Ultimate Forage Oats

In the summer of 2008 I decided to try a plot of Ultimate Forage Oats in our hayfield.

Ultimate Forage Oats are an annual planting for fall food plots. I had planted a plot of oats in this same location several years ago and was not pleased with the results, but I thought that is was worth another try. Most of our current plots are not strong draws during the fall and especially during hunting season so a good fall plot is attractive.

The summer months had been very dry so disking the hayfield turned out to be a difficult task and our three point hitch disks broke in the process. I had to use our old pull behind disks, which will soon be missing more disks than they have working disks. I disked the field on August 8th, 15th, 31st and September 4th. The ground was so hard that I had to reduce the size of the plot that I wanted to plant. The plot ended up being about 200 by 15 yards wide.

In the end of August we also applied lime and 12-12-12 fertilizer. I forgot to write down exactly how much lime I use, but I try to get close to a half ton per acre.

On September 4th we sowed the Ultimate Forage Oats and made a couple of passes over them with our disks straightened out to try to put a little dirt on the seed.

Rain was minimal and sporadic over the next couple of weeks and I thought that the plot would likely fail, but I soon saw shoots of oats coming up, much to my surprise.

The deer let the oats get close to six inches tall and then they moved in and began to mow them down. By early October they were hitting them pretty hard.

Although the oats looked to be cleaned out, we continued to see deer in the plot through December. The vegetation in the plot stayed greener than the surrounding field and continued to draw deer.

I shot a nice doe that came from the plot on November 26th that weighed more than any doe we have shot over the past 12 years.

From our experience this year, I plan on trying to plant more oats next year. They came up good in dry conditions and the deer used the plot well into our season.

The early September planting date seemed to work out well, but I would like to try to get them planted a bit earlier when I try them again. This is a picture of our strip of oats in late September.

Return from the Ultimate Forage Oats Review to the Food Plot Seed Review Page.