Beans and rebounding from EHD

[Mattyq2402]

I’m in SE Ohio, got pummeled by EHd. Moving forward I do have a couple survivor bucks that are really solid, one could be real special if he gets thru the gun. There’s a couple good 2.5 and 3.5 as well. I have one or two mature doe and 5-7 fawns based on my pics covering the 130 acres. I’d estimate in the 75% being killed off. Good news is the bucks mentioned above made it.

With the deer density being grim, I was thinking about running beans in the 3-4 acre range accompanied by sorghum/milo in my main destination food. I’ve never run beans before. I’ll have clover chic to accompany.

With a low density do you think a bean planting would invite these bucks to summer and take advantage of my new tsi I’m providing? With 3-4 acres would it be a wash without fencing?

Is anyone seeing good results with sorghum and Milo? Corn is just out of budget.

 

[Catscratch]

Milo/sorghum is good for me but for only a short time. Maybe a couple of weeks from the time they decide to eat it to the time it's either gone or they're done with it.

From a food standpoint I'd go very heavy with beans and maybe mix some milo in with it. Either in 4ft rows or just a light broadcasting.

 

[Mattyq2402]

Milo/sorghum is good for me but for only a short time. Maybe a couple of weeks from the time they decide to eat it to the time it's either gone or they're done with it.

From a food standpoint I'd go very heavy with beans and maybe mix some milo in with it. Either in 4ft rows or just a light broadcasting.

That’s kind of what I was thinking. The large field has a county road in view, I’ll have it screened but would also like to have the structure within to block road view.

 

[swat1018]

If your deer numbers are low enough beans may survive. The good thing about summer annuals is that if they fail, you can always do brassicas, rye, etc later.

I have a 4 acre plot surrounded by deep timber, I've never got beans to survive in there.

 

[Telemark]

Sounds like a good idea. Just plan to have the beans as a summer plot, and any pods that form are a bonus. Plan to broadcast a fall plot into the beans after summer. This gives you the best of both worlds.

Road screen is a good idea. Then add a bunch of Milo to provide late season food as well as additional screening.

 

[Catscratch]

The deer did not like going into my milo plot this year. It was full of pumpkins and sunflowers. They ate the edges but stayed out. First time in a loooong time that I had sunflowers make it to bloom. I never thought milo could be used to protect other plants but it did. I think it's because it was thick and tall. Might be info you can use.

 

[marlin]

I did a side-by-side comparison of beans a couple years ago. Enlist AG and a couple different Eagle mixes. There was a clear winner by far. Eagle Managers mix mid-west. Good pod production and stayed green 6 weeks longer than Enlist AG beans. I was amazed how green this field was in Oct and what a draw it was. Here's a picture taken 9-15-24 with 5 ft exclusion cage.

 

[Mattyq2402]

Sounds like a good idea. Just plan to have the beans as a summer plot, and any pods that form are a bonus. Plan to broadcast a fall plot into the beans after summer. This gives you the best of both worlds.

Road screen is a good idea. Then add a bunch of Milo to provide late season food as well as additional screening.

Any go to bean type? I was thinking real world but would be open to suggestions having never planted them.

 

[Mattyq2402]

The deer did not like going into my milo plot this year. It was full of pumpkins and sunflowers. They ate the edges but stayed out. First time in a loooong time that I had sunflowers make it to bloom. I never thought milo could be used to protect other plants but it did. I think it's because it was thick and tall. Might be info you can use.
View attachment 86023View attachment 86024View attachment 86025View attachment 86026View attachment 86027View attachment 86028

What company did u order the Milo from? I like the idea of a less dense Milo planting with the beans, maybe they can vine up the Milo….

 

[Mattyq2402]

I did a side-by-side comparison of beans a couple years ago. Enlist AG and a couple different Eagle mixes. There was a clear winner by far. Eagle Managers mix mid-west. Good pod production and stayed green 6 weeks longer than Enlist AG beans. I was amazed how green this field was in Oct and what a draw it was. Here's a picture taken 9-15-24 with 5 ft exclusion cage.

