Rescuing a Soybean Plot

My brother bought a new house and land this spring in Wisconsin. I helped him clear out some areas and prep them for Soybeans. After they got planted they just didn’t do very well. I think they got over-browsed from the get go. I wish I had a lot more pictures to share the whole process of everything but I didn’t take the time to take pictures. The beginning of August came around and we decided to broadcast Frigid Forage Big n Beasty over top of the beans in hope that we could salvage the food plot for the fall. We decided to just broadcast over them because although the beans didn’t do as well as we hoped, they still did well enough to supply some forage for the deer and I don’t think there is a better crop to plant for their attraction.

Long story short, the BnB grew like a weed. I’m actually astonished at how well it grew for just being broadcasted. No fertilizer either, as the soil samples showed it being too high in nitrogen. Here are a few pictures! Now hopefully some big guys start showing up this fall!

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That’s excellent for just broadcasting them right in the beans with zero fertilizer. Your soil test was apparently right one with the high N, because brassica like corn loves N. Nice size bulbs too. Going to be a real hot spot come the cold weather!!

BnB is the best mix Ive ever used. Crazy how fast it grows in the fall. I bet you guys will have some good hunting this year.

Another Frigid Forage products that I used this year was THE PLOT SCREEN. Man is that some cool stuff. I blocked the view that folks have from the road to my plot and I can now walk in and out on the backside of it undetected. Some of the heads of the stuff is over 12 ft tall. Could be hidden with a truck behind that stuff. The deer really feel more secure entering the field earlier behind that big wall of cover.

sktrwx2200 wrote:

BnB is the best mix Ive ever used. Crazy how fast it grows in the fall. I bet you guys will have some good hunting this year.

I’ve planted BnB quite a bit. I’ve always been really happy with it. It really seems like deer in certain areas are attracted to it a lot more than in other areas. Hopefully they hammer it!

Nice looking plot.

Your experience with soybeans is tough luck and it happens sometimes. Growing ANY single annual crop in a plot is always a risk, so it pays to diversify AND to have a Plan B where if your plot isn’t doing by mid summer, you can change to a fall plot option and still salvage things.

It’s been an excellent year for brassicas. I’ve had terrific luck with my main brassicas plot, the turnips are now like baseballs and the radish are really coming along.

I hope there’s something left of it come the hunting season.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Your experience with soybeans is tough luck and it happens sometimes. Growing ANY single annual crop in a plot is always a risk, so it pays to diversify AND to have a Plan B where if your plot isn’t doing by mid summer, you can change to a fall plot option and still salvage things.

Yeah, I took that one picture where the brassicas weren’t very thick right near the edge of the plot so you could see the beans that are mixed in through out the plot. They are all nipped off, every one of them and they have been getting nipped all summer. Maybe next year we will try one of those solar powered electric fences. Anyone tried one? I’ve heard good things about the Hot Zone fences.

Either way, we’re happy with how things turned out with the BnB. Should be a great late season draw if nothing else.

I haven’t tried the hot zone, but I have wanted to. At $400 plus it’s just a little too rich for me.

I may try the plot saver fence though. I think it’s $50 at Cabelas. I have a spot that is just under an acre that I would love to have beans in for archery opener, but the one time I tried a plot that small with beans they got hammered constantly and never amounted to anything.

Quick question for you all. Is it to late to plant brassica mixture in SE mn? Have clover plot that got overgrown with weeds. Been sprayed and not all is dead. Any hope for 1/2 acre area?

Agricultural beans stop growing once they are chewed off. Forage beans however, will continue to grow once the top is consumed. We have had far more luck with the quantity of forage (5+ feet tall) using forage beans instead. The probability of having (forage) beans is very low as the growing season in the twin cities area is too short. Brassicas have been a very good addition, but 10+ years of it shows that it does not get used as a primary source until well after the firearms deer season. Sugar beets have also been a very good food source both during the summer, fall, and early winter.

pass0047 wrote:

Quick question for you all. Is it to late to plant brassica mixture in SE mn? Have clover plot that got overgrown with weeds. Been sprayed and not all is dead. Any hope for 1/2 acre area?

Yes, it is probably to late. You for sure won’t get any bulb growth, but you might get a little greens to come up. I would go with a grain like winter rye, winter wheat or oats and it’s almost too late to plant oats. I am putting in winter rye this weekend in west central MN.

If you go rye make SURE it’s winter rye not rye grass

Pat McSharry wrote:

Maybe next year we will try one of those solar powered electric fences. Anyone tried one? I’ve heard good things about the Hot Zone fences.

Here’s the thing that I’ve consistently heard about fencing off food plots. This aligns perfectly with my dad’s experience fencing off his orchard (3 acres) and garden, so I really think that this is the main fall-down point.

The problem is that with an electric fence, when a deer bumps the fence, the instantly panic and run FORWARD. So the deer tears down the fence and leaves everything in a giant sh!theap. The fence is now grounded so it’s not working anywhere along the fence. From now on, every deer that walks into the fence keeps tearing it down.

Now if you’re a farmer or rancher, you’re checking fences every day, so you find the issue and you fix it quickly. For the food plot guy running a property that he’s not living on, the fence is now useless until you discover the issue days, a week, or several weeks later. In the meantime, the deer have been eating the crop.

