Tough deal. I think a lot of guys and gals across the Midwest are experiencing a dry summer and early fall. I like your approach though. Thanks for commenting and good luck to you as well!

I like your ideas! Good luck this fall

I like that approach. I’m finding I need to focus on more Cereal grains next year and less brassica

Ya I’m mad I didn’t “settle” more on cereal grains earlier. I kept thinking I had to have brassicas. I also made the mistake of using a tiller too much in the beginning so now I’m trying to repair some of the damage I did. I have one plot amongst the sand that’s along a river that has a richer black soil. I can’t screw that one up, brassicas Galore! The learning part is fun for sure but sometimes a lot of wasted $$$! Once I selected more drought tolerant and ph tolerate plants I had green in November😁 My next experiment is gonna be rutabagas. They like Sandy soil. And the deer always hit them in the garden🤷🏼‍♂️. They need to be planted in June so once my rye hits the dough stage in June I’m gonna broadcast and roll and give it a try🤞 Best of luck

I love the Grand Rapids area. I’m a little west of you. I’m glad you appreciate the niche. I started this channel because I always wanted to interact with folks up our way but nobody was doing it around here on KZfaq so I decided to throw some videos together. We actually just got .13” of rain this morning. Was never forecast. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel for getting it! Yeah they are still saying rain for tomorrow- let’s hope we get it. Honestly next year I’m probably going to plant only oats and rye. This droughty sand country I’m in just isn’t conducive for brassicas unfortunately (along with the browse pressure). Thanks for sharing.

That’s a really tough situation. Sorry to hear that. Soft mast or hard mast trees around? (Crab apple, oak, etc?)

Thanks I appreciate the note. Do you find that the higher concentration of does on your property pulls in bucks during the rut though? I like having does around. Good luck this fall.

yes the does do pull in the bucks, its a rut property for sure.

Thanks and good luck robyou as well

Do you guys have white tails over there? Other type of deer?

@@northernforestwhitetail The finns have some whitetail that have been released into the wild in Finland. Here in Norway we have red deer, roe deer and moose. And we have immigration of wild boars coming over from Sweden. That is our larger game, unless you add in seals and other sea mammals. (I know the latter might be controversial, so not much is said about hunting those)

@@rolfnilsen6385 that’s awesome. Good luck 👍

Yeah I did that last year. Some of it took. As I was saying in the video, it’s so sandy here, with that large rye seed just laying on top of the ground, it struggled to germinate well. It’s not a bad idea; I just didn’t have great luck doing it last year.

I have luck doing overseeding rye when brassica plots get devoured.

Same. Over seed brassicas with rye works great in September. Even into late September. I am in northern WI.

Hey thanks for the note I appreciate it. Yeah you are spot on that the densities will be low in those counties. But the big benefit is that you can most definitely get away from other hunters. There is a ton of public land too which is nice (superior national forest). Bucks can get old up in those areas too. We hunt not far from that area and the cool part of the rut is that you see as many bucks or more bucks than does. They are forced to walk further and cover more ground during the rut in order to find does. Good luck up there. The big woods can break you if you aren’t careful. Just when you think it’s hopeless, you can get surprised with a beautiful heavy horned north woods bruiser.

I like the system. Thanks- I hope you have some luck down there too.

Interesting… what do you do for weed control? Is it touchy in the sense that grass/weed competition really hampers growth? Or is it pretty tenacious and grows in adverse environments?

Nope I typically throw about the seed on till it in lightly then spread the other half right on top and go over it with a roller to push it into the soil for good contact and then pray for rain which that time of year seems to come more frequently

The only downside I’ve found is you are left with dry woody stocks very similar to corn stalks to deal with the following spring but the root system they leave behind is supposed to be great for soil building which you also need

Hey thanks for the sub- hope your fall is setting up well for you.

If you have food, they will find it. It’s amazing how deer locate food in their natural habitat. First off, they are social creatures- meaning they interact and travel together at times. Also, they are constantly foraging. If you can establish a doe presence going into the fall around your food, then you will have roaming bucks run into their scent and stick around. Imagine the scents in the woods that a doe family group leaves behind. The bucks will be covering ground in the pre rut and run into the doe scent left behind. Just focus on getting high quality food on your property and the deer will do the rest. Good luck!

@northernforestwhitetail thank you for the reply! I'm lucky because all of .y neighbors just put put out corn piles so my plots really the best thing around. Just working through the process of getting the soil up to par. It's ridiculously acidic! Thanks again for the info and best of luck to you as well!!!

Thanks! I can’t believe it but we got .13” of rain this morning. Might be just what it takes to get this all to germinate. Hope your season is shaping up nice.

I wish I could get away with that. I can see it’s critical for me to have an area of rye that I first disk in to establish then supplement with additional seeding. Hope your hunting season is shaping up nice.

Dang you guys are dry down there too

It’s a tough deal this drought. Two summers ago (summer of 2021) we had a really bad drought here. Now this summer is bad again. Unbelievably we lucked out with .13” this morning. They never forecast it. Fingers crossed we get that Tuesday rain tomorrow. I like your strategy. Just keep hammering that rye on top of it and you should have some green tonnage going into the season. Hope you luck out this fall.

Good tips- thanks for sharing

Thanks buddy hopefully he sticks around after the acorns are done. Hope your season is shaping up nice

I have some nice public land bucks, but no home area bucks yet. Waiting for the fall shift.

Sounds like you need to fill some turkey tags- tough deal there.

@@northernforestwhitetail most of the flocks are 75/80% hens.some jakes no fall season to speak of here in eTn ...hens are definitely off the table 🙄

It’s the way to go. Hope you guys get some rain

If the deer don’t have a good spot to land they won’t jump it unless our northern wi wolves are after them

Might need to start doing that.

@@northernforestwhitetail I had same problem over here in northern wi. Doubling amount of food was what worked the best. Every year I added more food until it was enough and now no fences required. Good luck!

Ha yep. I can’t believe they went thru my 30 mile cattle fence. These deer r nuts around here I guess

@@northernforestwhitetail One year I put an acre of corn in, and fenced it off like you. After trying to keep it watered for a month and constantly fixing the fence. I gave in to the deer take over 🙆🤷. I had some grow to 3 ft, very few, still produced baby corn. But, they kicked my ass. I can laugh about it now but, wasn't so funny back then.

Seems like they will choose oats over wheat- have you had different results? I do the rye for the regeneration the following summer.

I don’t mow it. In my case, the deer have kept it down. Regarding the topic of it going to seed; winter rye needs a winter cycle before it will actually go to seed or head-out. So if you plant it in the summer or fall, it won’t head out. If you are in areas with food competition sources I.e. soy beans, food plots, corn, alfalfa, etc, then you will want to time your rye and oat planting early fall so that it maximizes palatability and supersedes the attractiveness of the other competing food sources as you enter the hunting season. On the other hand, if you have low quality competition in your neighborhood (like me; I.e. no ag, no alfalfa, no food plots) then you can plant the rye earlier. I do it this way so maximize tonnage. I have a buddy who plants winter rye at the start of August every year because if he doesn’t, the deer will have it down to the dirt by November. I’m in a similar situation as he is. Hope this helps.

Yes, thanks!

I know right! My dad drilled a sand point well on his land to water his plot years ago. I may do it someday. Hold my beer…