View attachment 86031

I’d be at the farm in early June for a couple weeks, when planting do you see any benefit to a late start date versus a may planting? That’s crazy height!!! Do they retain the pods well or is everything browsed off. I was asking in a previous convo what brand to run as I assumed real world would be the go to, I’m interested in this now

 

[Mattyq2402]

I did a side-by-side comparison of beans a couple years ago. Enlist AG and a couple different Eagle mixes. There was a clear winner by far. Eagle Managers mix mid-west. Good pod production and stayed green 6 weeks longer than Enlist AG beans. I was amazed how green this field was in Oct and what a draw it was. Here's a picture taken 9-15-24 with 5 ft exclusion cage.

View attachment 86031

Did you drill?

 

[Telemark]

Any go to bean type? I was thinking real world but would be open to suggestions having never planted them.

No, I don't have enough experience to have a favorite. I do think a blend is better than a single type. Someone above mentioned Managers Mix. It's probably what I would try next if I can get ahold of it. I just buy from Merit because I can go there to pick it up.

 

[Catscratch]

What company did u order the Milo from? I like the idea of a less dense Milo planting with the beans, maybe they can vine up the Milo….

Any Ag seed should work. But there are lots of different varieties. Talk with a CO-OP or a dealer and should be able to come up something that fits your needs perfectly.

 

[marlin]

All varieties were planted on 5-24-24. Broadcasted at 1.5 bags per acre. Managers mix and enlist ag produced good pods. Here’s the pictures of all the fields.

Picture from 9-15-24. Enlist Ag yellow but the deer did come back in early December to eat the pods.

Eagle Manager’s Mix Midwest 9-15-24

Pods on Manager’s Mix 9-15-24.
I didn’t post a picture of the other variety tested because it didn’t produce pods.

 

[bigboreblr]

You get a soil test yet? What was on this field the past few years? What is your property competing with locally food wise? What equipment do you have to work with? How is your weed control?

cowpeas, austrian peas, even some vetch varieties are good options other than soybeans. I hunt on AG alot, my brother in law had some pretty high end technology for his farm operation. MEasuring crop density during harvest, drone mapping, nutirent maps, etc... The real crop damage is done early in the year on beans. 3-4 acres is a very nice plot. Grow something like clover along the sides. The corners really get hammered. You can also seed in some medium red clover around labor day in poorly performing spots, or the whole thing. MY borther in law hires aircraft to seed rye into soybeans.

Too many bad experiences from other hunters for me to play with them at all.

 

[Mattyq2402]

You get a soil test yet? What was on this field the past few years? What is your property competing with locally food wise? What equipment do you have to work with? How is your weed control?

cowpeas, austrian peas, even some vetch varieties are good options other than soybeans. I hunt on AG alot, my brother in law had some pretty high end technology for his farm operation. MEasuring crop density during harvest, drone mapping, nutirent maps, etc... The real crop damage is done early in the year on beans. 3-4 acres is a very nice plot. Grow something like clover along the sides. The corners really get hammered. You can also seed in some medium red clover around labor day in poorly performing spots, or the whole thing. MY borther in law hires aircraft to seed rye into soybeans.

Too many bad experiences from other hunters for me to play with them at all.

It’s hill country se Ohio. Currently it’s used for hay, it was sprayed in September for fall plots but didn’t seed due to no rain. No competition with in a mile or two as far as plotters. Property across road it nasty thicket and houses a couple studs. Trying to tsi this winter spring to bed them on me is idea and give them a highly desired forage to land them on me rather than across road(no hunting allowed) Have 25 pear and crab that are going on 3 and 4 yrs so getting close to have that angle covered.

Soil test was low 6

 

[bigboreblr]

the neighbors pay land tax on your bedding is good. You can be less quiet on your land. I would focus on a good seclusion route from those thickets to your property. Like a maze of spruces that you can run a mower though the maze once a year. Could mix in some dogwood in thee too. Little blobs or 4 or 5 white pines are great buck beds Keeps them dry overhead and below them too.

Little neighborhood maps are ery useful for guys to see on here.

