Iron&clay cow peas

[S.T.Fanatic]

I am planning on adding cow peas to my summer annual plot next spring. I am wondering what you guys have experienced with them. I am wanting them to take some pressure off of my soy beans but also make pods. I am in mixed ag area and my summer plots don't get eaten down like some of yours. My question is, Have any of you planted cow peas and had them produce pods? I love soybean pods for late muzzleloader season and was hoping to also get pods out of the cow peas. The pods on my winter peas get wiped out as soon as the fill mid summer so I'm considering switching to cow peas. Thoughts?

 

[jsasker007]

You need enough acres planted that they won't eat them ALL---just like sunflowers or soy beans(deer candy).

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I assure you that won't be a problem. I can get a 1/2 acre plot of soys to put on pods so....

 

[Baker]

I plant cow peas every year. It is a top summer crop here in the south every bit as good as soy beans. Candidly I like them much more than soybeans. I get pods if I let them go long enough. I cant plant them in a field less than 5 acres or no chance of success.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Yep on the pod production (see picture) and what cowpeas the critters don't get, we pick a good many for the dinner table. Agree w/Baker, I like them more than soybeans but we have to plant a bunch. If you plant enough the pod production is so prolific, the deer don't come anywhere near to keeping up with them.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Anyone from a more northern location planting them?

I think this picture has me sold!!

 

[DIY]

Our deer ignore cowpeas for most of the summer if there are soybeans near by. Then in late Aug / early Sep they hammer the cowpeas when the beans are wiped out. The attraction between the two isn’t even close in my experience.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Something that isn't attractive until hunting season that produces grain would be ideal. I haven't inspected my summer annual plots in quite a while. I'm hoping they havent got onto the milo quite yet. Beans, peas and/or cow peas, milo, radish, and turnips I would think would be the ideal plot for hunting season attraction. For others with higher deer density maybe not so much. Crazy how plots differ for people from one location to the next.

DIY what is your location?

 

[Baker]

Its along way from Mn. to La so observations here may be much different from what you see. Of all the things I have planted in the fall or let carry over from the summer, radishes have received the most grazing pressure in the fall ! The deer jumped on them the first year I planted them which is a little unusual. Back then they only ate the tops but grazed them vigorously. Now I see them grazing the tops and pulling up the tubers as well . The radishes are planted with small grains, and turnips but by far get the most attention.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I absolutely love radishes!!!