Link to forage vs ag beans - Food Plots and Wildlife Habitat - Food Plots and Wildlife Habitat

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Thanks for the links… Direct from Eagle it will run Approx $100-105 / bag, shipped to your house.

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Forage Soybeans vs. Shatter Resistant Ag Soybeans

With spring foodplot planting just around the corner, I continually catch myself strategizing on where I should plant more foodplots and what variety of seed to plant in each that will hopefully draw in a mature buck. I have already experimented with almost every clover/chicory blend on the market and while I’m sure they perform well in most parts of the country, my lighter soils and hot summer days tend to take the fizzle out of the clover plants in a hurry. Soybeans have proven their worth time and time again and are without a doubt my most planted foodplot crop for myself as well as for my custom foodplot work. I currently utilize two different varieties of roundup ready soybeans in my foodplot seed arsenal. One variety is an ag type soybean made for top pod production that carries a special shatter resistant trait and the second variety is a forage type soybean made for producing huge amounts of high protein leaf matter. Each soybean variety, rather shatter resistant ag bean or forage bean have their advantages and disadvantages over one another and it is up to each individual land manager to figure out which type would work best for their situation. With several years of research and performance here in the midwest, I have compiled a list of pros and cons on each variety that I think will greatly help differentiate between the two soybean types and possibly help in choosing which variety is suited best for ones own application. Roundup ready forage soybeans are a hot new item that hit the market just a few years ago and have grown in huge popularity throughout the country. Forage soybeans are unique in their own way by growing to remarkable heights that dwarf regular ag planted soybeans and also more than triple the amount of forage biomass produced as well. All that available forage during the summer is nice but it can come with a heavy price to pay and one that is especially true living in the upper midwest. Since we tend to undergo shorter growing seasons, and since the roundup ready forage soybean is considered an indeterminate plant which means it will keep growing until frost kills it, alot of times very poor, underdeveloped pod production is the end result which has flustered more than a few growers who rely heavily on good pod production for a late season whitetail food source. Forage soybeans are also praised by growers for their ability to withstand heavy browsing pressure as well. Unlike common ag beans that can be easily stunted and even killed off by hungry deer, forage soybeans have a very distinct advantage by becoming very aggressive in their growth while continuing to grow new leaves. Another clear advantage that forage soybeans have over ag soybeans is that growers can plant fewer acres of soybeans using the forage variety and still feed twice as many deer as they normally would have if they planted regular ag beans. This is especially convenient on smaller properties where landowners have limited acres to work with and are looking for a high quality forage that will feed lots of mouths during the antler growing months. On the flip side, the shatter resistant ag beans that have been developed in the last couple of years are also a popular choice for foodplotters and made especially for those living in the midwest and northern parts of the U.S. This soybean blend also produces high protein leaves that deer crave much like the forage type soybeans do but are 1/3 of the size. The main priority that was bred into these shatter resistant soybeans as their name implies, is to produce a plant loaded with fully mature pods that will hold the bean pods until late into the year without shattering the pods on the ground. The shatter resistant trait in soybeans is a very important feature to have living in regions with brutally cold winters and especially those that are subject to deep snow. In my opinion, there is no better available food source during the wintertime for deer than a field of standing soybeans that are still carrying pods sticking up above the snow. The past couple of seasons, I have even went as far as to fence off my special shatter resistant ag soybeans from the deer using electric fencing to guarantee that overbrowsing wouldn’t affect having a good crop of soybeans that were loaded with pods going into winter. I do this because I know that once weather conditions start getting tough, not only will I pull in every deer that calls my property home but the soybeans will also pull in and hold every deer from the neighboring properties as well. Late winter is one of my favorite times to be out in the deerstand because mature bucks sightings are higher and alot of times bucks that you’ve never seen before will show up on your property to gorge themselves in your soybean fields. Another reason why I like to plant shatter resistant ag soybeans in my foodplot plantings is because of the ease that cereal grains can be overseeded into the soybeans. Overseeding cereal grains such as winter rye, winter wheat, or even oats into the soybeans can be easily done and provides a simple way to provide a variety of food while still using the same amount of acreage. Since ag type soybeans generally start drying down and loosing their leaves in late summer towards the end of August or early September, this gives a person plenty of time to broadcast cereal grains into the plots right before the soybeans plants start dropping leaves. The fallen soybean leaves act much the same as mulch does, providing the perfect environment for the cereal grains to thrive and grow in. Overseeding into forage type soybeans is not possible because as mentioned above, they are considered an indeterminate plant which will grow and hold their leaves until frost finally kills the plant. This is why broadcasting cereal grains into the forage soybeans would never work very well because the forage soybean plants still form a dense canopy that shades out the much needed sunlight that the cereal grains would need to germinate and grow. Whatever variety of soybeans you plan on planting this spring, be sure to take a minute and think through just what are you wanting to get out of your soybeans? Do you want lots of forage that will provide a quality summer nutrition food source or do you want bean pods that will provide the ultimate late season feeding plot?

By: Brent Jungman

Thanks for the post… Should be pretty cool to have those forage beans right under my stand this fall…

Mike