I have a few foodplots near the road at camp. I cut the tops of trees off to make them more bushy. Black spruce, maple, whte pine. and birch. I make those plots more of a basic rye n clover plot to keep roadside interest down. Could even hinge cut a travel lane from the neighbors.

Folks hunt that thicket area? Even more important to make escape routes to your property. IF you park by the road, make a little nook for the vehicles / camper.

What kind of lad do you have tillable for plots? You need to be pushing towards 2 acres for soybeans in my opinion. Although if you got hit with EHD pretty good, your population is low. 1/2 to 1 acre plots just get destroyed by deer before they can make any beans. Those plot sizes are better for corn if you want a top tier food in there. No nearby AG or plots, you can plant just about anything and be a good draw.

I like a mix of summer plots replanted for fall and a one plot for the year. I've done spring oats with turnips and clovers and still make a good fall draw. But, you can make that spring oat field a different plto for the fall too. No disc or plows, tillage raidhs work real good. Deer seem to like it more in thelate season though. Brassicas are easy to make deer happy and not put alot of time or money into the land.

 

[Mattyq2402]

the neighbors pay land tax on your bedding is good. You can be less quiet on your land. I would focus on a good seclusion route from those thickets to your property. Like a maze of spruces that you can run a mower though the maze once a year. Could mix in some dogwood in thee too. Little blobs or 4 or 5 white pines are great buck beds Keeps them dry overhead and below them too.

Little neighborhood maps are ery useful for guys to see on here.

I have a few foodplots near the road at camp. I cut the tops of trees off to make them more bushy. Black spruce, maple, whte pine. and birch. I make those plots more of a basic rye n clover plot to keep roadside interest down. Could even hinge cut a travel lane from the neighbors.

Folks hunt that thicket area? Even more important to make escape routes to your property. IF you park by the road, make a little nook for the vehicles / camper.

What kind of lad do you have tillable for plots? You need to be pushing towards 2 acres for soybeans in my opinion. Although if you got hit with EHD pretty good, your population is low. 1/2 to 1 acre plots just get destroyed by deer before they can make any beans. Those plot sizes are better for corn if you want a top tier food in there. No nearby AG or plots, you can plant just about anything and be a good draw.

I like a mix of summer plots replanted for fall and a one plot for the year. I've done spring oats with turnips and clovers and still make a good fall draw. But, you can make that spring oat field a different plto for the fall too. No disc or plows, tillage raidhs work real good. Deer seem to like it more in thelate season though. Brassicas are easy to make deer happy and not put alot of time or money into the land.

See attached pics,

inside blue is proposed bean/milo mix and approximately 3 acres with rye oat wheat broadcast in fall. I’ll likely run thick strips of sorghum to block sight lines in the beans.

Green would be small less than quarter acre kill plot with blind setup for north base winds.

Purple would be straight Milo sorghum, don’t want road people to be able to see what’s going on.

Red is clover chic mix. U can’t see in the pic but there’s 25 apple and pear running on the north side so of the field and in the NW corner a line runs from north to south for 100 yards.

The yellow dots are blind sites…

The red over the thicket area is the neighbors ultra nasty bedding that he def doesn’t dive in to.

The yellow circles on me are 1/4 acre bedding cuts/ with girdle and hinges.

Also white border on field and strips with in are switch and Egyptian wheat

 

[Mattyq2402]

I can get away with dropping handful of trees but no large scale tsi. The section where I have the yellow tsi circles is already moderately thick and dropping a few trees in strategic spots should encourage bedding close to the large food.

The neighbor has ladder stands all over his place and to access them is suicide, but he doesn’t get it. Idea is to encourage bedding on me, bed deer in his thicket next to my food, and set up some single bed sites for potential bucks on me.

My biggest hurdle is no locations for west winds which are the common wind. I’m working with family to make a two acre plot on the far/east side of the property to accommodate and hopefully pull from different herd.

I’ve posted this piece on here before. I have a few survivors bucks from ehd that are really good quality and historically there’s been some top tier bucks moving on me for the area.