Anyone interested in trying forage soybeans in 2017?

I’m wondering if any of the IDO’ers out there are interested in trying a forage-specific variety of soybeans in 2017?

Forage soybeans differ from the traditional field soybeans in several ways. Where the traditional soybeans are bred for minimal plant size and maximum bean yield, forage soybeans are bred to grow very tall and have a lot of leaf mass (up to 5 feet tall). They are also bred for high protein content in the leaves and stems and while they do put on bean pods, that’s a secondary consideration. The idea behind forage soybeans is to have high nutrition content in the whole plant.

These aren’t nearly as common in the upper midwest compared to the more common varieties and I’m interested to see how they grow and how they deer utilize them in different areas. I’m going to do a side-by-side comparison in 2017. It’s not really an “ag vs forage” thing, I’m sure the deer will eat both, I’m more interested in the big picture of when the deer eat them, how much browse they will withstand, what gap might they fill in terms of an overall food plotting strategy, etc.

Anyone out there tried a forage-specific variety of soybeans already? Anyone interested in trying them next season?

Grouse

Like I said before, I’ll be getting some. When do you need to know how much I want?
DT

Tried them last year and the deer pounded then to the ground like regular beans

Have messed with forage beans a little bit. Details, which brand are you offering, how much a pound and where are they shipping from? We normally plant lots of brassica, corn, regular beans, etc but with CWD kill going to happen in our area we may make a switch to more clovers and alfalfa for the next few years. Will not decide for sure until we see what happens with the herd reduction and how much it effects our farm but always open to
consider good deals on good seed.

He will be selling Eagle seed.
DT

I’d be game to try them.

How much $?

What about soil requirements and planting dates?

basseyes wrote:

I’d be game to try them.<p abp=”319″>

<p abp=”320″>How much $?

<p abp=”321″>What about soil requirements and planting dates?

Same here thanks.

riverruns wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>basseyes wrote:</div>
I’d be game to try them.<p abp=”319″>

<p abp=”320″>How much $?

<p abp=”321″>What about soil requirements and planting dates?

Same here thanks.

I would be interested too.

Grouse, they do not put out any beans pods? Or are the beans pods secondary in the plants genetics so they put on some but fewer pods and smaller size pods than ag beans?

I am curious how these would do planted with corn. Would they use the corn stalks as support, like a vine? Would they grow like crazy in the cover of corn? Might be a good experiment we could do. Plant these beans at the normal rate in with corn at half the normal rate…

I have planted ag beans in with corn, both at the normal rate, and found that the beans grow taller than beans planted alone right next to the mix. I think the cover of the corn keeps them from getting browsed as much.

Thanks for the replies. I’ve heard about forage soybeans and their benefits for wildlife food plots for years, so I’m really fired up to get them planted in 2017. I really want an additional “tall crop” option to provide more browsing mass above the snow on my property.

I am now the Twin Cities Area dealer for Eagle Seed Company and their Eagle Forage Soybeans, which many of you have probably heard of. Eagle has one of only 2 forage-specific soybean varieties currently on the market that are Roundup Ready.

Just to state that any discussion of forage beans is not an attempt to trash talk regular field varieties. They both have their pros and cons for wildlife managers, but here are a few reasons why I think forage varieties are worth considering as part of a strategy:

– They have very vigorous growth and produce huge plants. They can reach up to 5 feet high and produce 38 average nodes per stem in trials, compared with 14-20 nodes for your average field variety. This means Eagle forage beans can regenerate to withstand browsing pressure at more than 2X the rate of field soybeans.

– Their leaf mass and stems are VERY high in protein. Up to 42% protein, which is 8-12% more protein than ordinary field soybeans.

– They produce up to 10 tons of food mass per acre. 2 to 5 times more than ordinary field soybeans.

– They do produce pods/beans, but the average yield is estimated at somewhere around 20-30 bushels per acre. Of course, high deer browsing pressure, will reduce yield.

To answer the growing questions, forage soybeans are very similar to field soybeans:

– Soil Ph between 6 and 7 is highly desirable with optimal for Eagle Forage Soybeans being 6.3 to 6.5.

– All Roundup Ready soybeans are sold in 140,000 seed count bags so the weight of the bags will vary according to seed size. Bags generally weigh 45 to 55 pounds.

– Broadcast seeding rates are 75 -100 pounds per acre. Basically, 2 bags per acre if broadcast. If you want to be very precise, I can weigh the bags for you to give an exact weight. Because most of us have heavy browsing pressure, I say plan on 90-100 pounds per acre broadcast rate.

If you’re using a planter, calculate rows and spacing to about 180 to 220k SCU per acre.

– Planting time with soybeans is dictated by frost. Soybeans will NOT tolerate any frost whatsoever, so you must be very safely beyond the last frost date in your area before planting. This can vary greatly by terrain, elevation, and other land characteristics.

