It’s no secret that winter peas can be highly attractive to
deer. Different winter-pea food plot products, though, vary widely in how
attractive to deer they are, and how long they can last in a highly attractive
condition. Imperial Whitetail Winter Peas Plus is specifically designed to be
as attractive as the Whitetail Institute can make it, and to last from fall
into winter.
Winter Pea Components
“A pea is a pea?”
Actually, no — not when you’re talking about performance as a food plot
planting. Some winter pea varieties are simply more attractive to deer than
others. Winter Peas Plus contains two winter pea varieties that are
exceptionally attractive to deer because they are rich in sugar. Both varieties
are also high-protein and cold tolerant. In side-by-side cafeteria tests across
North America, these two varieties consistently proved themselves many times
more attractive to deer than any other varieties the Whitetail Institute
tested. As highly attractive as these two pea varieties are, though, the Whitetail
Institute still wasn’t satisfied. You may have noticed that many Whitetail
Institute food plot products are blends of different plant varieties. The main
reason is that it’s rare for one type of forage plant to provide optimum
performance in all the categories for which the Whitetail Institute tests. That’s
why the Institute painstakingly selected other plant varieties to boost
attraction and longevity even further, and then combined them in optimum ratios
as shown by the testing. This exhaustive research and testing to develop food
plot products that perform up to the Whitetail Institute’s relentless
expectations is one reason Whitetail Institute food plot products continue to dominate
the market. As I mentioned, the pea varieties in Winter Peas Plus are extremely
attractive to deer, drawing deer to them as soon as they sprout out of the
ground. As such, they can suffer from early overbrowsing when planted alone.
The Whitetail Institute added the “Plus” components to act as a nurse crop for
the peas to help reduce the likelihood of overbrowsing and add even more early
and late-season attraction.
The “Plus” Components
In addition to the pea
varieties, Winter Peas Plus contains three other forages components: Whitetail
Oats, WINA 210K Kale and WINA 412 Radish. All three are proprietary Whitetail
Institute forages, and they can only be found in Whitetail Institute products. They’re
included to provide several functions, all of which serve to maximize the
attraction and longevity of the stand. Whitetail Oats are included to increase
fall attraction even further and to act as a cover crop for the peas. Whitetail
Oats establish very quickly and, like the pea varieties in Winter Peas Plus,
they’re cold tolerant and have proven themselves extremely attractive to deer
due to their high sugar content. WINA 210K Kale and WINA 412 Radish act as
nurse crops to help protect the peas from early overbrowsing, and they also
provide additional forage for deer later into the cold months of the year. Each
“Plus Component” has been carefully selected, and combined in optimum ratios
with the other forages in Winter Peas Plus, to maximize the initial and
long-lasting performance of the stand as a deer forage.
“Judging A Book by its Cover”
How much of Winter Peas
Plus is actually winter peas? More than 80 percent. We’ve all heard the old
saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Generally, that’s a caution to avoid
evaluating any product by its packaging, and instead, looking deeper — beyond
the pretty label — to see what you’re really buying. Nowhere is it truer than
with fall/winter “pea” products for deer. Believe it or not, there are some
food plot products on the market that say they’re “winter pea” products even
though they contain less than 10 percent peas. And to make matters even worse,
some make up the difference with lower-quality forage components that don’t add
much to the plot in the way of attraction. The good news for consumers is that
that federal law requires that all food plot seed products carry an ingredient
tag on the package. That allows you to check before you buy to make sure the
product really is what its name implies. Finally, there’s one more trustworthy
factor you can take into account in making your buying decision: Winter Peas
Plus bears the Whitetail Institute’s name. The Whitetail Institute has been
providing folks with industry-leading forage products for over a quarter
century and relies on repeat business – putting maximum effort into research, development
and testing to make sure that every Whitetail Institute forage product is the
very best the Whitetail Institute can make so that customers get the results
they expect. That includes using only those forage components that outperform
all others tested by the Whitetail Institute in a wide range of categories.
That’s true of all Whitetail Institute products, including Winter Peas Plus. It’s
the overriding focus of everything the Whitetail Institute does. Winter Peas
Plus is available in 11-pound bags that plant ¼ acre. If you’d like more
information about new Winter Peas Plus, call the Whitetail Institute’s in-house
consultants at (800) 688-3030.
