Ag vs Eagle beans 2018

For those of you who didn’t follow along last year I planted 2 plots at home about 100 yards apart. One with the eagle beans that Grouse, the MN eagle dealer donated, and one with ag beans. Both plots planted at the same time, same fertilizer, and sprayed with gly at the same time. A side by side comparison to show how the 2 style of beans compete. Here is a link to that thread.
Eales vs ag

This year Grouse has graciously donated another bag of seed to do the test again. Same plots, same planting time same spraying time, but with a couple twists. Last year I planted the beans on 13″ row spacing. As aggressive as the eagles grew I thought they almost over crowded each other, so this year I planted both the ag and eagle beans on 26″ row spacing. That is twist #1. Since I had some extra eagle seed I planted the rest in another plot in with corn seed. That is twist #2. I am curious how the eagle beans will compete with the competition of the corn and to see if the eagle beans will use the corn stalks to grow up on as vines. I have heard they will do that, but we will see.

The three plots were planted last night, May 20th. I will be taking pictures of the plots and posting them on this thread as the season goes on. Stay tuned for the results.

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Eagle beans

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Ag beans

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All done with my little red work horse

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Nice set up you have there Sticker.

But where is the brassicas going to go?

Grouse

Very interesting experiments and I appreciate Sticker growing this test plot.

It should be really interesting to see the corn/Eagle Forage Soybean combo plot. I’ve wondered how this would work, so we’ll see.

I get questions every year from guys who want to switch away from wimpy ag beans to the Eagle soybeans, but they want to keep sewing radish or turnips into the soybeans in the mid-summer. I do not think this will work and don’t recommend it because the Eagle beans will be so high by then that I can’t see the brassicas being able to compete for light and moisture.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

But where is the brassicas going to go?

Grouse

At the farm where they actually eat them.

I am very curious about the corn/eagle plot also. Might be a new plot at the farm if it works out, although if a guy has to buy both seeds it could make for an expensive plot.

I have head that this year several corn seed varieties are well over $200 per bag. Yikes.

Grouse

I paid $35 a bag for 2.5 acre bags

Ag beans, Eagle beans and corn all popped out of the ground after only 5 days

Sticker,
I have been amazed that anything even grows in that “alley-way” plot you have every year. Seems like it would struggle for light and moisture with all the mature timber towering over each side.. .but it always seems to produce for you and have alot of activity in your trail cameras.

Yeah, it doesn’t get a ton of sun or rain, but seems to do decent and the critters sure like that spot. That being said it is struggling a little this year on the edge of the pines.

Eagle beans as of 6-3-2018

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Ag beans as of 6-3-2018

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Up at 4am(04:00) this morning to spray the plots. Nice cool dewy morning with calm winds. Perfect for spraying. I’ll get a couple pics of the plots once the beans pop back up in the tire tracks. I am equally impressed with both plots so far.

No browse pressure so far that I could tell, but there are deer tracks in the plots.

Well, this test will be a little skewed. My back plot with the eagles and corn, and my ag bean plots have been absolutely overtaken by red root pigweed I thought I had it under control last year, but I was sadly mistaken. Right after I sprayed the plots the first time with gly the RRP took off something fierce. Fortunately the eagle bean plot has very little of the RRP. Unfortunately the RRP is gly resistant so I can’t stop it without terminating my plots

Net spring I’ll have to put the beans and corn on hold for a year in these plots and attempt to terminate the RRP. That will mean turning the plots, waiting for the RRP to germinate and then spray with 2-4D, then give it a week or two and repeat until I am 100% sure the RRP is fully terminated. That will take most of the summer so at best I’ll be able to get a fall planting or winter rye.

We will see how the ag beans and the corn compete with the RRP, but I am betting it will stunt them at the very least. The eagle beans should be fine unless the RRP starts really spreading in that plot also. I am hoping the eagles will out compete and shade out the RRP soon.

Here are the latest pics.
Eagle beans

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Eagle beans and corn over run with RRP

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Ag beans over run with RRP. You can see that dose of gly did nothing to affect the RRP

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Well the RRP was too much for me, I couldn’t let it go to seed so last night I terminated both plots. Hit them hard with 2-4D which will kill the RRP, but will also kill the beans. Corn will get hurt, but should survive as 2-4D is a broadleaf killer and corn is a grass. It was painful killing those beautiful beans, but it had to be done. I will wait 2 weeks, then replant ag beans. They most likely won’t grow much for pods, but will put on nice green growth for the deer to browse.

Looks like the eagle beans are only going to get one dose of gly this year. They are very close to full canopy already on 26″ rows. Pretty impressive!!

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Looks like I got rid of the red root pigweed, and also the beans in the other plots. I will be replanting eagle beans next weekend in this plot and ag beans in the other one.

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After 2 weeks I am certain I got a good burn down on everything except the corn so I replanted beans on both plots yesterday. Some of the more mature corn did tip over due to the 2-4D making the more mature stems very weak. I knew this going in, but it had to be done.

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Update on the bean plots. The Eagles are looking absolutely amazing!!! Grouse, you need to stop out and get a recent picture of these magnificent beans!!!

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The ag beans that I had to kill off due to red root pigweed got replanted now and are coming in quite nicely. Some of the corn in these plots got killed off too, but the later planted stuff survived and is looking good also.

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Nice to see the beans are coming in good. Those Eagle beans are looking awesome going to have to think about a bag of those next summer.

The eagoe beans that I planted very late are coming up pretty good.

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Ag beans are doing well also

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The early planted Eagle beans are waist high and full of pods, but for some reason the deer aren’t touching them. Really weird, the ag beans in the field next to me are also around hip high and the deer are hardly touching them either, but the young ag beans that were planted late have trail cam pics of deer almost every night.

I visited Sticker’s Eagle Forage Soybean test plot and brought along the Midwest Monster Whitetail Products yardstick for a few pictures on September 14.

My observations are that this has been a fantastic year for Eagle Forage Soybeans in the test plot. On AVERAGE the plants are easily over 3 feet high and just in that quarter acre test plot there are literally tons of leaf mass. The plot is so thick that it is difficult even to walk down a row.

There are standing plants in that test plot that are over 4 feet tall! AND unlike ag beans, this plot is still growing. Eagle Forage Soybeans don’t have programmed dieoff like ag beans, so the plot is as green now as it was in July. Ag beans in this area are yellow and drying up already.

Pod count is very high this year. I would guesstimate those plants would produce 30 bushels per acre, which is an excellent bonus.

Another great year, another great demonstration of why so many food plot growers choose Eagle Forage Soybeans. My thanks to Sticker again this year for growing the Midwest Monster test plot.

Grouse

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