About J. Wayne Fears

Where I live in the Cumberland Mountains on the Tennessee-Alabama line, this past winter was more like an upper Midwest winter than a southern winter. Many days the highs were well below freezing, and we had an unusual amount of snow and ice. Food plots that were planted with grain crops and clover didn’t fare well under these conditions, and the snows had deer digging for anything they could find to eat.

Fortunately for the deer around my farm, I had planted a wide border of Brassicas around several of my grain/clover mix plots, and it was in this border that the deer found an abundance of food in the form of greens and root crops such as turnips and radishes.

A healthy food plot planted in Brassicas that the deer did not touch the first year. The second year they ate it to the ground.

These food plots caught the attention of my hunting friends, and when they asked what made the plots so desirable to the deer, I explained that I had included Brassica strips around the plots and that was what the deer were after. Then several of my friends asked the question they all had wanted to ask, “What the heck are Brassicas anyway? I have read about them but don’t really know what they are and if they are so good, why don’t you plant them all the time?”

What is a Brassica?
Brassica is the scientific (genus) name of a group of perennial broadleaf plants that belong to the mustard family. This group of plants includes cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, collards, rutabaga, mustard, kale, swede, radish, turnip, rape, and canola. Of all these plants, it is the last five that are of most interest to deer habitat managers. Cool season food plots planted in these crops have been known to produce up to 10 tons of forage to an acre, have crude protein ranging from 20% to 38%, and provide food throughout the winter in deep snows. Those that have a root crop (such as turnips, swede, and radishes), provide a food source for deer willing to dig a little when all leafy foods are gone.

A lot of people think chicory is a Brassica but it is a broadleaf perennial herb. Also, I have heard of a seed store who was selling sugar beet seed as a Brassica; while it may somewhat appear as a Brassica, it is actually in a separate family of plants.

Brassica seeds can be purchased separately at garden/farm supply stores or in Brassica mixtures such as Bio-Logic Maximum, Imperial Winter-Greens, or Pennington Deer greens. The seeds are relatively easy to plant by traditional broadcasting or by no-till.

Soil Requirements

	The author used Brassicas as a border around his grain/clover crop. When snow covered the plot, it was the Brassicas that the deer fed on.

According to deer biologist and food plot crop expert Kent Kammermeyer, Brassicas grow best in loamy, fertile, and slightly acidic soil (pH 6.0-6.5). They will do okay in heavy clay, but not in wet or poorly drained soils. Brassica seed is small and should be seeded into a fine, firm seedbed

with adequate moisture for germination. Good stands can be established by broadcast planting 4 to 6 pounds/acre of kale or rape, or 3 to 4 pounds/acre of swede or turnip, followed by cultipacking. Since many of the seeds are extremely small, paying attention to calibration of the seeder is important so as to not over-seed a plot. Brassicas can be no-till drilled at half the broadcast rate into a sod by applying 2 quarts/acre glyphosate at least three days prior to seeding. The seed should never be covered more than one-half inch deep. Fertilize at planting with 300 to 400 pounds/acre of 19-19-19. Top dressing with 100 to 150 pounds/acre ammonium nitrate at 30 to 60 days will increase production and utilization of the top, and especially the bulb. Boron and/or sulfur may be needed, but only a soil test can reveal this.

If you purchase prepackaged Brassica mixes, such as those named earlier, soil and planting instructions will be on the bag.

Planting Dates
Most Brassicas selected for use as a deer food plot are planted as a cool season crop, thus the planting date is important to get the crop up and well established before the first killing frost. In the northern states and southern Canada, turnips should be planted in July and early August, rape and swede in July, kale in June, and canola and radishes in August. In the southern states, turnips should be planted in August and September; rape, radish and swede in September; kale in August; and canola in September.

The Bad and the Ugly
So far, all we have said about Brassicas sounds good – in fact, so good that a food plot planter just might be thinking about planting only Brassicas each year, hoping to watch the big bucks beat a path to his food plots. Before thinking that, let’s look a little more into Brassicas and the problems that can come with them.

The root of the turnip is relished by deer once they get accustomed to eating them.

Brassicas are highly susceptible to leaf spot, anthracnose, rhizoctonia rot, root rot, scab, powdery mildew, and several other diseases. They are also attractive to insects such as cabbage flea beetle and the common aphid, just to name a couple. Because of these problems, Brassicas should be rotated out of a food plot every two years and not be planted in that plot again for at least three years. When Brassicas have been in a plot for two consecutive years, it is best to plant the plot the next three years in crops of cereal grains, clover, chicory, and the like – anything other than a Brassica or a mix containing Brassicas. Crop rotation is a must.

Another problem is that deer can be very selective about choosing their Brassicas. I have planted the very best of New

Zealand Brassica mixes and had the crop do well, often getting knee high in leafy goodness, just to have the deer stay out of the plot all winter, and when replanted the next year, have the same results. Yet at the same time, I have gone a few miles away to another farm where the deer ate the same crop down to the ground. I have planted turnips in several food plots on my farm to have the deer eat every plant and root in one plot, and not touch them in another. Often I have plantings of Brassicas go untouched for a period of time, only to return to the plot to find it eaten up.

When including Brassicas in your deer management plan – and I do think you should – go slowly. Often it takes a couple of years before the deer develop a taste for the crop or they just might eat it up within a few weeks. This requires trial and error.

However, knowing you have to rotate the crop and knowing that it may take a while for deer to start eating your Brassica crop are not strong enough reasons to avoid a crop that does well in cold weather and deep snow, has a lot of food value, and is easy to plant. In cold climates it can be a winner, just as it was in my plots this past winter.