# Buckwheat for deer



## marty

Just wondering if anyone has tried buckwheat for deer? when did you plant it and did it last till huntinf season. Any info would be great. Thanks .....marty


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## Slugshot1

It depends on who you talk to about buckwheat. I have asked several and some say it was good, while others say the deer ignored it. I plant some every year, but I do it more for a pheasant food plot more than for deer. The better idea might be to provide a mixture of different food products together in the same field. Last year I put corn, sorghum, sunflower, soybean, field pea, buckwheat, and japanese millet all into a mix and buried it over 6 acres. That way I have food that matured at different rates and gave the wildlife quite the smorgasboard! I had turkey, pheasant, and deer all show up. Some of the pheasant and deer are being "chilled" right now. If you are interested in planting a plot see my other posting under "Free Seed" topic.


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## Airoh

This may not be that much help, but here goes. About eight years ago I planted about a 1/4 to 1/2 acre of buckwheat. It was mixed in with some shade tolerent perennial grass seed and a handfull of alfalfa seed. It was planted on extremely poor soil (sand and gravel with a little pond muck. The buckwheat did the worst of all. The few young plants that started were eaten. None of it made it till fall. I planted it in the spring along with a couple acres of alfalfa. The alfalfa was planted on better soil with no fertilizer. The alfalfa did excellent and I still have about 20 to 25% of it still coming up. I mow it on my highest setting regulary.


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## Hamilton Reef

We've planted buckwheat for four years in two different locations. Every year the buckwheat got a good start up to 6" and then "chomp", end of buckwheat. The deer loved it immediately. They never allowed the buckwheat to grow even close to maturity. We did not try to mix buckwheat in with other crops to buffer the impact. That may help, but we will be planting Biologic or dwarft essex rape in those areas next year.


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