# Mowing Rye or Wheat



## Trophy Specialist

Will mowing anual rye or wheat on a regular basis to prevent the formation of seeds heads in effect keep the plants living and growing through the season, thus turning them into a perenial? 

Anybody ever mow rye or wheat?


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## Fencereaux

Can't speak for rye, but wheat will die.


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## NATTY BUMPO

TS,

We used to plant grain rye in the fall as a cover crop for our gardens. Then till it under in the spring. It would die after spring green-up.

Natty B.


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## Trophy Specialist

I planted anual Marshall Rye Grass in part of my backyard food plot last fall. I mowed it every other week all spring and summer and it has continued to grow like crazy. It is still drawing deer and bunnies and shows no sign of dieing. It looks like it will survive until fall and likely will live until next spring. The stuff is growing so good that no weeds or other grasses have encroached on the plot yet. With all the rain, it has has been growing 4-6" a week. My wife and I have been mowing it down to 4". I've planted that stuff before and if left uncut, it will seed out and die. I'll keep you posted on the long term progress of this planting. All the mowing is time consuming, but if planted in an area with a high deer population, the deer would likely help out.


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## okdogdoc

ryegrass--being a grass with continue to grow as long as being cut--but wheat and rye being cereal grains will die, even when cut, late spring or summer (at least here in Oklahoma).

todd


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## Trophy Specialist

Here's a final update on this experiment. The Marshall Rye Grass (anual pasture rye used to feed cattle normally) finally died during late summer. It had recieved a dozen mowings and grew like crazy until it just died suddenly. I've got Imperial Whitetail Clover in the plot now, which is doing good. My backyard is shadded for most of the day during late summer and early fall until the maples drop their leafs. I wonder if that shading during late summer did-in the rye or if its life's cycle just came to and end? The deer and rabbits did graze on the stuff all summer though, so planting rye and mowing it all spring and summer extends the usefull forage production duration of the plants. The rye died at about the time you would normally seed rye anyway. By mowing rye, you can keep deer in your food plot all year with a single, anual planting.


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## KEN C

Okay i am confussed. I planted what they call bin run Rye about 3 weeks ago and I was thinking about mowing it. So is the suggestion to not mow it. It is very tall right now, or should i just turn it over in the spring


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## Jeff Sturgis

Mike, for a little less maintenance you can just plant oats and clover in a fall planting. The deer love the oats during the fall, and then die out during the winter. You are left with pure clover the following year for the entire spring/summer/and then into fall. You can add a portion of annual rye into the intitial planting to offset the loss of the winter time freeze-out of the oats, and give your field some life throughout the winter and into early spring, before the clover takes over. 

It's hard to beat oats in the fall, and hard to beat clover in the summer...put the two together and they make a pretty attractive combination.

In that same planting you can frost-seed in a good brassica planting the following spring so that if they stay until hunting season, the brassicas can offer a great hunting season draw, especially when combined with the intitial clover planting.

Best thing is, you might have to mow once, but really not much more.


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## Trophy Specialist

KEN C said:


> Okay i am confussed. I planted what they call bin run Rye about 3 weeks ago and I was thinking about mowing it. So is the suggestion to not mow it. It is very tall right now, or should i just turn it over in the spring


I'm not sure. Marshall rye grass is a different breed all together. Most people just till field rye in the spring. With the current drought conditions and no rain forecasted in the near future, I wouldn't mow rye or anything else now. You might want to try mowing it a time or two during the spring to see how it responds. My guess is that it will grow back after mowing similar to the Marshall rye grass. It wouldn't hurt anything to try it, unless you are planning a planting of another type of plant next spring.


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## Trophy Specialist

NorthJeff - I agree that oats and clover are a good combo choice. Dean Francis does food plots for hire in the U.P. and that's his favorite plot recipe. I've seasoned clover food plots before with oats as a cover crop. I like to do lots of experimentation with my food plots. I'm lucky that I have property in both southern MI and the U.P. I generally try new seeds every year and write articles about my results. It's fun.


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## Guest

For whatever it is worth, there is rye grass (annual and perennial) and rye grain. and they are not related. Rye grain and wheat are related, in fact they can be interbred to create a new grain called triticale. Deer like triticale and love a mix of triticale and winter or yellow peas called (pecal). I plant pecal in early spring and disk it into the soil soon after the grain matures (early September) with no fertlization for a free super draw plot just in time for that opener.


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## Jeff Sturgis

Mike,

Don't know when that guy plants his oats and clover, but I've seen many plantings planted in the spring, when they should have been planted in the fall. It seems most are planting there crops in the spring around here, when fall is usually more successful for most plantings and gives your hunting season more "bang for your buck".

I've also heard comments of "why would you plant your oats in mid-August, they won't have time to mature?"....actually, that's the point, you want those oats plantings to be as tender and green as possible throughout the entire fall hunting season, as the clover is a less desirable draw for hunting season, but becomes established just fine with the fall planting.


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