My advice is not to gamble with frost. We are not farmers and there is simply no payback on pushing your luck with frost just to get in a few days early.

According to Eagle’s Grower’s Guide, forage varieties can be inter-seeded with corn (Roundup Ready only, of course) at the rate of 3-5 pounds of corn seed to 40 pounds of soybean seed.

As with any Roundup Ready crop seed, you must have a Monsanto Stewardship Number to purchase and grow Eagle Forage Soybeans. This is a simple process and I can walk you through it, but I know that most of you already have it.

I’ll contact those who are interested with prices and delivery info.

Because soybean seed is heavy, the best option is for us to arrange pickup here in the Twin Cities or some other meet-up option that is convenient. I can ship them if that is necessary and I’m happy to quote a cost once I have your zip code.

If anyone else is interested, let me know.

I’m really looking forward to trying forage-specific beans. I’ll be doing a blog with a side-by-side comparison of field beans so we can see what kind of benefits each type brings.

Grouse

Great info Grouse. I am pretty stoked to give these a try. I hope it warms up soon so we can start turning dirt

Awesome info Grouse!

Where I hunt we’ve got lots and lots of both corn & alfalfa to compete with so I have done much for food plots but I’ve been kicking around the idea of trying to add try beans to see if I can get their attention with something a bit different. I was planning to just get some ag beans through my dad’s dealer but the forage beans sure sound intriguing. I would be interested in pricing info as well.

Will

Grouse, have you ever thought of planting cowpeas? We used to plant them on our hunting property south of St. Louis, Missouri. The turkeys would break the pods open and eat all the peas, then the deer would follow up and eat all the vines. Farmers used to plant them in the outside rows of their crop fields to keep the wildlife from eating all the “money” crops. Cowpeas are more expensive than what you’re suggesting, but the results were pretty awesome. There are several varieties available, here’s a link to a seed company that carries them:
http://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/cowpeas/

Grouse wrote:
As with any Roundup Ready crop seed, you must have a Monsanto Stewardship Number to purchase and grow Eagle Forage Soybeans. This is a simple process and I can walk you through it, but I know that most of you already have it.

I do not have it.
I’m curious though. I’ve bought RR beans and corn and never had to have anything to purchase them.
It doesn’t bother me to get it but I’m not following why.

Grouse, I’d be interested in pricing information as well. Local pick up wouldn’t be a problem for me.

I would be interested in pricing as well. I just purchased some land this year and need to plan my food plot layouts for next year. These sound great!

Same here thanks.
[/quote]

I would be interested too. Shawn and I could work something out for pick-up.

Ford Guy 1 wrote:

Grouse, have you ever thought of planting cowpeas?

I have not grown cowpeas, but I’ve heard these can be terrific for some uses.

There are so many things that deer love to eat. What I love is planning and experimenting with different varieties to maximize the variety of crops I have so that food is available throughout the season. My goal is to have palatable food available for as much of the year as possible.

haleysgold wrote:

I’m curious though. I’ve bought RR beans and corn and never had to have anything to purchase them.

All Roundup Ready varieties of seed use patents held by Monsanto. I’m not an expert by any means, but as part of my dealership agreement with Eagle Seeds, I can only sell to growers who have a Monsanto Stewardship Agreement.

Grouse

Will Roseberg wrote:

here I hunt we’ve got lots and lots of both corn & alfalfa to compete with so I have done much for food plots but I’ve been kicking around the idea of trying to add try beans to see if I can get their attention with something a bit different.

That’s my goal as well. In my area of East Central MN, we have a lot of corn fields, but they are mainly cut for cattle silage so they start disappearing starting in late August and by October they are all stripped clean.

So even in areas where there are corn and beans grown as field crops, I want to see if by growing a different variety AND making that variety available after the other fields get harvested, I can bring in the deer.

It always depends on what else is available in the neighborhood. The cattle operation next to me seeded 40 acres of new alfalfa in the late summer and I know that field pulled some deer away because they had 25-30 deer out there ever evening. But in my area, they lose interest in alfalfa as soon as it’s been cut a couple of times. Something changes about its palatability and they lose interest for some reason.

Grouse

Update and last call for 2017.

If you’re interested in trying Eagle Forage Soybeans as part of your 2017 food plots, I have seed in stock right now, but I’ve received my final shipment of Wildlife Manager’s Mix North for the year. When they’re gone, they’re gone.

It’s been a terrific first year as the Twin Cities dealer for Eagle Seeds. If you’re wondering how forage soybeans do up here in the frozen tundra, I have some pictures customers have shared with me of their 2016 plots.

Here’s one from a customer that has a far just to the east of St. Croix Falls, WI. This is his 3 acre plot from last year (2016). His only “complaint” was that during the first week of bow season, once the deer got into the plot, all he could see were the pairs of antlers and ears moving down the rows… High grade problem to have, in my opinion.

