RR forage beans… Where to buy?

This topic was sort of covered in a previous post, but I thought I’d focus a little more on where to get forage beans in my area…

This year I’m going to put in a mix of RR beans (regular, non-forage, for pure bean production — turkeys galore right now) as well as some RR corn.

I’d also like to line the outside edges of my food plots with RR forage beans – especially the edges closest to my stand or ground blind sites.

A friend of mine planted some “Large Lad” and “Big fellow” (Eagle Seed co, I believe) last year. Not much bean production, but the forage was sky high. And they stayed greener much longer, which is really what I am going for. I want to get a good balance of longer lasting greenage + good bean production for over-winter food (and spring turkey attractant).

I live in Eau Claire. Are there any retailers in the area where I can buy an acre’s worth of forage beans? Or is my best bet going mail order?

Thanks!

Just checked with the local coops… The Durand coop is the main seed order facility, but sounds like they can truck it to other locations if need be for a special order (no extra charge to truck on normal delivery routes)…

So that’s an option. Last year’s price was $1.55/lb, with a recommendation of 50lb/acre. Not sure (yet) what brand/variety of forage beans that is, but I’ll try to find out.

Sounds like Angie in the seed department in Durand is the person to talk to… 1-800-236-7585 if anyone in the area is interested… http://www.countrysidecoop.com/index.cfm?event=ViewPage&contentPieceId=3754

Edit – changed phone number… I was given the wrong number earlier. Getting ahold of “Angie” is much easier with the correct phone number… I’ll try to update any info that I end up getting…

Any other sources out there?? For guys that have used forage beans, where did you buy them in the past??

Thanks again!

Hard to find this stuff locally I’m finding out…

Eagle Seed will ship direct (as will a handful of other online retailers), but the cost ends up being $100+ per 50lb bag to ship it. Direct from Eagle seed has been the cheapest option by a few bucks, though…

It might be possible to have a pallet shipped straight from Eagle, which would reduce shipping costs – That would mean ordering at minimum 8 bags, though…

Eagle seed said to try a local CPS (Crop Production Services) store, if you have one near you. I tried calling a few of them, and I think I could hear crickets and head scratching in the background when I mentioned forage beans…

Since so many people have been talking about forage soybeans lately, I find it hard to believe it is this difficult to obtain the seed.

Anyone else use forage beans??? I’m sure there must be a few people on this site who have planted them… Where did you buy them from?

Thanks!

We got our eagle seed stuff out of northern wisconsin last year. It was around 90 bucks after shipping if I remember right. Here is an older post about them, Rob Stenger found a dealer in Eau Claire Wisconsin, info is on this link. Hope this helps

http://www.idohunting.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=habitat&Number=652853&fpart=1&PHPSESSID=

Thanks, I’ll try that number… I found that same dealer on the Eagle Seed website, but the phone number was different…

FWIW, my buddies forage beans were insanely large last year. And green well into the archery season, which I am looking for (my regular beans were all brown a few weeks prior to the season)… Not much bean production with forage beans, but the tonnage is pretty amazing — which is why I plan on planting both kinds…..

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Copied from the referenced post…

EDIT: Closest dealer:

Midwest Whitetail Mngt. Serv.
Eau Claire, WI
715-495-2988

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Thanks, I’ll try that number… I found that same dealer on the Eagle Seed website, but the phone number was different…

FWIW, my buddies forage beans were insanely large last year. And green well into the archery season, which I am looking for (my regular beans were all brown a few weeks prior to the season)… Not much bean production with forage beans, but the tonnage is pretty amazing — which is why I plan on planting both kinds…..

—————————–
Copied from the referenced post…

EDIT: Closest dealer:

Midwest Whitetail Mngt. Serv.
Eau Claire, WI
715-495-2988

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You can’t get a catagory 4 bean to stay green up to season?

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You can’t get a catagory 4 bean to stay green up to season?

