timbercruiser

As part of a continuing education course I recently attended there was a segment about wildlife foods and values. Something I had never thought much about was the protein value of plain old weeds, stuff that whitetails prefer to eat, keeping in mind that deer usually digest up to about 16% protiens. Here are just a few of the plants mentioned and their crude protein values:

Old-Field Aster 23%
Pokeweed 32%
Blackberry 19%
Ragweed 18%
3-Seeded Mercury 25%
Beggar's-Lice 28%

The seed companies and wildlife management specialist pour a lot of money into advertisements wanting you to buy everything from Lab-Lab to Biologic at high prices when you would be better off manageing plain old weeds. In other words, you are spendng a lot of money on planting stuff that is of equal value or less to wildlife than native plants. Look into some of the non-biased free information available in the form of seminars and information provided by your local state forestry offices and the NRCS offices. In Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi I receive a list of classes available about forestry and wildlife I will e-mail to you if you have an interest and will PM me you e-mail address. Some are free and some require a fee.

kevin1

The ragweed would drive the missus and me to distraction , but we both love black berries . Is the protein content of raspberries similar to blackberries ? They eat pokeweed ? Really ?

Criggster

We have plenty of weeds around here. They will eat pokeweed when it is young, but I have not seen any browse on older plants. Some of the people around here eat it when it's young, but it has some toxins when it gets older. I would definitely be interested in seeing some of the nutritional values of the more common forbs and grasses.

kevin1

Me too , does anyone know of a good source of this kind of info ?

Hawgnman

Will the deer eat the weeds?? And I'm not talking about to prevent starvation. I'm sure they would in that case.

They normally have many choices. Would any of these be at the top of their list? I think honeysckle would be. But it tough to compete with soyabeans, alfalfa and corn.

Land DR

You are right on!

I love weeds! And the wildlife do as well. If you talk to some old timers...they will tell you how many pheasants, quail and partridge they had in their old weedy fields before chemicals.

If you shoot a rooster out of a weedy area...look in its crop and you will find all sorts of weeds seeds...especially pigweed...very small black seeds.

Unfortunately some programs (CRP for example) do not allow you to have weeds on the property. We all know that they are often too busy to police all of the CRP acres however. There are also state and county ordinances on weeds and noxious weeds. Your neighbor may also be your weed police.

Most states now allow "mid contract maintenance" of CRP such as light disking...they are know understanding the benefit of these weeds.

Definately high in protein, readily available and easy to establish...just work the ground and let it go.

However...food plots are fun and their is alot of satisfaction in the project. I think you will also find that deer are seasonally selective to certain foods. Your weeds will be targeted in the spring when they are young and green but may not be in the fall when they are steemy. Food plots can fill the other gaps in the food cycle in your overall management plan for your property or hunting spot.

Land DR
www.HabitatNOW.com

Wooddust

You make excellent points that are generally over looked or ignored. One has to be honest and admit that "food plots" and "habitat" are 98% of the time totally seperate issues. But many people refuse to just admit what a food plot is.

We know ragweed is a primary food source for quail and turkeys love ragweed seed. Its a key componant of quail habitat. Deer will eat a lot of browse and graze on grasses...more often selective to the grasses that are high palatabilty, not grasses like fescue that they avoid because of palatability and the endophyte issue. Our native diversity is the best "Habitat".

The best thing we can provide is shelter/nesting/hiding/food/water. And the food needs to be more of what nature provides and less of what man has introduced...Fescue is a great example of an introduced specie of little or no value to most wildlife and a habitat degrader as well. Sericea lespedeza fits that as well. Musk Thistles in our part of the world are a horrible invader and hit CRP bad. But CRP can be and is managed well in some areas for the wildlife and the weeds are managed not eliminated.

Food plot mixes are attractants more than anything else. Lots of money is spent and profits made on claims of one clover over another on protein, growth habits etc. Any forage expert will tell you that the data quoted is so often bogus its not funny. If I take forage clippings every 2 weeks from season start till hard frost, the nutitional value of any clover will vary considerably. The data nornmally quoted has no third party verification and no control comparisons...but it sells seed. A good mix of clovers will be fine in most situations and there is a lot of money to be saved with good old red clover as a part of your efforts.

The vast majority of food plot mixes that are annuals are selected to be a green patch among the browns of November so as to attract deer in hunting season. Its really not a habitat issue nor does it apprecialbly add to the overall nutritional values delivered to the deer herd. Rape seed grown in N Dakota is not as sexy a sale as New Zealand rape. And the newest greatest bean is not as sexy as a soybean. And we wont see a lot of milo, instead we will see some new variety (probably an old ag variety lost to the ages for low performance).

Dan O.

I found a database that lists many weeds/forbs and their nutrient content. The only problem is that you must call up each plant to get the information.

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/forb/

Dan O.

doughboysigep

most weeds are very nutritional (at young stages) and many have herbal and medicinal values