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Brassicas

Brassica is another common term heard when talking about wildlife food plots. What is Brassica you may ask? Well it is a term that covers many different types of plants including rape, kale, turnip, cauliflower, rutabagas, and radishes all of which are cool season annuals which are highly digestible and high in protein and produce big leafy plants. Although the term refers to a broad range of plants there are three that are most commonly used and referred to as brassica when it comes to wildlife food plots. The three plants are kale, turnips and rape. With over 90% of the plants leaves being digestible and containing 15% to 20% protein in the leaves and another 8% to 15% in the roots these plants are excellent food sources to be used for any wildlife plots. These plants start out with a very bitter taste making brassica plantings go virtually untouched by wildlife during the growing season. As the plants mature starches convert to sugars in the plants leaves and make them sweet and more palatable to the deer. A hard frost also helps the plants to become sweet. The plants will stay green throughout the winter under the snow and will remain upright. Deer have been known to return to brassica plots and dig through the snow to forage on remaining leaves and even turnips that are just below the ground in the late winter. These features make brassicas one of the best late season forage options for mid fall to mid winter. Due to its cold season hardiness brassica plots are perfect to be used for hunting seasons because they are still active food sources for game animals. Brassicas can be planted in mixes with clovers or alfalfas but due to their big leafy plants will shade out other crops. It is best if going to mix brassica it should be blended with other varieties of brassica with different maturity times to ensure a long lasting plot, and planted in stand alone plots or if limited on space divide your area up and plant them in one area of your overall plot location. Below are the brassicas that we here at Preferred Seed Company have to offer along with our Summer, Winter, Fall, Forage Feast blend which consists of different brassica varieties already blended together to the appropriate percentages for success.