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Where I hunt, there is not much of a point for me for an early season kill plot if I can’t get them to stay green INTO the season, not just UP TO it… Deer much prefer green soybean forage over any other sort of greens that I have planted, in my experience… Bean production is nice for late in the year, but there is otherwise tons of food around… Early season is pretty crucial for my small area to hunt…

Not that I can’t get the beans to stay green (last year it didn’t happen for me, most likely due to planting dates) but from what I understand (and from what I saw first hand from my friend’s plot) the forage beans will extend that possibly another month or so, after all the surrounding beans have gone brown.. Why not take that advantage?? Why not have green forage right under your stand well into October, instead of just the first week of the season? Worth a shot, anyway. If it doesn’t work out that way, at least it was tried…

Like I said though, I plan on planting both. “Forage” types on the outsides of the plots/nearer my stands to draw them closer during the early bow season…

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Not that I can’t get the beans to stay green (last year it didn’t happen for me, most likely due to planting dates) but from what I understand (and from what I saw first hand from my friend’s plot) the forage beans will extend that possibly another month or so, after all the surrounding beans have gone brown.. Why not take that advantage?? Why not have green forage right under your stand well into October, instead of just the first week of the season? Worth a shot, anyway. If it doesn’t work out that way, at least it was tried…

Like I said though, I plan on planting both. “Forage” types on the outsides of the plots/nearer my stands to draw them closer during the early bow season…

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The eagle seed beans we planted this year stayed green well into October. Like you say, they dont have the same yield of beans as other ag beans, but still enough that my deer hit them for several weeks in the late season. I am also going to add conventional ag beans with our forage beans this year. I am still contemplating exactly how Im going to set it up though, I think if you just mix them and plant both at same time same place the Forage beans will be so tall and block alot of the light for the other variety.

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The eagle seed beans we planted this year stayed green well into October. Like you say, they dont have the same yield of beans as other ag beans, but still enough that my deer hit them for several weeks in the late season. I am also going to add conventional ag beans with our forage beans this year. I am still contemplating exactly how Im going to set it up though, I think if you just mix them and plant both at same time same place the Forage beans will be so tall and block alot of the light for the other variety.

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Bingo.

I think you’d have to do strips of each. My friend typically puts in 10-15 acres of food plots each year. His plan this year is to put forage beans in one side of the planter and regular beans in the other so the forage beans don’t outcompete the regular beans, but so you get strips of each variety in certain foodplots…

I think I plan on putting about 15′ or so of forage beans around the outside of my plot, with strips of corn alternating with strips of regular beans on the inside (or something like that)… Or maybe a “moldy doughnut” configuration – The middle hole being the beans, the doughnut ring being the corn, and the fuzzy mold on the outside being the forage beans.. Fun to plan out, at the very least.

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I think you’d have to do strips of each. My friend typically puts in 10-15 acres of food plots each year. His plan this year is to put forage beans in one side of the planter and regular beans in the other so the forage beans don’t outcompete the regular beans, but so you get strips of each variety in certain foodplots…

I think I plan on putting about 15′ or so of forage beans around the outside of my plot, with strips of corn alternating with strips of regular beans on the inside (or something like that)…

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Id love to do the half and half on the planter but I have an air seeder and there fore everything is mixed together into one hopper. I will most likely be doing the forage either around the outside or just a half plot-half plot. I like your idea about putting the corn in with the ag beans. However, I usually have a very large separate corn plot (starts at 10 acres and take half in fall and leave half year round). That and solely being an archer, I would hate to have to shoot through random corn stalks at the buck ive been waiting for. Granted the idea is to shoot them when they are heading to it, but late season leaves alot of eyes in one spot and can be tricky getting drawn at the right time. Just my thoughts I guess…

on the “moldy doghnut,” you definately got the wheels turning in the head.

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on the “moldy doghnut,” you definately got the wheels turning in the head.

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Fun stuff to mull over, anyway… Who knows, maybe the “Moldy Doughnut” will be the next big thing on the cover of QDMA magazine…

… Has anyone had any success mixing bean seed with corn seed? Will the beans use the corn as climbing support? If so, any good ratio of corn:bean seed mix work best? I want to say that Biologic had at one point marketed a RR bean/corn mix.. Not sure if they sell that anymore, though…

Maybe I’ll just see what happens this year – Since I just broadcast spread seed, I’ll mix corn/beans on the edge and see which one does better, or if they compliment each other to some degree…

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I think you’d have to do strips of each. My friend typically puts in 10-15 acres of food plots each year. His plan this year is to put forage beans in one side of the planter and regular beans in the other so the forage beans don’t outcompete the regular beans, but so you get strips of each variety in certain foodplots…