My dad has had exactly the same experience with his orchard. He’s had a e-fence around it for years and the deer still tear it down at least once a month. They hit the fence, get zapped, panic and run forward into the fence.

So the bottom line is the fences work in the sense that they zap deer. The problem guys consistently report is how LONG they work is dependent on how often you can check them. Weeds growing up and touching the wires are also an issue, some solar controllers don’t have the power to “burn” weeds so they ground out.

Grouse

That’s a good point grouse. I also looked at the price of hot zone fences. Ouch.

Jim Stoeckel wrote:

Agricultural beans stop growing once they are chewed off. Forage beans however, will continue to grow once the top is consumed. We have had far more luck with the quantity of forage (5+ feet tall) using forage beans instead.

Jim I didn’t know the agriculture beans stopped growing like that. I did know that hunters are starting to grow a lot more forage style beans like the eagle seed company. Which brand of forage beans do you plant?

This is why we plant forage beans instead of ag beans.

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We have used Eagle beans with good success.

Eagle beans have been good for us.

Wow. We may have to try them nest season. Is that a Drahthaar in your pic? Nice looking dog!

Yes, that is a Drahthaar. Couldn’t be happier with her. Definitely worth the homework to find her.

If you can get your hands on some sugar beets, I think you’ll be amazed with the results. It does require some timing with fertilizer (nitrogen) but the results can be pretty amazing. Deer trails look more like freeways in and out of those plots.

I guess it depends on why you are planting SOYBEANS in the first place. Forage soybeans put alot of it’s growing power into the leaves and steams, whereas AG beans are bred to put out the most beans possible. Pretty easy to see which one puts out the higher yield.

So for me.. I plant for for the beans and pods, that is what Im after. I want it to be a great food source when everything is gone, and it gets cold. Beans when its cold has been proven almost everywhere. Also it is untrue that AG beans stop growing once they are browsed.

The forage beans may be able to put out more tonnage during summer and early season… but if I wanted summer and early season drawing power I would choose something like a CLOVER because it is cheaper and you dont have to plant it with equipment and rotate crops. Also deer turn off beans once they start to yellow. So the window of which to hunt GREEN soybeans is very short, if at all depending on the year and planting date. A clover will stay green well into bow/gun season.

I guess some clarification is in order. Ag beans will NOT regrow if they are browsed below the cotyledons. If your soybean plot is heavily browsed by deer, you will likely never see much for a bean crop, much less stems and leaves. I’ve not had much luck with ag beans and what they produce because of browsing. This is why I use the forage beans.

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Sktrwx2100 makes some good points. He is spot on about the clover being cheaper and easier to grow, as well as your purpose for the soybean plot. It appears that he hunts his food plots. To each, his own…
I have food plots to maximize the potential in deer growth. I can’t control the genetics, but I can control what they have available to eat. I’m not making the mistake of putting in an acre of ag beans to have the deer browse them so end up with 3 inch tall bean less soybeans again. I’m fortunate to have between 4-5 acres in food plots. Do I put all my eggs in one basket??? Multiple plots with different offerings to the deer. The plots get utilized at different times of the year. Sometimes the natural forage is what they will feed on, and not in the plots. Sometimes not.

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Jim Stoeckel wrote:

It appears that he hunts his food plots. To each, his own…

Not sure what this means, but I hunt my food plots. I also hunt the edges of ag fields and heck I even hunt in the oaks where acorns fall and get eaten by deer.

I have never tried forage beans, I don’t think the growing season in central MN is long enough to get the full potential out of them, but I am not sure. What I do know is there is no better draw than dried down beans late October into December. I have a ton of clover for early spring and all summer long in my plots, we have 55 acres of alfalfa so there is plenty of summer forage for the deer. Ag beans and corn are what get the deer in our woods thru the late fall and winter… that and natural browse. With the way I have things set up I am not sure forage beans would be a benefit to me.

I agree. Ag beans are preferred by deer. Great food source. I can’t compete with thousands of acres of corn/soybeans in the immediate area. As far as hunting over food plots, I choose not to hunt the plots as my setup does not require me to do so. No judgement on those who do. It depends on your particular setup and preferences.

As with all crops and varieties, there are pros and cons.

Soybean varieties that are bred as “forage” varieties are, as others have pointed out, bred for leaf and stem mass and height. Again, as has been pointed out, this comes with reduced pod pod production in general.

Two things to add that have not been pointed out yet about forage soybean varieties.

1. They are also bred for higher protein content in the stems and leaves. In some varieties, I recall seeing studies where forage varieties have reached over 40% protein which rivals corn silage.

However… And there’s always a however.

2. This added protein comes with a longer time to maturity. In many cases, to achieve near the maximum protein requires a growing season length and profile that we don’t have in the northern tier states. So you have to take “maximum” claims with a grain of salt.

Only when you get into the southern fringes of the midwest and midsouth do you get in the zone where the growing season will make the top end of the protein range potential.

To be honest, I think wildlife property managers do tend to overthink things a little. Beyond seed varieties and the pros/cons of each variety, we are all ruled by the growing season. Because we are growing plants for wildlife, the wildlife is going to benefit from the food source when so many other food sources have dried up. Weather determines the rest.

Grouse