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| The author is checking out a field of Tall Tine Turnips on his Minnesota farm; notice the tonnage available from the tall, green 'salad' in early fall. |
The morning sun had warmed considerably, and the frost had
all but disappeared from the edges of the field of brassicas stretched out in front
of me. By 10:30 a.m. I was getting drowsy and needed to perk up a little, so I
stood, stretched, and eased my rattling antlers from the cut limb where they
had been hanging since well before daylight. Scanning the surrounding oak woods
one last time to make sure no deer were moving close by, I clashed the bone together
with as much force as I could muster, and then began twisting and turning the
pair together to simulate a couple of angry whitetails engaged in a pre-rut
challenge. Returning the rack to its resting place I grunted aggressively several
times before slipping the call back inside my wool jacket and wrapping my left hand
around the familiar, worn, elk-hide grip of my 60-pound longbow.
Long moments passed. A red-tailed hawk soared overhead,
backed by azure-blue skies; a beaver thumped his disproval of my racket and disappeared
into the depths of the pond behind me; and somewhere off to my right a stick cracked
under the weight of a heavy hoof. Turning in that direction and swinging my
bent stick around I saw for the first time the tawny, muscular form and dark, mahogany
antlers of the mature buck as he stalked the source of the battle he had heard.
At 25 yards he turned on the trail that paralleled the field of brassicas and
came steadily in my direction; as he did I tried to ignore his heavy rack and
tall, bladed tines. Scanning his line of advancement, I picked out a big pin
oak at six yards: this would be my opportunity to draw, and as the trophy
deer’s head disappeared behind the gnarly, old trunk I brought my longbow to
bear.
This hunt took place in late October in my home state of
Minnesota, and reminds me of why brassicas are my favorite food plot offering.
Despite above-average temperatures and a late, sunny morning, the heavy-horned buck
mentioned was still cruising the downwind edge of my Tall Tine Tubers field
looking for does… and with good reason. Does, fawns, and small bucks were in
the field at first light and throughout the morning, offering a perfect
attractant to amorous bucks on the prowl. After first planting a small field of
Winter-Greens two years ago, brassicas have become a staple in my management
plan for the 1,200 acres I oversee here at home and this is why.
EASY DOES IT
Brassicas
are easy to establish and grow with a minimal amount of effort. Here in
Minnesota I usually plant my brassica plots in late July or early August, yet
even with this late start the fields are one or even two feet tall by
mid-September when bow season opens. Name me one other planting with that type
of incredible growth. And brassicas don’t need expensive drills or planters.
The seeds need only make good contact with the soil, so hand-seeding or a
hand-held or ATV-mounted spreader work perfectly.
Once a field is worked, it is important to firm up the seed
bed. I use a cultipacker pulled behind the tractor that I use on all my food
plots, then simply broadcast the seeds on top and watch them grow. I’ve had
great success with the above steps, but this past year I started running the
cultipacker over the fields immediately after seeding to ‘push’ the seed firmly
to contact the dirt, and this seems to improve things even more. Either way,
brassicas are easy to plant and fast growers.
TONNAGE, TONNAGE, TONNAGE
As
mentioned, brassicas are extremely fast growers, and the leaves alone provide
tons of highly desirable food for area whitetails. If you are planting
brassicas such as turnips, the tonnage increases even more because of the
tubers in the ground. Even after the leaves are eaten, the tubers continue to
grow until cold weather settles in to stay, providing even more tonnage for
hungry deer during the last season. Generally, brassicas become more palatable
to deer after a good frost or two, so they are allowed to grow tall and thick
for at least the first few weeks of their growing season, but after that —
watch out. The first year I planted brassicas I tried Winter-Greens in a small
plot across the meadow about 250 yards from my house, and as soon as we had one
frost the deer poured into the field each and every night, reducing the
foot-tall stand of leafy salad to nothing but black dirt. Every evening we
could watch anywhere from 10 to 20 whitetails fill up the food plot — and then
fill up their bellies. The only negative was that the herd devoured the field
so quickly there was literally nothing left once bow season rolled around, a
problem I have remedied ever since by planting larger fields.