I think I plan on putting about 15′ or so of forage beans around the outside of my plot, with strips of corn alternating with strips of regular beans on the inside (or something like that)…

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Id love to do the half and half on the planter but I have an air seeder and there fore everything is mixed together into one hopper. I will most likely be doing the forage either around the outside or just a half plot-half plot. I like your idea about putting the corn in with the ag beans. However, I usually have a very large separate corn plot (starts at 10 acres and take half in fall and leave half year round). That and solely being an archer, I would hate to have to shoot through random corn stalks at the buck ive been waiting for. Granted the idea is to shoot them when they are heading to it, but late season leaves alot of eyes in one spot and can be tricky getting drawn at the right time. Just my thoughts I guess…

on the “moldy doghnut,” you definately got the wheels turning in the head.

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If you are planting on 36″ rows with RR beans you can come back over again with a different seed and plant down the middle of the 36″ rows giving you double rows on 18″ centers.

Being that the number one benefit of using forage beans is more greens for a longer time frame, as stated well into october, I plan to utilize this trait and whitetails addiction like drive to find the last green beans in the feild and stratigicly place the forage beans under my early and mid season bow stands. As the rest of the “ag” beans start yellowing in mid september the deer will be concentrating soley on the forage beans(under my setups) until the ag beans dry. In years past I have had to sit feild edge stands and have seen up to 30 deer in one small dip in a feild that is still green compared to the rest of the feild, I have watched bucks spar over the right to eat the green bean browse that were green stilldue to a random weeds in the middle of the field kept 2 bean plants green longer than the rest of the feild!

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Being that the number one benefit of using forage beans is more greens for a longer time frame, as stated well into october, I plan to utilize this trait and whitetails addiction like drive to find the last green beans in the feild and stratigicly place the forage beans under my early and mid season bow stands. As the rest of the “ag” beans start yellowing in mid september the deer will be concentrating soley on the forage beans(under my setups) until the ag beans dry. In years past I have had to sit feild edge stands and have seen up to 30 deer in one small dip in a feild that is still green compared to the rest of the feild, I have watched bucks spar over the right to eat the green bean browse that were green stilldue to a random weeds in the middle of the field kept 2 bean plants green longer than the rest of the feild!

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Great plan Ben better

I played with some nonrr forage beans last year but due to the fact they were blended with peas and lab lab it made them basicly untreatable with herbicide, i had a big patch f weeds by mid augest!! Hopefully Eagle seeds solve my problems!! On a side note I have also had beans stay green into late october by seeding much later than the norm, but the rish involved make this plan a big gamble where I plant due to early frosts and an abundence of bean feilds every 3 years!!

I just put my order in with the dealer right in eau claire, from the number referenced on Eagle seeds website, 85 dollars a bag for large lad or big fellow

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I just put my order in with the dealer right in eau claire, from the number referenced on Eagle seeds website, 85 dollars a bag for large lad or big fellow

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You mean this guy? I think I tried calling, but never got a response… Will have to try again… Coop could get them, but for $95/bag…

Or this number from Eagle Seeds?

Midwest Whitetail Mngt. Services

Ted Marum

301 Water St. Suite 3

Eau Claire, WI 54703

715-946-3155

What are the delivery/pickup arrangements like your EC source?

I had a hard time reaching him also, he is currently working a timber management project in missori, I hope he deosnt get pissed about me givin out his cell but here ya are 715-495-2988 his name is Ted, arrival date to him in EC are mid april, I hope to combine my pic up with a pool 4 fishin trip, that is if its not closed!!

Thanks for the info…

If it is out of your way (EC is ~ 1.5 hours from Red Wing… and about ~ 1 hour from Pepin), you could instead order the seed directly from Eagle for ~$105 per bag, shipping included, delivered right to your door…($70/bag, plus ~ $33 shipping I was told)… With gas costing $4-5/gallon potentially, you might save money just by ordering it that way if you don’t otherwise have business in the area…

Eagle seed also said that it shipping would get slightly less per bag possibly if you ordered multiple bags — Once you hit 8+ bags (if you get a group together), you could order a pallete (sp?) which should drop shipping cost, again, depending on the size of the order… But minimum pallete is 8 bags… I’d consider doing this if I knew enough guys that wanted to order in the EC area…

Whittsend