Eagle Beans, Corn, lots of Deer - Transferred from QDMA forum

[yoderjac]

I never got to check mine last weekend, trying again today, has been 4 weeks since the fence came down.
I do think there is some left over fear of the fence, but I also think two other things come into play.
1. The field probably has 20+ times more forage than young unprotected beans do, so they eat more up up and down the plants in a smaller area, where the same browsing would wipe out much a larger surface area if just young young beans. i.e. the field can withstand 20+ times more browsing now than if left unprotected.
2. Young tender beans are preferred over more mature larger leaf beans.
My plot would be wiped out in 2-3 weeks without protection, last year after I took the fence down, 30% was never used. So I planted 6 weeks earlier and took the fence down 2-3 weeks earlier.

Curious and update on browse pressure with the fence down for a while now ? Mind are 50% gone and starting a very very slight wilt as if they've run their course after 21 weeks.

 

[yoderjac]

Mine are getting a lot of pressure but holding up well. The lions share of the pressure is on the outside working inward. Here are a couple pics taken 9/9/2011

This picture (below) was taken on 9/18/2011. It is of a tower I've been working on for the kids, but the picture is taken across the bean field so you can get a good idea that the field as a whole is holding up.

By the way, I already have lots of small beans on the plants!

 

[yoderjac]

Looks pretty good, fence really worked.

 

[yoderjac]

It is now Mid-October. Last weekend I noticed my Eagle beans were finally turning yellow. I was worried that if I waited any longer, it would be too late. So, this weekend, I overseeded the plot with winter rye. We will see what happens. I had a very hard time walking through it especially in pockets where the beans were still green.

 

[yoderjac]

Mine are 90% gone, whats lift is yellowing. I broadcasted rye, oats, wheat and brassica into it a month a go. The brassica is being mowed down before its a month old.
Once you took your fence down, did you expect it to get wiped out ? I did with mine, but it held up. I did learn that once the plan matures, it doesn't seem to produce much new growth after browsed. But its not like it needed it being 7ft tall.

 

[yoderjac]

Banc,
Mine got about chest high. I expected them to get wiped out, but they were not. The did get heavy use. We had unusually timely rain this year. I think the early bounce back of native foods took some pressure off them. I was also working on that tower every weekend and I think all that activity had some protective effect.
I broadcast turnips and crimson into my non-protected beans and drilled radish into my clover in August. I then went back and broadcast winter rye into the non-protected beans fields in Sept. Perhaps this all helped keep the beans from being wiped out.
I am amazed at how many beans are on these plants.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Just a quick picture to show what the protected beans looked like as of mid November:

 

[yoderjac]

Still a lot of pods left for good forage. They already wiped our pods out, just sticks left.

Great looking beans, Yoder. I'm going to try the beans once i get my soil where i want it.

Banc (how much acreage did you have planted again?) and how long did the beans last you, once they got on them?
Also, We've heard how the deer won't touch the pods until the yellowing leaves are all done and gone, was this the case for you?

Did/will you overseed a cover crop? Still time in your area...IMO.
Looks good Jack and you deserved it! :)

 

[yoderjac]

Yes, I've got thousands of pods on the beans! I had a young lady harvest her first muzzleloader deer in those beans on Saturday evening: http://www.qrgc-forums.org/QRGC_Forums/yaf_postst307_The-one-that-got-awayAlmost.aspx
Events like this make all the hard work of QDM well worth it in my book!
Banc may still have time to seed a cover crop, but the late maturity of the eagle beans was a mixed blessing in my area in central VA. They stayed green through mid-oct which was good for early archery season but problematic for planting a cover crop. If I protect beans with a fence in the future I will consider an earlier maturing ag bean so I can get a better cover crop started. I did broadcast winter rye but I'm not sure how it will do since it was late and the beans were just starting to turn. Time will tell...

 

[yoderjac]

Banc,
Never mind the earlier question I now see what you did.
One thing I would like to comment on is this:
This is common for soy under average production and average fertility in dry land production. From what I understand the plant root ceases N-fixation at the early stages of pod fill when leaf nutrients are then translocated to pod. Near pod maturity the leaves senesce and are cast.
In the high yield programs under unlimited fertility, irrigation and sometimes fertigation, the leaves remain green and on the plant even after pods fully mature. Farmers use a dessicating herbicide (like grammoxone) to dry down the plant for harvest. With this program, fixation and root nutrient uptake don't shut down. Keep in mind these are ag type beans and not forage beans....indeterminate growth (terminal growing poiint ending in a flower) is most common in ag beans!
The forage beans you planted are semi-determinant meaning that terminal growth does not end in a flower and new leaves can emerge....obviously a factor you are aware.
Would added fertility at pod set enhance late vegetative growth? Perhaps if rain is timely. Most folks add fall fert with a cover crop anyway, so it would be a matter of backing the app up to the optimum soy stage. Then let broadcast clover crops mop up any residuals. 21-42 lbs of N from AMS and 30-60 lbs of K20 would seem reasonable as a start....or maybe 60 and 60.
Just some rambling thougts! :)

 

[yoderjac]

I never got to check mine last weekend, trying again today, has been 4 weeks since the fence came down.
I do think there is some left over fear of the fence, but I also think two other things come into play.
1. The field probably has 20+ times more forage than young unprotected beans do, so they eat more up up and down the plants in a smaller area, where the same browsing would wipe out much a larger surface area if just young young beans. i.e. the field can withstand 20+ times more browsing now than if left unprotected.
2. Young tender beans are preferred over more mature larger leaf beans.
My plot would be wiped out in 2-3 weeks without protection, last year after I took the fence down, 30% was never used. So I planted 6 weeks earlier and took the fence down 2-3 weeks earlier.

A little under 1.5 acres, but it was at MAX production so it acted like a 5 acre plot :D
They started eating the pods way before the leaves turned, in fact they ate pods as they ate the leaves. Pods were still soft and green.

Did/will you overseed a cover crop? Still time in your area...IMO.

A while back, late sept , 1/2 in brassica rest in oats, wheat, rye and annual cover. They are already hitting the brassica before the first frost.

Awesome, thats what its all about right there.

 

[yoderjac]

END OF QDMA THREAD TRANSFER

 

[kabic]

Over 700 post in a couple of days....you are like a medieval scibe.

 

[yoderjac]

No. It is all cut and paste from years of threads on the QDMA forums which are being discontinued. I didn't want to lose the information that I thought may be valuable to folks so I'm trying to move some of the key threads over here to preserve them for others.

 

[kabic]

No. It is all cut and paste from years of threads on the QDMA forums which are being discontinued. I didn't want to lose the information that I thought may be valuable to folks so I'm trying to move some of the key threads over here to preserve them for others.

I know but cutting and pasting that many posts in the time you did is still quite the effort.

 

[yoderjac]

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