Every now and
then, it pays to be lucky. And that’s just how the newest addition to the
Whitetail Institute’s product lineup, Oats Plus, got started — with a stroke of
luck.
The backbone of new Oats
Plus is a winter-hardy oat variety that is incredibly attractive to deer. The
Whitetail Institute first heard about the oat several years ago, when one of
its worldwide agriculture contacts told the Institute about an oat variety that
had been included in a university research project comparing how well different
oat varieties performed as grain producers. According to the Institute’s
source, the university researchers had removed one particular oat variety from
the grain-production tests and shelved it because it had been so heavily
preferred and grazed by deer.
While the university
researchers saw the oat variety’s incredible attractiveness to deer as a
problem in their grain-production trials, the Whitetail Institute was, for obvious
reasons, very interested in exploring the variety’s potential as a forage for
use in food plots for deer. The Institute’s initial tests included evaluating the
variety’s attractiveness to deer, how well it grew in various climates and
other performance characteristics related to use in food plots for deer. Those
tests confirmed what the Institute’s contact had said: The oat variety was high
in sugar and extremely attractive to whitetails. The tests also showed that the
variety is well suited to a broad range of climates, and that it is winter
hardy — another excellent characteristic for any plant being considered for use
in food plots for deer.
Because of the oat
variety’s stellar performance during Whitetail Institute initial testing, the
Institute purchased the rights to the variety and named it Whitetail Oats.
Whitetail Oats is the most attractive oat variety for deer the Institute has
ever tested, and it is only available in Whitetail Institute products.
For the next six
years, the Institute continued to test Whitetail Oats, by itself and blended
with other forage varieties, to design an oats-based forage blend that could
max out on food plot performance. No matter how good a plant variety might be
as a deer forage, rarely will one variety perform as well as a properly
formulated blend of multiple varieties. That’s why most Institute forage
products are blends rather than just one plant variety, and it’s the reason for
the “Plus” in Oats Plus. In addition to Whitetail Oats, small amounts of winter
wheat and triticale are included to enhance winter hardiness even further.
Like all other
Whitetail Institute forage products, you can rest assured that the components
and their ratios in Oats Plus have been exhaustively developed and tested under
real-world conditions across the United States and Canada to ensure that Oats
Plus is the best that the Institute could make it. And like many Whitetail
Institute seeds, Whitetail Oats may not be ideal for agricultural purposes
(growing hay, feeding cows or producing grain) but it proved perfect for deer
hunters because the deer love it.
Oats Plus is
designed to thrive in a wide range of soil types, from slightly sandy to heavy
bottomland. Loamy to heavy soils are best. One 45-pound bag of Oats Plus will
plant up to a half an acre. If you would like more information about new Oats
Plus, or to order, visit www.whitetailinstitute.com, or call the Whitetail
Institute at (800) 688- 3030.
IMPERIAL WHITETAIL OATS PLUS
• High sugar content
• Exceptionally attractive to deer
• Winter hardy
• Easy to plant
• Establishes very quickly
• Begins drawing deer right away
• Holds deer longer into the winter
WHITETAIL OATS
• The most attractive oat variety to deer the Whitetail Institute
has ever tested
• The backbone of OATS PLUS
• Only available in Whitetail Institute products
