I’m hunting a new spot this year and the farmer planted beans. However, he cut and plowed the field about 10 days ago which is the earliest I’ve ever seen for a bean harvest….
There’s still quite a bit of beans laying in the dirt, but deer traffic has decreased significantly 
In your experience, what will happen with the herd?
They will feed in the evening close to sunset, if the field is flanked around it by trees and a ravine that gives them a quick cover to get away. If they dart into the wooded area then watch for them to make a 90 degree turn after they feel comfortable about the escape and then they will most likely return within an hour.
Were the beans even turned over yet? He would have had to put it in WAY early for them to be ready end of august? Beans are really sensitive to frost so for them to be planted in early April in Minnesota is doubtful. If they were ready for a combine, that would be strange. He must have chopped them for forage or something. Maybe had a failure with the beans so he wanted to get the work done before fall harvest? Weird deal. In my experience.. if you have other ag around.. a picked bean field offer little or no draw, especially after its been plowed under.
Every bean field around here, (we are further south, so less risk of frost) doesn’t even have any hint of yellowing at all.
Were the beans even turned over yet? He would have had to put it in WAY early for them to be ready end of august? Beans are really sensitive to frost so for them to be planted in early April in Minnesota is doubtful. If they were ready for a combine, that would be strange. He must have chopped them for forage or something. Maybe had a failure with the beans so he wanted to get the work done before fall harvest? Weird deal. In my experience.. if you have other ag around.. a picked bean field offer little or no draw, especially after its been plowed under.
Every bean field around here, (we are further south, so less risk of frost) doesn’t even have any hint of yellowing at all.
No, not even close to turning yellow, and this is in northern Wisconsin. This is why I’m confused about the harvest. I guess I’ll check my cameras in a couple weeks to see if they’re still hitting it.
throw some essex rape seed in there asap. the way our autumn goes you still have 2 months of growing. perfect plot got nothing to lose and a lot to gain. Acorns will be food of choice soon, my plots go cold, deer are browsers, little of this little of that, they ill be back
I don’t think this was a conventional crop soybean field. Either these were forage soybeans and therefore cut for silage or they were some kind of edible bean that is green harvested.
The deer will clean up the leftovers, but then it’s going to get tough IMO if nothing else happens to that field. If a cover crop gets planted or something else changes, you could be in luck.
Grouse
I don’t think this was a conventional crop soybean field. Either these were forage soybeans and therefore cut for silage or they were some kind of edible bean that is green harvested.
The deer will clean up the leftovers, but then it’s going to get tough IMO if nothing else happens to that field. If a cover crop gets planted or something else changes, you could be in luck.
Grouse
What else could get planted this late?
Some times farmers will plant a soybean field and let the field grow to a certain length of time just to get a nature nitrogen from the plant. He could of planted it from old seed stock. Next year he most likely change it to a different crop.
Some times farmers will plant a soybean field and let the field grow to a certain length of time just to get a nature nitrogen from the plant.
Yes, possible, but I was having trouble thinking of why you’d let a soybean crop get all the way to late August, probably less than a month from normal bean harvest and then not harvest it AND go through the additional trouble of mowing it down while it was still growing and presumably fixing N? It’d seem to me that it’d be funny to just blow the bean yield on the ground rather than combine it off and recoup more of your planting investment, but it could happen.
What else could get planted this late?
Well, the most likely option is nothing. Sorry to be a downer and you don’t say exactly where this is, but assuming it’s MN or WI, then both cover crops and overwinter crops like winter wheat and rye are relatively rare for a variety of reasons. If this is further west or south, other options are more common. Anything could happen, but just don’t want to falsely boost your hopes.
Have you thought about talking to the farmer and seeing what his plans are?
Interesting situation, though. I’ve noticed that it seems with the low grain prices that all kinds of non-traditional crops and methods are being tried now. Edible beans are a hot one, so are hops. Organic grain is another, out by Alexandria last year I saw the weediest wheat field I’ve ever seen and dad commented what a mess, but then it dawned on us that he’d gone organic. Saw a guy on a swather cutting grain in western MN a few years ago as well, almost nobody’s used a swather out there for probably 40 years, but going organic makes you get creative to get the weeds through the combine.
Grouse
Yes, possible, but I was having trouble thinking of why you’d let a soybean crop get all the way to late August, probably less than a month from normal bean harvest and then not harvest it AND go through the additional trouble of mowing it down while it was still growing and presumably fixing N? It’d seem to me that it’d be funny to just blow the bean yield on the ground rather than combine it off and recoup more of your planting investment, but it could happen.
Grouse
The possibility it is set-a-side acres and the farmer has to cut down the beans in order to receive his payment from the government. Maybe!
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