Radishes

Hi guys. I haven't posted in a while, but always lurking. I want feedback on planting radishes in Aug/Sep timeframe.

I am a farmer and all the new fad is planting a covercrop in the fall, especially radishes or what some call tillage radish. Farmers are going so far as hiring airplanes to sow the seed over standing corn and beans so that they get good growth while the weather is warm. I have been to farm meetings that expound all the virtues of radishes to increase corn and bean yields by way of breaking up soil compaction and scavenging nitrogen. They have lots of supportive information.

I'm all for higher yields and making more money, but what I really want to know is if the deer will come out to eat them. Most of my farmer/friends are brown and down guys and don't go in for habitat and food plots. I, however view deer hunting as a year around hobby and has almost become a way of life (supported by my lovely wife I must say). I can't find much info on the subject online. Radishes are either for cover crop on ag websites or they are grown in a small remote food plot by deer hunters. Why can't I have both. I have one paticular field that is 110 acres that butts up to my families woods and our prime hunting ground. I'm seriously considering putting the whole field into radishes this Labor Day.

Have any of you folks had experience with lots of acres of radishes from a deer hunters viewpoint?

They were planted everywhere around here last fall. I even planted some in my food plot. I read a lot about groundhog radishes and food plots and how the deer love them. The co-op had jackhammer radishes and they told me they were the same as groundhogs. Whether they are or not I don't know, but I know the deer didn't touch my radishes.

I have a place where I can shed hunt but I can't hunt on because the landowner hunts. Most of his agriculture fields were drilled in radishes this past fall. Well last week I shed hunted it for the first time. On any given night you can see 50+ deer in his fields feeding on radishes. In front of one of his stands he planted some turnips for a foodplot. As you can see in the pics the deer never even touched the turnips but have devoured the radishes down to the ground. The little brown patch in the first pic is the turnips and the rest of the field are radishes. The big radish next to my boot is the only one I could find in the field that wasn't eaten on. Obviously deer prefer the radishes over the turnips, I know what I'm planting next year. I think you will be amazed how the deer pour into the fields to eat them.

The deer were eating the tops off of the radishes late December/Jan in the field behind the house. Other than that they left them alone.