Designer Bean and Corn Field - Transfered from QDMA forum

[yoderjac]

With my deer densities, growing soybeans has been a challenge. Without the protection of a gallagher style E-fence, deer killed any ag beans I planted and kept Eagle Forage beans naked all summer until I finally got up to 7 acres planted. My beans now mature and form pods. I also found that a very light mix of corn (7:1 by weight) has some protective value on the beans, provides some vertical cover to encourage more shooting hour use, and provides the added attractant of corn.
I'm in central VA, so bean pods are not used much by my deer. The fields stand all winter with few pics of deer but lots of turkey use. Summer is my major stress period, so the primary purpose is summer food. The Eagle beans are late maturity, so they are green and attractive through the first part of our archery season, but after that, they lose their appeal.
Back when deer were keeping my Eagle beans naked all summer, I would simply broadcast a cover crop into the standing beans like you do with Ag beans once they start to turn yellow. Because of the late maturity of the Eagle beans and how tall and thick they grow, broadcasting a cover crop becomes problematic. You can't walk through the beans, because they grow so thick and if I wait until they turn yellow, it is too late for most cover crops in my area. Besides, I don't want to be farming during hunting season. I also noticed that once the beans get ahead of my deer, the interior of the plots get little use. Deer love edges.
So, this year I tried something different. My plots are on a pipeline that is 60-80 yards wide. This year when I drilled my beans, I left 6'-8' lanes every 30 feet that were not planted. These lanes do have some beans and corn in some of them from volunteers of previous years crops, but mostly they are open:

Why 6'-8' lanes every 30' ? It is enough room for my ATV with a boomless sprayer and my sprayer with adaptation reaches about 30'.

When I first got the sprayer, I noticed that it did a good job on the sides, but left an unsprayed area directly behind the ATV. So, I added a regular boom sprayer type nozzle directly behind the ATV. I also have valves so I can turn any of the nozzles on or off individually for doing edges. I noticed that once I added the boom type nozzle on the rear, I could then rotate the boomless nozzles on the side a little further and increase my spray distance a couple feet beyond spec as well as get the spray a bit higher to avoid corn stalks knocking it down too quickly.
This is step 1. My next step involves a bushhog. As hard as it is to cut something down you've worked to plant, that is what I plan to do. Once my Eagle beans get ahead of the deer and reach the tipping point, the deer couldn't come close to eating all the forage they provide.
While much of my personal buck hunting time is spent on trails leading to food or small 1/4 - 1/3 acre food plots, we have stands for harvesting does and so I can take kids out on the pipeline. In another week or two, I plan to bushhog flat semi-circles through the beans from these stands. I'll probably do 6'-8' paths again. These will be at roughly 30 and 50 yards from the stand. I will then bushhog radial shooting lanes out from the stand cutting through these semicircles.
The idea is to create more edges for deer, provide shooting lanes, and to open some ground for a cover crop. When the second half of August rolls around, I plan to walk these lanes and paths and surface broadcast tuber type brassica (PTT & Radish). I'll come back in September and broadcast winter rye.
I'll try to take some more pictures as things progress.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Sounds like a solid plan

I'm envious! Sounds great!!

Thinking ahead Jack. I like it.

 

[yoderjac]

Thanks for the encouragement. It might be hard to evaluate this year. The pic of the field is looking North. The pines to the west are being thinned. They started a couple weeks ago, but suspended operations because the mill is full.
In the long run, this will be great, but the deer are really out of sorts right now. My guess is that it will take a year or more to understand new patterns after the logging is done.
Having said that, I'm looking forward to the results of this technique.

 

[yoderjac]

Great plan!
I bet the early season will be fine though even with the thinning activity

Sweet pictures, we do something very similar! In 3 weeks we will drive in the 2 bean rows and spread our Brassica throughout the whole corn and bean food plot. Works great! Good luck with yours!

This is another angle of the same field.

Your corn field, with the bean strips, looks very clean. Congrats. Do you use pre-emerg herbicides, or just burndown with RU at time of planting?

