I’ve never planted that much acreage, but they wipe mine out just after they come up.
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What state are you in? According to some on this forum, we just dont have high deer densities in Arkansas. 
i used to plant ten aces of sunflowers in two five acre plots - and they did great. After about three years of that, the deer nipped the tops out of every one of them when they got about six inches tall. I fought that for a couple years and gave up. I sure wouldnt plant a mix of flowers and milo because you wont be able to spray either one of them without killing the other. Doves like clean ground.
I have planted food plots for doves for forty years now. I will quantify this by saying I have lived in no row crop areas - for the most part. I plant a field of wheat in the fall and a field of millet in the spring. The wheat I keep sprayed after it matures in the summer and the doves will feed in it early and mid summer and then switch to the millet when it matures mid summer on. August 15, I top sow wheat on the now bare and clean wheat field. 200 lbs per acre. The doves will either be there or they wont and nothing I can do will make them stay. I always have a ton of doves late July early August - like this past year. We didnt have a dove come opening day - with five acres of ripe millet and 1000 lbs of wheat seed on bare ground. Not a one. And we could have melted our gun barrels Aug 1.
I know some guys who plant ten acres flowers and have a five acre field they keep bare ground all winter, spring, and summer. They spread 50 to 100 lbs black oil sunflower seeds every other week from mid winter to early august. They till it under before the 15th of Aug and then spread 1000 lbs of wheat 15th of aug - and that is along with the ten acres of planted, manicured, fertilized, sprayed, clearfield sunflowers. The doves in late July look like what I have seen in Mexico. There are about 20 guys who hunt it. Last year, the killed 44, the year before, 300, the year before that - 22.
Doves have a mind of their own. In non ag areas - where doves are not attracted in numbers to begin with, I dont know of anything - legal or illegal that will guarantee a good shoot. I poured out an old bag of browntop millet last week and there are commonly 40 doves there. They have about eaten it all. I can have five acres of browntop millet producing over 500 lbs seed per acre come Sept -, with 1000 lbs wheat seed on bare ground - and not have a dove. But, we also might have a shoot like in Argentina.
Point being, I wouldnt get too fancy. Dove regs in AR allow for top sowing wheat. That is as easy as it gets. They will either be there or they wont - and it is not a reflection of your time, effort, and money.
i used to plant ten aces of sunflowers in two five acre plots - and they did great. After about three years of that, the deer nipped the tops out of every one of them when they got about six inches tall. I fought that for a couple years and gave up. I sure wouldnt plant a mix of flowers and milo because you wont be able to spray either one of them without killing the other. Doves like clean ground.
I have planted food plots for doves for forty years now. I will quantify this by saying I have lived in no row crop areas - for the most part. I plant a field of wheat in the fall and a field of millet in the spring. The wheat I keep sprayed after it matures in the summer and the doves will feed in it early and mid summer and then switch to the millet when it matures mid summer on. August 15, I top sow wheat on the now bare and clean wheat field. 200 lbs per acre. The doves will either be there or they wont and nothing I can do will make them stay. I always have a ton of doves late July early August - like this past year. We didnt have a dove come opening day - with five acres of ripe millet and 1000 lbs of wheat seed on bare ground. Not a one. And we could have melted our gun barrels Aug 1.
I know some guys who plant ten acres flowers and have a five acre field they keep bare ground all winter, spring, and summer. They spread 50 to 100 lbs black oil sunflower seeds every other week from mid winter to early august. They till it under before the 15th of Aug and then spread 1000 lbs of wheat 15th of aug - and that is along with the ten acres of planted, manicured, fertilized, sprayed, clearfield sunflowers. The doves in late July look like what I have seen in Mexico. There are about 20 guys who hunt it. Last year, the killed 44, the year before, 300, the year before that - 22.
Doves have a mind of their own. In non ag areas - where doves are not attracted in numbers to begin with, I dont know of anything - legal or illegal that will guarantee a good shoot. I poured out an old bag of browntop millet last week and there are commonly 40 doves there. They have about eaten it all. I can have five acres of browntop millet producing over 500 lbs seed per acre come Sept -, with 1000 lbs wheat seed on bare ground - and not have a dove. But, we also might have a shoot like in Argentina.
Point being, I wouldnt get too fancy. Dove regs in AR allow for top sowing wheat. That is as easy as it gets. They will either be there or they wont - and it is not a reflection of your time, effort, and money.
He wasn’t asking how to ensure doves - just how to keep the deer off of them.
That is a fact. Efence the sunflowers for a pretty looking field.He wasn’t asking how to ensure doves - just how to keep the deer off of them.
6. I had six does one year completely annihilate a 2 acre sunflower field. I grew great flowers for several years - and then it was like one year the deer just figured out they liked them. I have had some good shoots on flowers - and absolutely nothing on flowers. Planting clearfield, spraying with approved chemicals, fertilizing, and efencing would cost a ton of money - and at my place - would not insure a single dove opening day. I am sure in some areas of the state, where there is ag and lots of doves anyway - it is a pretty safe bet.
I now grow millet and top sow wheat. Much less expensive and less time consuming. The best shoot I have ever had was on this combination. But I have also had none on this combination.
Back when I used to grow them - they sure did make a pretty field.
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