PM me if interested.

Grouse

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I’ve had great luck with Eagle forage beans. As long as the weather cooperates, they grow big and crowd out most other weeds in short order.

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Just curious how the forage bean plots did compared to regular beans and if you plan on planting again?

Sticker was kind enough to do a test plot and take pictures during the whole growing season on this thread. The test plots were fairly small, so it gives a good indication of what happens to beans under heavy browsing pressure.

For my plots at my farm, I wouldn’t plant anything other soybean. I have higher deer numbers and local ag crops are limited to grass hay and silage corn all of which disappears in September. I’m planting relatively small areas in beans, no more than 2 acres in a single plot, so there is no way conventional ag beans would survive the browsing pressure the way Eagle Forage beans have. I’d be left with 2 acres of bean stumps by July if I planted ag beans.

Eagle Beans have a die-hard bunch of fans and now that I’ve actually grown them, I can see why.

Grouse

How do they look now? Are youre bean fields tall and greenish, or flat and brown? Im curious if the deer will keep browsing them throughout winter, or are they pretty much done.

The frost pretty much killed the eagle beans. I wouldn’t say they are flat, but not tall and green any more. There are still pods on the plants and the deer continue to use the plot at home, but they have pretty much wiped out the plot at the farm.

sticker wrote:

The frost pretty much killed the eagle beans. I wouldn’t say they are flat, but not tall and green any more. There are still pods on the plants and the deer continue to use the plot at home, but they have pretty much wiped out the plot at the farm.

So which variety do you prefer for late season? Our Ag beans are typically stripped immediately after they yellow and dry out. Do the forage beans yield more pods than typical Ag beans?

Angler II wrote:

Do the forage beans yield more pods than typical Ag beans?

No, they yield less in terms of beans. But that’s by design.

The problem many wildlife property managers had when growing ag beans was that when planted in small plots (less than 5 acres) you end up with a plot of bean stumps by late summer if you have even moderate browsing pressure on that plot.

The point of forage beans is to produce an entire plant that’s edible by animals and maximize the protein content of the entire plant including the leaves and stalks. Eagle’s variety is up to 42% protein, which is about 10% more than crop soybeans, but also the massive size and rapid growth of forage beans means that they produce 2-5 more of that protein. Forage soybeans can recover and continue to grow even under heavy browsing pressure.

With forage soybeans, the value is in the deer eating the whole plant throughout the growing season and therefore getting much more protein.

Here are a few pictures of the Eagle plants after the first frost to show the pods. Keep in mind that at this point in the growing season, the deer have probably eaten over a ton of leaf mass from this small plot, so with forage soybeans, the pods are kind of dessert, not the main course.

Grouse

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TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Angler II wrote:</div>
Do the forage beans yield more pods than typical Ag beans?

No, they yield less in terms of beans. But that’s by design.

The problem many wildlife property managers had when growing ag beans was that when planted in small plots (less than 5 acres) you end up with a plot of bean stumps by late summer if you have even moderate browsing pressure on that plot.

The point of forage beans is to produce an entire plant that’s edible by animals and maximize the protein content of the entire plant including the leaves and stalks. Eagle’s variety is up to 42% protein, which is about 10% more than crop soybeans, but also the massive size and rapid growth of forage beans means that they produce 2-5 more of that protein. Forage soybeans can recover and continue to grow even under heavy browsing pressure.

With forage soybeans, the value is in the deer eating the whole plant throughout the growing season and therefore getting much more protein.

Here are a few pictures of the Eagle plants after the first frost to show the pods. Keep in mind that at this point in the growing season, the deer have probably eaten over a ton of leaf mass from this small plot, so with forage soybeans, the pods are kind of dessert, not the main course.

Grouse

I figured that was the case. Otherwise all Farmers would be planting forage beans. Do Forage beans produce the same amount of nitrogen as ags? Sorry if this has already been posted, I just don’t have time to read the whole thread right now.

Angler II wrote:

Do Forage beans produce the same amount of nitrogen as ags?

Under the same soil conditions, Eagle Forage Soybeans will produce more nitrogen than most conventional ag beans because of their greater leaf mass and plant size. How much varies depending on growing conditions and the presence of soil microbes that aid in production and fixation.

A few customers this year told me that they sow corn in with their Eagle Forage Soybeans. The nitrogen from the soybeans goes down very well with the corn. Obviously, the corn variety must be Roundup Ready. This is a really interesting plot idea that I’d love to test on a larger plot. I don’t grow corn because it’s too equipment intensive and expensive because of the fertilizer demands of corn. Interesting possible way to get some corn into the plots without the big fertilizer bill.

Grouse

Here are pics of my eagle beans at home taken yesterday(11-22-17). Some of the plants are lying down, but a good 50% of them are standing and all of them have pods on them still. I got a lot more pod production than I thought I would from forage beans.

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