Watch your hunting regulations as far as manipulating crops and hunting deer over them. In IN mowing shooting lanes in standing corn is considered baiting as it is a nontypical agricultural practice. I have to plant my corn with shooting lanes in mind from the very begining or remove stalks before they develop grain. I have also seen more deer usage of soybeans with corn mixed in with it. I now plant the outter edge of my plot in corn and the interior in beans. I once even planted a hopper with corn and the other with beans to make 2 rows of corn and then 2 rows of beans and everything worked fine. Once I get done with my NWSG along the edges of my plots I will move away from the corn due to it's costs. I have low deer numbers so my ag beans do just fine even in small plots. Consider adding soybeans or AWP to your fall plots as these can be candy for deer - deer in my area go nuts over the young soybeans and then attack the AWP later in the season - still won't eat a turnip though!

I'm probably thick....but can't think what is "AWP"???

Austrian winter peas

Australian winter peas

 

[yoderjac]

Watch your hunting regulations as far as manipulating crops and hunting deer over them. In IN mowing shooting lanes in standing corn is considered baiting as it is a nontypical agricultural practice. I have to plant my corn with shooting lanes in mind from the very begining or remove stalks before they develop grain. I have also seen more deer usage of soybeans with corn mixed in with it. I now plant the outter edge of my plot in corn and the interior in beans. I once even planted a hopper with corn and the other with beans to make 2 rows of corn and then 2 rows of beans and everything worked fine. Once I get done with my NWSG along the edges of my plots I will move away from the corn due to it's costs. I have low deer numbers so my ag beans do just fine even in small plots. Consider adding soybeans or AWP to your fall plots as these can be candy for deer - deer in my area go nuts over the young soybeans and then attack the AWP later in the season - still won't eat a turnip though!

I looked at those closely. There are issues hunting migratory birds (even doves) over manipulated crops but no regulations for deer in my state as long as the crops are grown. You can't dump a bait pile or hunt over bait in my state.
So, ethically what is the difference? That was something I struggled with. Here is where I personally came down. I will not go bushhog corn the week before the season to distribute corn all over. Last year, I waited until the season had started before we realized the beans were too thick for the guys to shoot into. I physically walked the field making sure the corn cobs were already stripped from the stalks before mowing strips.
This year, I'm planning ahead. I will have the strips mowed well before the season so that there is no question that I'm simply using a bushhog to distribute bait.
However, your point is well taken. Anyone trying anything new should check their state regulations first and also work through any potential ethical issues in your mind before proceeding.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I did my first bushhogging of the corns and beans today in one of the fields. I cut two arches at about 20 and 30 yards from the stand and 5 radial shooting lanes. I also cut 3 seeding paths lengthwise from end-to-end of the field.
Here is a picture from back a year ago in late April when I planted last year. The remaining pictures were taken yesterday from the stand you see in the picture:

After mowing, here is the view looking southwest from the stand:

This picture was taken looking west:

This picture was taken looking north west:

It will be interesting to see if deer start using these lanes and we get browsing along the edges.

 

[yoderjac]

I like your plan and my money is that the deer will work the edges they love so well.

I understand what you are doing, but there is no way I could mow that while it was green and making pods and ears.

Liking this post, looking forward to more, been doing some of the same, fyi

Just a burn down mix of gly and 2,4D. Couple weeks before planting. Then spray again when weeds are 2-4" tall if possible.
Don't want to take a chance with the pre chemical still being there when we spread our brassica in the same field late July.

Jack and Homegrown those plots look great. I can see a buck (or doe) working its way past your stand this fall.

 

[yoderjac]

I understand what you are doing, but there is no way I could mow that while it was green and making pods and ears.

