Maybe this isn't the best spot for this question but I couldn't find a better one.

Do any of you have experience with or knowledge of how well this stuff works? I have been looking into it a bit and it seems like a good idea and all but I'm not sold on it. It looks like it doesn't offer a whole lot more nutritional value that Red Clover does and it appears to be an annual plant whereas most clovers last a few years. Mostly I am just interested in adding a little bit more to what the deer in these areas have to eat as there losing alot of there winter range. I guess this isn't exactly winter browse either though.

Mostly I would like to know if this stuff actually makes a difference.

Thanks in advance

Mark

I hope this may be of some value of sort but I've tried Imperial No Plow on my property because I had no other options with the terrain here in the Caribou.
It is about 4000ft. here and you can't plant before June. When summer comes we don't get any rain and unless you have irregation, nothing really has a chance to grow. Dry weather lasts right into winter most times so that makes things even worse.
I bought a spreader bag and follewed the instructions and put some effort into prepping the soil and got minamal resulst.
The clover was sparse and hardly produced a year later. I did have deer munching on it from time to time, but that was no different from any other year.
Winter feed does not really factor up here on your question because all but a couple of whitetail migrate the hell out of here by dec.
Do you have a field? That would sure make it worth it.

markus -
I have been trying to find out about this too. I will be planting Imperial and Biologic this year. The guys in PA think Biologic is great but I want to try both. I would think your growing season must be significantly shorter than mine but I'll ask one of the guys his opinions and get back to you.
Turtle

I hear what your saying Boilerroom. The kootnays is not a whole lot better than the caribou I would imagine. From July-september/october you can pretty well count on no rain. I think that at the lower elevations though (2000ft) that you could start to see the stuff sprout in mid to late may here. I do have access to a decent chunk of acerage and was thinking about putting some clover seed down in some of the wildland areas around too, all depending on the price of clover seed though. I am starting to think though that maybe they need better winter browse instead of summer browse but every little bit helps.

Nothing to offer on the topic, but "Soviet Canukistan"... that's one of the funniest things I've seen in a while

BA

Marcus,
I have a little to add to this. Imperial No Plow is made up of mostly barseem clover. I tried to track some down up here but could'nt find any. I thought it was too costly through Cabela's. Most of the feed places sell what they call "wild life feed" in bulk for a reasonable price. I asked how the results were and the came up with the same conclusions I figured. Neutral soil(up here it is all alkali), water(creeks dry up), And some sort of tilling(little is better than none). This is great clover country if you have a farm.
Alot of the winter brows that deer eat is more from the tender ends of alder, willow and simmular type of shrubs. If we were able to figure what grows fast and what deer would fancy, we could really contribute. So far it looks to me that wild life are going to have it easy with the lower temperatures and low snow pack this year.
Elk on the other hand graze so clover and other types of feed would benifit them, same with wintering sheep. Around Radium Hotprings they are always down in the valley bottom before winter sets in.
I wish I could find 2000ft. around here but the best I can do is 3000 45min. south of here on the Bonapart River. It is pretty much desert with sage, cactus and rattlers there. Monster mulies there though.
If you get good results this summer let me know. I'm not going to bother onless I hear of something that produces.
Brad,
I've been laughing for weeks about that too!

[ 01-23-2003, 06:44: Message edited by: boilerroom ]

There's a little bit of climate differance between us BUT, for deer, I like the Clover Plus topped off with some winter wheat and oats for good measure. It is a perennial and will come back every year and should produce year round as well. The chickory comes on in the summer (do you have summer in Canada?).

Define summer?

Temps 100+ with humidity hovering around 99%.... LOL!

Seriously, try the clover plus after your last frost. Till it, if you can, and top it off with Mossy Oak's phertilizer (13-13-13 with a quick acting lime) or 0-20-20 and ag lime.

Boilerroom,

From what i have looked up and from what I learned from my wildlife class's in college. Douglas Maple and both red stemmed ceanothus, and snowbrush are major deer browse shrubs in this area. Douglas maple should alomst definately grow from cuttings you snip off and plant in a decent soil but I am not too sure on the ceanothus and snowbrush. They are a firedependant plant but most decidous shrubs can be grown from cuttings.

I got this idea from an area not too far from where I live where old mine and logging access roads we seeded with clovers and grass years ago. The area now gets a good amount of deer and elk wintering there.

In my part of BC its not unheard of for tempuratures to get over 100 degrees for a few days of the year but it is very dry at that time of year. I'm not too familiar with farenheit but most of the year sits around high 20's and low 30's celcius (37 C is the same as 98.6 F).Its almost a sure bet there will not be any significant rain fall from July-September.

All kidding aside we do get a real hot period up here. Not so much last year(only a couple of weeks of over 30) but over a month of hot weather over 30 and sitting on 40 the year before. As far as frost goes, we can get that any night through the summer. In september it's not uncommon around the full moon to have near 30 in the day and as low as -10 late at night. I went on a hunting trip for a weekend once and lost all my tomatoes in my greenhouse.
Markus,
You seem to know more about shrubs than I do. I'm going to look into what plant life I can clone around here. It's mostly pine forest here and where there has been logging, the poplar comes in so fast the pine doesn't stand a chance. We get alot of willow bush along the creeks. The moose are gorging themselves on those two species but the deer?
The other thing that might become a problem is those damn free range cattle. Anything green and tasty will have cows parked on it here. Every day I had to chase cattle off my septic field right into winter. I'm going to start using blunts on my bow to make sure they get the message. Must be some sweet tasting grass.

Biolerroom,

I know a site that gives excellent information on any plant native to North america and alot of cultivated plants as well. It lists its methods of reproduction and whether it will grow by simply cutting off branches and sticking them in the dirt or if it requires seeds and it lists that plants palatability to game and livestock.

The site is
www.plants.usda.gov

If you know the common name it should work as long as you can correctlty identify the plant but your pretty much garrenteed to find it if you can look up the latin name of the plant.

When in doubt ask Canuck i'm sure he knows his plants. Its a forester thing.