produce a really pretty "green" field that looks great yet gets very little usage from your deer. Cheaper the input cost of the seed, the more they make per bag sold.

You're honestly probably just as well, or even better off, buying a 7 way mix from your local co-op.

Wheat is over 50% of this mix and I'd never heard of pembroke wheat so i asked google about the palatability and deer preference.

Pembroke wheat is a soft red winter wheat, hardy stem variety, bred mainly for grain yield, disease resistance, and agricultural production rather than specifically as a highly palatable forage wheat for deer.

Thanks ABOLT!

Good advice and good details
I guess I need to stay with WMS and Buck Busters and except the cost. I want to do more than just feed the deer, I want to give them protein and other things to stay healthy.

I like to just buy a basic 3 way grain and then add 25lbs per acre of a blend of clovers with it. That provides good quality food for a large part of the year depending upon the clover you choose and your soils. You probably won’t save much money mixing your own vs the quality mixes. Clovers bump the cost up significantly.

I think one of the biggest benefits to this approach is that you can tailor the clover blend to your needs. Some multi species blends have a kitchen sink approach and may include clovers that do not thrive in your site conditions. You can also add other forbs like Chicory or Plantain.

That’s exactly what I do. Wheat, Oats heavy, and Cereal rye mix at 125lb/acre and a 2-3 different clover type mix at 20lb/acre. This mix will withstand heavy grazing pressure. If you don’t have a high deer density, you can back down on the cereal side of the mix to 100lb/acre

Can't go wrong with WMS

^^
Like wms

Just say no to ryegrass. Yes, deer will eat it but it's invasive and extremely persistent. Some of our plots were pasture 20 years ago that got overseeded with ryegrass in the fall. After all those years we still battle with it every year. It's like cockroaches and gators. It'll be around until the end and will survive a nuclear winter

They live on Huffman Rd. Awesome folks!

I use Whitetail Institute Oats Plus on some of our club greenfields in Montgomery County and on all my personal fields on my place in Greene County. The deer hammer it and tend to like it better than even Buck Forage Oats.