Last fall I planted a plot of winter wheat. The deer were in it good while it was green last fall and winter. Well now it has matured and is headed out. It also has the hairy things on the heads (awns). Will they eat this and should I leave it alone? I see there is white clover under it. Should I disc it as it stands and hope some of the seed will germinate? Should I mow it for the clover? Never dealt with winter wheat before. Thanks.
No, by and large deer will not browse grain in the head because the awns get caught in their throat.
If there is a good stand of white clover underneath and it is worth saving, then you could mow the wheat and let it naturally reseed in the clover. Or it will eventually seed itself out, although in my experience with food plots, birds and turkeys will have eaten about 99.367% of the seed before it ever hits the ground.
Grouse
I haven’t dealt with winter wheat either, but yeah if you have clover coming up under it, mow it and let the clover come in. I am mowing off the winter rye this weekend that I fall planted last year as a cover crop for the clover.
Thanks, that’s what I’ll do is mow it. I’ll keep the mower a little higher than usual. I’m thinking that’ll broadcast the seed on the heads and open it up for the clover. Any critters that feed on the seed should still be able to get at it.
Should I mow it soon or wait? I can mow it anytime but is there a better time to do it? Thanks.
If you want the seeds to grow and provide some green matter and cover with the clover this fall wait until the grain is fully matured so that you have viable seeds.
If you don’t want much winter wheat to seed itself, mowing soon may mow it down before seeds are dry enough to be viable.
Mowing before the heads dry down may reduce the amount that wildlife care to browse on the grain. If you want the grain to shell out of the heads some so the wildlife can eat some of it I would wait to mow until you can hand shell some kernels out and there isn’t much moisture left in them. If you mow too soon much of the grain may stay with the heads and awns IMO
Odds are mowing it won’t give you much of a volunteer stand later since you’re not working it into the ground. You’re better off mowing it letting the clover come up and then replant winter wheat in again later. All you’re doing is allowing the winter wheat to take sun, moister, and nutrients away from the soil. However by doing that you may allow other weeds to grow more rapidly as they will have more sunlight available as well.
With that said without seeing a picture of the crop currently I couldn’t tell you how close to maturity it is. If it’s starting to turn brown it would only take another few weeks for the seed to become viable to grow.
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