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| The author often pulls up a few turnips and slices them into pieces where deer commonly enter a field... this often gets the deer feeding on the tubers early. |
SALADS ON A BUDGET
As seed goes, brassicas are relatively inexpensive to buy,
to maintain and make flourish. Compared to many other food plot offerings,
brassicas are a bargain, especially when you consider how much tonnage they
provide. And it isn’t just the cost of the seed that offers savings: because
brassicas such as Winter-Greens and Tall Tines Tubers grow so quickly, they
immediately shade-out competing vegetation, making expensive herbicides
unnecessary. I have never sprayed any of my fields of brassicas and have not
had one field overrun with weeds or grasses, which leads to another cost-saving
benefit: because the deer will eventually eat the field down to bare dirt, and
because there is little or no competing vegetation, your food plot will be much
easier and quicker to work the following spring.
Of course, you may live in an area where the soil is richer
or poorer than it is around here, so lime and/or fertilizer may be necessary
for your salad plots to reach their maximum potential, so my advice would
always be to take a soil sample before planting. The Whitetail Institute
provides soil test kits and the recommendations are easy to understand and
follow. After applying what the soil tests recommended this past year, I had plants
that were two-feet tall and turnips the size of softballs filling my three
fields. As I write this in late December, all of my fields have been eaten
right down to dirt, but the huge turnips remain and the area whitetails are
really hammering the sweet tubers now.
ONE, TWO PUNCH
Probably the thing I like most about brassicas is the
one-two punch they offer: first, deer become attracted to the leafy greens
above ground and start hammering them during early bow season. This makes for a
dynamite ambush spot from mid-September all the way up to the rut in my
neighborhood.
After which comes punch number two: as soon as all the
brassica leaves are cleaned up the deer start nipping the tops off the tubers themselves,
slowly at first but with increased ravenous intensity as cold weather settles
in. As more and more deer start feeding on the remaining ‘salad’, your plots
will look like minefields as the deer paw and kick and bite at the dirt to
expose and eat the remaining tubers. Last year I had a two-acre field of Tall
Tine Tubers that got buried by three-feet of snow early, so the deer moved off
it once they couldn’t dig down to the tubers. But when the snow melted in the
spring, they were right back at it. I have actually found that brassica plots make
great places to look for shed antlers. If there are any tubers remaining after
winter’s cold and snow recedes, the deer will clean up the rest of their
‘salad’ and often leave their headgear behind in return.
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| The author is shown filling his broadcast spreader with Winter-Greens. |
TROUBLESHOOTING
As mentioned, brassicas are fast and easy to establish and
provide loads of high-quality food for your deer herd, but as with any food
plot offerings there are a couple points to remember. First, no matter how
tempting it may be after you see how the deer respond to your brassica plots,
don’t want to continually plant brassicas in the same fields year after year.
If you do, you will see a noticeable decline in your plots, so rotating in
other offerings is important to keep your plots producing at the highest level.
Second, I found out this year that well-drained soils are preferred by
brassicas. We had a tremendous amount of snow last winter and a cold, wet
spring and early summer. I planted a new field that was fairly low along the
edge of a cattail slough with Winter-Greens and they came
up fast like always but never amounted to much and actually turned yellow and
purple by early fall. A call to the experts at the Whitetail Institute revealed
the problem: too much moisture on already wet soil. Of course, no one can control
Mother Nature, but from now on I’ll plant my brassicas in well-drained fields,
like the one bordering the strip of oaks in the opening story.
As the big buck’s head disappeared briefly behind
the oak trunk I brought my longbow up and started to draw, but something
stopped me; and as the big deer’s vitals came into view, I relaxed the tension
on the string and watched the deer make his way out into the field of Tall Tine
Tubers, wolf down several mouthfuls of the leafy planting, and then trot off to
the west looking for love. Although the buck was mature and had a heavy rack, I
had a long history with this deer with lots of trail cam photos and several sightings,
and I knew there were several bigger deer in the immediate area. I also knew that
at any moment one of these giants could make a visit to my personal Whitetail
Salad bar.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
If
you have any questions, concerns, or comments about your brassica plots, or any
other management issues for that matter, give the good folks at the Whitetail
Institute a call or visit them on-line. They have been a huge part of the successes
I’ve enjoyed managing properties for wildlife and they will be more than happy
to do the same for you. Give them a call at (800) 688- 3030 or visit them
on-line at www.whitetailinstitute.com. You’ll be glad you did… and so will your
deer!
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| The author at full draw from a late season tree stand along a field of Tall Tine Tubers. Since planting brassicas for the first time a couple of years ago, they have become the author's favorite food plot option. |
