If you were to list the most attractive fall annual forage varieties for deer, several would be near or at the top. Whitetail Oats, winter peas and sugar beets would certainly be on that list. What if one food plot product contained all three, plus a highly attractive clover and an exceptionally attractive forage you might have never heard of – white lupines. Sound too good to be true? The good news is the Whitetail Institute has just such a forage product in its lineup: Imperial Whitetail Ambush.
Ambush is designed with two overriding performance goals: attracting deer with a vengeance and providing them with vital nutrition during the early and late hunting seasons. Ambush can accomplish both at high levels because of its precise blend of major forage components.
Whitetail Oats:Most Whitetail Institute customers already know how exceptionally attractive Whitetail Oats are. A cold-tolerant oat variety, Whitetail Oats are high in sugar and so attractive to deer they had to be removed from university grain-production trials and shelved because deer browse them so heavily.
Winter Peas: The attractiveness of winter peas is also well known. However, some winter pea varieties are vastly more attractive to deer than others. The winter peas in Ambush are the most attractive varieties the Whitetail Institute has ever tested.
Sugar Beets: Ambush also includes sugar beets, which increase variety in the overall stand and provide deer with sugars and other essential carbohydrates they crave for energy into the coldest months. The sugar beets in Ambush can even improve soil quality, as any of the huge underground beets that haven’t been consumed by deer can help aerate the soil as they die and leave open spaces the spring after planting.
Annual Clover: Ambush also includes a small amount of the Whitetail Institute’s annual clover to boost attraction even more by adding forage variety.
Sweet Lupines:Although there are hundreds of lupine species, only sweet lupines (meaning lupine varieties that are low-alkaloid) are appropriate for use as a forage planting for deer. And some sweet lupine varieties are vastly more attractive to deer than others. Whitetail Institute Director of Operations, William Cousins explained the attractiveness and other outstanding benefits of the sweet lupine varieties in Ambush. “The Whitetail Institute has been experimenting with sweet lupines for nearly a decade,” he said. “Early in our testing, we found that there were big differences in how attractive different sweet lupine varieties are to deer. Deer would lightly browse most of the sweet lupine plants we tested, but only a very few proved so highly attractive that deer would devour them like a favorite candy. Ambush contains two of these exceptionally attractive sweet lupine varieties.” As Cousins explained, exceptional attractiveness isn’t the only performance category in which the sweet lupines in Ambush excel. “The sweet lupines in Ambush are also high in protein, and the high protein content and overall forage quality tends to remain high even as the plants mature,” he said. “Since they’re legumes, they are also excellent nitrogen fixers, and their strong tap root helps improve soil structure. They will even tolerate mildly acidic soil better than other legumes, which helps them produce even on poorer soils.” Ambush delivers protein, abundant energy and exceptional attraction during the early and late seasons. Ambush is available in 10- pound bags that will plant a quarter-acre and 40-pound quantities that will plant one acre. For more information about Ambush, go to whitetailinstitute.com, or call the Whitetail Institute at (800) 688-3030. Note: The Whitetail Institute has sold out of Ambush long before the end of recommended planting dates every year since its introduction, so order right away if you don’t want to miss out.
