Food Plots Soybean question

[KennyDale]

I have a good 1/2 acre plot of Eagles about 5 ft tall now. They flowered about 3 weeks ago and have bean pods now. The pods are thin and the beans inside are real small. My question is will the pods and beans get bigger or is what they are now going to be as big as they get? The plot looks very healthy otherwise. This is my first try at soybeans so I don't know much about the stages of a soybean plant. I can add pics later if that helps. Thanks.

 

[diamond hunter]

Eagle beans are a forage bean and the pods are fewer.On a plot that size,they will all be gone soon enough.

 

[KennyDale]

Fewer pods don't bother me. It's that the pods are real thin and the beans inside are small. The plot has been basically untouched by the deer so the plants are almost as tall as my corn.the whole plot is very thick and lush.

 

[SEC]

The beans inside your pods are getting bigger every day. With another shower or two. And as long as we don't get an early frost they should mature just fine. In most areas this has been a really good soybean year.

 

[JayMc]

5' eagle beans are awesome. You must have some great soil.

 

[KennyDale]

I think the Eagles have the genetics to grow tall. Hopefully the upcoming rain will give the bean pods a boost.

 

[BSK]

Eagle beans are genetically modified to produce a lot of leaf material and not beans.

If your Eagle beans are virtually untouched, you must have few deer or a lot of other agriculture around. Most people I know using them really struggle to get a good stand because the deer flock to them and eat them so fast. In fact, many of my clients have to fence their beans for the first month of growth to keep the deer from eating the young plants to the ground.

 

[hitek7]

What BSK said. We tried planting 2 acres of beans and the deer clipped them off as soon as they come to leaf. Had a field full of green toothpick stalks. Have not tired again.

 

[Jarred525]

Eagle beans are genetically modified to produce a lot of leaf material and not beans.

If your Eagle beans are virtually untouched, you must have few deer or a lot of other agriculture around. Most people I know using them really struggle to get a good stand because the deer flock to them and eat them so fast. In fact, many of my clients have to fence their beans for the first month of growth to keep the deer from eating the young plants to the ground.

Yep, if I don't plant at least 4 acres of them I am toast! That's even with ag around. But man they are awesome. The tonnage they produce is amazing.

 

[tn droptine]

Heck, three years ago I had about 4 acres of Eagles planted and the deer kept the whole field mowed down (other than some that came up in the middle of some Johnson grass which sort of acted as an exclusion cage). The tallest the plants got were about 8-10 inches, but I have to hand it to them, they still kept putting on new growth and even had some pods that fall.

 

[BSK]

Heck, three years ago I had about 4 acres of Eagles planted and the deer kept the whole field mowed down (other than some that came up in the middle of some Johnson grass which sort of acted as an exclusion cage). The tallest the plants got were about 8-10 inches, but I have to hand it to them, they still kept putting on new growth and even had some pods that fall.

I should have taken a picture while I was at a client's property the other day. He had a 1-acre food plot in Eagle beans that he had not fenced. The deer had turned it into a 1-acre stubble field, except for an exclusion cage right in the middle of the plot, and the beans where 5+ feet tall growing out of the top of the cage!

 

[BSK]

I'm generally not one to advertise "commercial" food plot seed. I usually feel you can do just as well mixing much cheaper seeds purchased at the local CO-OP. However, Eagle beans are the exception. Those plants are truly amazing. If you can afford them (and they're not cheap), they're everything they're advertised to be, and then some.

 

[Roost 1]

We planted a 5 acre plot last year half eagles and half conventional beans..the deer would not touch the eagle beans. No more of those over priced beans for us..BTW, this was in highly agricultural environment.

 

[BSK]

That's amazing Roost_1. Ever never seen deer NOT hammer Eagle beans over all other varieties. Plus, with their added extra growth and leaf volume, they produce so much more food than regular beans.

But you know what, never say never. I've seen deer prefer or not prefer some strange things. I've even seen deer hammer a particular plant in one plot and absolutely not touch it in another plot 200 yards away. Go figure...

I post a lot about how, in this area, deer hammer Austrian Winter Peas. They are a super bow-season candy plant. Yet in the high sand content soils of the Deep South, I've seen deer completely ignore them. They actually WON'T eat them.

 

[Jarred525]

We planted a 5 acre plot last year half eagles and half conventional beans..the deer would not touch the eagle beans. No more of those over priced beans for us..BTW, this was in highly agricultural environment.

That surprising. I am like BSK in that I buy the bulk of my seed at COOP and custom blend. Eagles are one of the few things I buy other than custom blending. They way they regenerate after being eaten is pretty crazy.

 

[KennyDale]

So let me ask this--since the Eagles have pretty much been untouched this summer do you think the deer will want them in late season? That's typically when my deer show up. I live on 20 acres and don't see many deer start using my field until late season. The last 3 years I've had corn and the deer show up in Dec.

If the Eagle leaves fall off and the bean pods are not very robust will the bean plot have much value then in late season?

The way I pretty much kill deer here is to get them passing through. If I can get the does using the field plots chances are I will kill a good buck. That's what I've done the last 3 years. Most of the bucks I kill I have not seen before. Of course I don't run cameras so they may be around and I'm just not seeing them in daylight.

 

[KennyDale]

Here is a pic of the plot and the pods. Do they look normal?

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[Roost 1]

That's amazing Roost_1. Ever never seen deer NOT hammer Eagle beans over all other varieties. Plus, with their added extra growth and leaf volume, they produce so much more food than regular beans.

But you know what, never say never. I've seen deer prefer or not prefer some strange things. I've even seen deer hammer a particular plant in one plot and absolutely not touch it in another plot 200 yards away. Go figure...

I post a lot about how, in this area, deer hammer Austrian Winter Peas. They are a super bow-season candy plant. Yet in the high sand content soils of the Deep South, I've seen deer completely ignore them. They actually WON'T eat them.

It was crazy to watch, the deer would walk right thru the eagles to get to the conventional beans.... There was a very evident browse line...

 

[BSK]

KennyDale,

Soybean BEANS themselves are not a preferred food of deer. You can't get deer to eat raw soybean beans from a feeder. However, as winter approaches, high-quality food sources decline (especially once all the agricultural plants have died back or been harvested), and at that point deer will begin eating things lower on their preference list, and it is not at all uncommon to see deer eating the bean pods out of standing dead soybeans.

 

[BSK]

Roost_1,

I hear stories about certain plants--normally consider high value--going untouched so often that I've had to accept them as fact. I'm now of the mind that it's nearly impossible to predict what will grow well and what deer will like in any given situation. That's why I tell new food plotters to experiment as much as possible. It's all going to be trial and error.

 

[KennyDale]

Thank you all for the info. Very helpful.

 

[JayMc]

KennyDale - those plants and pods look like mine. I have two 1 acre plots planted with eagle beans. One was fenced until this week and the beans are mid-thigh to waist high and the other was not fenced. It is mowed to the ground. I was not able to find a single soybean leaf in that plot other than in the exclusion cages. It's just stalks and other plants that I tried in that plot.