Food Plots Questions about soy beans

[dgolden]

We did our first plot this year with some success. We planted Biologic Last Bite. Every time we hunted over it we saw atleast a deer sometimes up to 10. This year I was thinking about doing some soy beans around the plot or maybe even the entire plot in soy beans. Any advice? When to plant? How deep to plant? Would the deer mow down an acre of beans before season?

The farmer has allowed us 1 acre on the edge of a 40 acre hay field. The rest of the land is cotton. The soil test we had done was excellent. Thanks in advance!

 

[Boll Weevil]

In my experience, 1 acre of beans next to cotton and hay doesn't have a chance without an electric fence. If you had other really desirable summer crops to help keep the pressure of an acre of beans you might get a decent stand but deer will be on'em like a fat kid on cake. My guess is that if you've seen as many as 10 at a time on that plot, they'll decimate the young beans inside of a week of them emerging. Probably just a 3-4 days.

 

[Football Hunter]

In my experience, 1 acre of beans next to cotton and hay doesn't have a chance without an electric fence. If you had other really desirable summer crops to help keep the pressure of an acre of beans you might get a decent stand but deer will be on'em like a fat kid on cake. My guess is that if you've seen as many as 10 at a time on that plot, they'll decimate the young beans inside of a week of them emerging. Probably just a 3-4 days.

yep

 

[tickweed]

In my experience, 1 acre of beans next to cotton and hay doesn't have a chance without an electric fence. If you had other really desirable summer crops to help keep the pressure of an acre of beans you might get a decent stand but deer will be on'em like a fat kid on cake. My guess is that if you've seen as many as 10 at a time on that plot, they'll decimate the young beans inside of a week of them emerging. Probably just a 3-4 days.

well said!

 

[tn droptine]

In my experience, 1 acre of beans next to cotton and hay doesn't have a chance without an electric fence. If you had other really desirable summer crops to help keep the pressure of an acre of beans you might get a decent stand but deer will be on'em like a fat kid on cake. My guess is that if you've seen as many as 10 at a time on that plot, they'll decimate the young beans inside of a week of them emerging. Probably just a 3-4 days.

x1000 - with only an acre you are wasting your money. I had 4 acres planted in forage soybeans a few years back and they didn't hold up - deer kept them mowed down to where they only got a couple of inches tall!

 

[steel80]

Yep same here, they'll now them down in less than a week.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I tried soybeans last year for the 1st time. It was a total failure. I don't know what happened for sure but I suspect the deer did eat them all as they sprouted. I've never had this happen though before with any food plot so am going to give it another shot this year increasing the size of the plot to see what happens. I have about 3 acres surrounded by woods and last year I put about 1.5 acres in beans but got hardly any. It was almost as if none even came up. Maybe they were nipping them off as soon as the popped out of the dirt or maybe it was something else? The corn I planted in that same field did fine though. One factor that hurt me too was that the whole area around me was in corn so there were no field beans to draw off some of the deer while my food plot beans got established. This year there should be at least 400 acres of field beans to divert their hungry guts off my food plot at least some of the time.

 

[slangstrang]

I would suggest going with a mix like your last bite. Being that I work for the seed department at Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and all the wildlife seeds are my products, I deal with both the Biologic crews and Whitetail Institute. Both have good products and have strengths and weaknesses. Biologic is known for their brassicas. WTI is known for their clovers and the summer annual mix powerplant, which consist of forage beans, lab lab, peas, sorghum, and sunflowers for the beans to use as a lattice system. I would look into something that is going to give you the highest tonnage per acre with the best attraction. If you are a supporter of Bobby Cole and Biologic, I would go with the Biomass. If you want to try some WTI products go with the powerplant. That is just my 2 cents! If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I would suggest going with a mix like your last bite. Being that I work for the seed department at Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and all the wildlife seeds are my products, I deal with both the Biologic crews and Whitetail Institute. Both have good products and have strengths and weaknesses. Biologic is known for their brassicas. WTI is known for their clovers and the summer annual mix powerplant, which consist of forage beans, lab lab, peas, sorghum, and sunflowers for the beans to use as a lattice system. I would look into something that is going to give you the highest tonnage per acre with the best attraction. If you are a supporter of Bobby Cole and Biologic, I would go with the Biomass. If you want to try some WTI products go with the powerplant. That is just my 2 cents! If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them.

Power Plant is one of my favorites. Deer love it because they can live in the stuff and you can't see them. It gets used around my farm way more than any other food plot planting.

 

[Hunt 365]

Rain on the guy's parade. I would sow some red clover into the beans, and some wheat in September. It will groaw