Derek,

Rye Grain is a good cool season crop for white-tailed deer.  It has about the same nutritional value as winter wheat, but continues growing during colder temperatures.  In fact, it will continue growing in temperatures that are about 12 degrees colder than wheat will grow.  One down side to Rye Grain is that the seed readily germinates.  Therefore, if Rye Grain is allowed to mature through the seed production stage, there will be another crop of Rye Grain the following year.  Although this sounds good, deer stop consuming Rye Grain (and other cereal grain crops) once the crop matures from the leaf or vegetative stage and enters the stem stage (from a flat leaf to a round stem).

Therefore, Rye Grain can take up valuable food plot real estate for months and not provide any food value to deer.  This year I mixed Rye Grain and Winter Wheat 50:50 in my cool season plots.  I’ll spray it with glyphosate during early spring so I can plant a warm season crop in that real estate as soon as the temperature permits.

Growing Deer together,

Grant