Looking to add quality plantings for late spring/summer in SE Alabama. Will be conducting soil tests on five locations. Trying to plant between 15-20 acres in different spots. Two larger fields are 5.35 acres and 8.63 acres with full sunlight and would prefer a blend. On the remaining sites, which receive partial shade and are between 1.15 and 2.08 acres, I am going to try Buckwheat. What blends have any of you had success with? Have done Soybeans and I/C peas in the past in the larger fields but can't dedicate the time to spraying the soybeans the the I/C peas were gone before they could make.

Grain sorghum IC peas and buckwheat are a great mix. But you have zero herbicide options

I did a side by side comparison of a good quality mix and RR corn/Eagle Beans this summer, 4 ac each. They were both drilled and fertilized the same. I will never plant anything but the corn/beans again. I have a high density of deer and there was no comparison. The 5 way mix was planted on the side of the field with the least pressure and somewhat protected in it was Gallagher e fenced.Unfortunately my charger crapped out at about week two and I never replaced it but at least there was a visual barrier. The corn/beans were totally unprotected. The mix produced virtually no forage as the sunflowers, two legumes and buckwheat were destroyed very quickly and never got above the sorghum that was supposed to protect it. It was also badly over run with grasses and sickle pod. Made a nice sorghum patch but I could not care less about a sorghum patch. The beans were hammered but continued to put out leaves all season, the corn made and provides vertical cover in the field twice as high as the sorghum and the weed competition was much much less. No grass and less sicklepod. Next year I will have 8 acres of e fenced corn/beans.

Buckwheat and soybeans. I’d do them in their own plots so they aren’t competing against each other. Going to plant some buckwheat myself. All I’ve read is positive about the plant

Buckwheat is definitely in the plan. Works in a variety of soil conditions, grows quickly and you can get several rotations over the course of the spring/summer. The bigger fields are the issue. I like the blend options with plants that mature at different times and block out weeds. Going to be trial and error. We have a strong, healthy deer population and are on our second year of letting the quality 3.5 y/o deer walk, so know I am going to be burning 100 acres of mature pines and young long leaf pines and then adding in the summer planting options.

I'm looking at planting some summer crops around my main field. Looking hard at WMS Summer plot

A really good mix that works is buckwheat, clay peas, soybeans and sunn hemp. The buckwheat will come up first and give the beans some cover. The sunn hemp will grow an inch a day once it gets going, it has a deep root system and creates a ton of biomass. If your deer eat it, they will wear it out. Sunn Hemp provides the stalks for beans to climb.

I really do like Eagle beans, they are awesome. But I don't have any big plots.

Also Whitetail power plant is a good off the shelf mix.

I did start tinkering with Alfalfa last spring, and planted Bulldog 805. Should have waited until fall. The deer eat it. I planted a small plot of alfagraze 600, and it came up and was mowed. I am eager to see how it does this spring. I am also a huge fan of whitetail clover. It's just the best if you can get it going and keep it going.

Do you have trouble bushhogging the sun hemp during the fall? Could you replace the sun hemp with sunflowers?

Sure, as long as you don’t actually have deer on your place.

Yes it doesn’t bushhog well. Good luck with sunflowers if you have a reasonable population of deer.

I tried a pure sunflower planting a few years ago and they didn't make 6 inches before the deer mowed them down. Was hoping the other planting in the mix might give them a chance.

It won’t. I have proved it to myself several times.

I do not have issues, but I wouldn't use my bush hog, I use my flail mower. Below is a screen shot off a short video of me mowing one (the mix I shared) a few years ago with the flail mower. As you can see, no problem. This is with a subcompact JD1026R. Deer like sunflowers, I am just not sure they can hold up to browse pressure. Sunn Hemp will.

I promise you what really helps with this is planting buckwheat with what you want to plant. The buckwheat shoots up and provides cover. The deer eat it some, but not like peas, beans and other forages. The buckwheat is done in 45 days, and then the other forages will have had a chance to get established.