Eagle bean update

[JFK52]

This is my first year with RR Eagle soy beans in Central Wisconsin. I planted one 140K seed bag on four smaller food plots. The largest plot is an underground natural gas pipeline easement. It runs 200 yards by 60 feet wide for a total of .8 of an acre. All plots are near decent cover.
The Eagle beans got hit by the below freezing cold a few night ago. All the green leaves are now drooping to the ground. The extent of the deer browsing is now evident with nearly every stem on every plant chewed off at the leaf. About 20% of the Eagle beans that have produced pods, so there is still something in the plots to keep the deer visiting for now. I top seeded winter rye and that came in well. The Eagle beans did their job. They helped keep the deer off my ag beans and gave them a preferred browse for months. They lasted until the end of October with green leaves. It will be interesting to see how much longer the deer take to clean up the beans that produced pods.

I consider the Eagle bean planting a HUGE SUCCESS! I plan on planting more Eagles next season. One thing I have learned is to plant them a lot earlier, as in June. I will also be planting them a lot heavier on a few of the smaller plots and bring a few other small plots into production next season. These plots have been sprayed with gly earlier this season and will be disked starting in the spring.
Not a cheap bean to plant, but well worth it in my book.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm surprised you find them a bit success that far north. But you are using them for a special purpose, to keep deer off ag beans. which I presume you are using for pod production. Deer tend to browse plots from the outside (near cover) in. One strategy that folks use if you have the time, is to plant the perimeter rows of a field with Eagle beans and then plant the middle of the field with ag beans. The Eagle beans produce more forage faster and the put less pressure on the ag beans in the middle of the field.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Peplin Creek]

Sounds like It worked out great. When did you top seed your rye and at what rate. I am seriously considering doing something like this for most of my plots.

 

[JFK52]

I top seeded the winter rye in mid August. I forget the rate, but it was the more than if the rye was going to be rolled or cultipacked into prepped soil. It had to be done before the Eagles canopied. I did it on a day that rain was forecast but never developed. It rained about 5-7 days later to help germinate the rye. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the top seeding of the winter rye worked out. It should give the deer an additional food source in an established use area now that the frost has pretty well taken the Eagles out of the deer's food choices.

I was fortunate with my Eagle bean plantings as I got about an inch of rain within an hour of when the plots were finished. It was a very warm fall so that contributed to the Eagle success also. The Eagle beans had almost ideal growing conditions, especially for Central Wisconsin.

I am considering having the Eagle beans no till planted in the pipeline plot like my ag beans next season. That will be a more expensive way of planting them. The no till planter is not able to make it to the smaller plots, so that will be throw and roll.

 

[Nova]

I also had very good success with Eagle beans this year in central MN. The plot at home got nearly 4' tall with some pretty serious browsing according to the trail cam. That plot was about 1/8 acre. I planted in early June(I think) and I got quite a few pods on them also. I do think the ag beans about 75 yards away got more attention, but the Eagles may have save them from being wiped out.

The plot at the farm 200 miles NW got planted a week or so earlier and also did well despite a slow start in cooler weather. The deer density is a bit higher at the farm, but there is also a bunch of ag around and 55 acres of alfalfa right next to it. The deer hit it hard and it did not get as many pods, but held up well to the browse pressure.