sugar beets for a food plot

[Scott K]

I am looking to do a small food plot, like an acre. I want something that will attract the deer into late November, and feed them throughout the cold winter. I tried radish a couple years ago, and they didnt work out very well. I was thinking sugar beets, but I am not sure how well they grow in NW Wisconsin? Are they hard to grow? Will they keep through the fall, and into the winter? Anything else I am missing?

[Dotch]

They'd probably do fine as long as the fertilizer requirements were met. They are easy to grow. When I was an undergrad working on soil fertility plots I planted some seed in my folks garden at Spring Valley MN so they could see what they looked like. In the fall Dad tossed them over the fence to the sheep and they ate them like candy. Sugar beets are a biennial but it's unlikely they would survive the winter that far north since they won't even here in So. MN. They might maintain their integrity for a while however, perhaps long enough so that the deer would find them for lack of anything better to feed on. By spring I suspect they'd be pretty well decomposed if the red beets I've missed in my own garden over the years are any indication.

Here's a little collaborative effort put together by some University specialists in ND, MN and WI. It's likely a little more in depth than what you need but there are parts that are relevant not to mention interesting concerning the crop itself.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/sugarbeet.html

[Scott K]

Perfect, thanks!

Next question, is Round up Ready seed available anywhere?

[LABS4ME]

You can get in trouble using RR beets from Monsanto for food plots. They have aggressively prosecuted some who have done so. Most farmers will NOT sell or give you seed and you cannot get them from an elevator for food plotting.

I know a buddy who bought RR alfalfa for his deer property a couple of years ago... had problems getting it at first because they thought it was for food plotting, but he has a 15 acre alfalfa field to produce round bales for his 2-3 cattle he raises each year and hay for his wife's horse and another friends horses. Not sure how he got the seed in the end. I think someone came out to his 'farm' to check things out and he signed some agreements.

Obviously he has a stand on that field, but it is truley an ag purpose first and hunting second... no different than any other farm

Good Luck!

Ken

[LandDr]

You can often trade your chemical application for "mechanical" weed control. what I mean by that is to do it like Grandpa used to farm.

Start tillage early in the spring and turn the weeds down. Set your calendar to come back in 6 weeks...till the weeds down again. At this time you can either plant if you want your plot to have a longer growing season (possibly small weed issues and possible drought issues), or you can set your calendar to come back again around Aug 1 thru 15. At that time you can do your tillage and plant for a "fall" plot. You should have minimal weed issues and hopefully coming into the fall rains to get the plot going.

I like to do both...I plant some in the spring and some in the fall.

I also like to put a strip of perennial food around the perimeter such as clover and chicory...a 30 yard strip will give you a benchmark for shooting as well as a nice travel lane for more deer traveling by your stand. Here is a great source for seed...HabitatNOW.com

I hope this helps and gives you some ideas.

[LABS4ME]

I agree with LandDr... been doing some of both with our brassica.

In some plots where want to increase the tillth, we spring plant a turnip, trophy radish, crimson clover, rape mix. The canopy is unreal! The weeds cannot compete. They LOVE those greens after a frost. I think the bulbs are too much for them, but they really put a lot of organic matter into the soil! The deer are hammering the radish roots right now. the fall planted turnips are getting their tops hit and a few roots pulled up and eaten... but the spring planted plots are 24" stems right now. They have stripped 80% of the leaves off of them. We do a lot of timed tillings on the property, but still will use a chemical burn to bring a plot back vs. multiple tillings over a couple of months.

We have used conv. beets in the past on the MN property and I honestly did not notice them gettin ghit anyharder than the other brassica planted. This past weekend it looked as though the small alfalfa plots and the winter wheat plot were the targets. More so than the corn.

Good luck!

Ken

[lovebigbluegills]

In my experiences of trying to grow small plots of sugar beets for the deer (an acre or two), they ate the leaves off about as fast as they came out of the ground leaving me with some weeds.

Turnips and rutabagas though, as mentioned, they won't eat much of until after a few good frosts.

[JeffB]

I've raised sugar beets as a cash crop for over 20 years. They are a good cash crop but need to be babied. In my opinion stay away from them for a food plot. They don't compete well with weeds, really slow growing for the first month of growing, have no nutritional value and the seed is expensive. The deer will feed on sugar beets that are missed by the harvester but in my opinion the beets aren't their favorite ag crop they just go after them because they are easy calories. Crops I would try include rye, oats, winer wheat, barley and maybe buckwheat. The might not be fancy crops, but deer love them, seed is cheap and they are truly easy. Often enough seed will fall for them to reseed themselves and still make the deer happy. If you plant rye, oats, winter wheat and barley you can control the weeds with many of the same chemicals you would use on your lawn or get even better chemicals from a farmer or ag retailer.

[East Rush Rules]

I have zero knowledge on sugar beets and have always wondered if this was an option! Thanks for asking the question and all of the replies!

With that said, I have another question!

For all of you that have planted sugar beets, turnips or radishes for your deer up here in MN....do you ever see the deer eating the "root" part of the plant? I understand that they like to eat the plants after a couple of frosts, how do they dig them up once the ground is frozen? Have you seen this happen? This was my first year planting a plot off radishes, purple-top turnip, rape and rye. They are loving all of the green tops right now, but not seeing any use of the roots. Just curious?!?

[MN Mike]

We've had turnips, rutabagas and such planted in the plots before, some years the deer hit the roots, some years they don't. Theres been sugarbeets grown around here for years and there again, some years they seek out the beets and other years they don't, I remember the deep snow years and the deer had some HUGE craters out there, but that didn't happen every year.

Something else to consider......The pics below ( taken today ) are of Canola ( roundup ready ) that was planted early August, deer really like it and as you can see, it's a viable food source yet. We chased out 4 Does the last Sunday of hunting season this year, they were in this plot at Noon when we came through. The deer seem to seek out the canola for some time and even after it's been completely covered by snow.

Mike