I wrestled with that myself. It sure is hard to do emotionally. I had to look at it this way. First, pods are not a significant food source for my deer. Turkey use my pods more than deer. So, those are not a concern for me. Before I hit the tipping point, the deer kept my Eagle beans naked all summer. Back then, any plant I mowed is one that I deer would not have to eat. Of course, I did not need to do this back then because it is easy to surface broadcast through naked beans.
Now that I'm planting enough acreage, a good percentage of my beans mature and produce pods. Once a bean turns yellow, the forage is no longer used by deer. Since I had plenty of mature beans that turned yellow last year, I figure once I'm ahead of the tipping point, I'm not really taking food from deer. On the contrary, the beans I'm taking out of production now would never have been eaten but would have prevented development of the cover crop which deer will eat. So, I see it as adding food.
The corn cobs is really the only food loss. I plant so little corn in the mix that deer will eat it all. However, food is not really my purpose for planting the corn. It is vertical cover to encourage daytime bean use. The total acreage mowed is pretty small and little of that is corn.
It is still not easy emotionally.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm not sure how well this picture will show up. I took a youngster out last weekend. He shot his first deer over the plot. The beans and corn are so thick that he could not even see the deer until it stepped into a shooting lane planted with PTT, CC, and WR.

The picture above a a composite. I took 4 different pictures looking out of the blind and then tried to rotate and stitch them together. Even with the rotation, there is not enough to give you the real view. The road you see on the right and left hand side of the composite is actually a straight road that runs directly in front of the stand. The lanes actually look more like spokes with the stand at the hub. There are also lanes you probably can't see from this angle. In addition to the spokes, there are semicircles at 20 yards, 30 yards, and 50 yards from the stand. There are also 3 lanes that are parallel with the road under the stand evenly distributed across the width of the field.
Of course, the more important thing is how well it works. I was proud of the youngster who was able to walk quietly enough with me to get into the stand without spooking any deer about 45 minutes before shooting light. I have a FLIR and there were deer in the field within 50 yards of the stand when we entered. They all slowly moved away and out of the field before first shooting light. Just after first shooting light, three more deer entered the field. We could not see them with the naked eye or even binoculars due to the thickness of the beans and corn. This is even when we knew exactly where to look because of the FLIR. They were working down one of the lanes that paralleled the road. It took about half an hour or so but one of them finally got to the point where that lane intersected with one of the spoke lanes. The boy made a great shot right through the center of the heart.

By the way, that same evening, his friend (escorted by his dad) shot a large doe from the same stand. He made a good shot but could find no blood at the impact site or any blood trail. After dark, I went back out with him to see if I could find a blood trail. I found no evidence of a hit at all or any blood trail. Thanks to the FLIR, we did find the deer. His 20 gauge slug went through the vitals but did not exit. With the tall stand, a high entry wound and no exit wound, the blood had simply pooled up in the chest cavity.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

awesome!! In good years with plenty of moisture my eagle beans will get that thick also. I did the same thing--mowed strips and planted wheat/rye/PTT in the strips.Worked great.
congrats to the youngster on his first deer.
todd

Food plot looks great. One question, I am new to the plotting world and interested in trying some soy beans up here in Vermont. How much additional spraying throughout the summer is needed for weed control? Also does anyone no of a short season soy bean?

I spray mine twice, but once would do fine if times right. The smaller the maturity # , the shorter maturity. Eagle has a northern managers mix that's short, but any bean with a lower group would have a shorter maturity.
Congrats to the youngster on his first one.

 

[yoderjac]

Food plot looks great. One question, I am new to the plotting world and interested in trying some soy beans up here in Vermont. How much additional spraying throughout the summer is needed for weed control? Also does anyone no of a short season soy bean?

The frequency of spraying really depends on your objectives and conditions. For example, farmers who are growing large acreage in my general area spray twice like banc. With large fields, that is generally enough in our area to allow beans to canopy. I don't have any of this kind of ag within 3 miles or so of my property and my deer densities are high. So, even with forage beans like Eagle, my beans are heavily browsed even when I plant 7 acres. I planted one field without the corn mix this year and they barely canopied.
So, if you are growing beans for pod production you generally only need to spray until they canopy. That canopy will keep the weeds at bay.
However, for us food plotters in the south who are growing beans for summer forage and plan to surface broadcast a cover crop into the beans, weeds that got started in the summer and are not a problem for the well established beans, can become an issue for the cover crop. So, I also spray a third time in the fall. You can see by going back in this thread, I'm not spraying all the beans with a boom type sprayer. I'm simply driving down the lanes I mowed using an ATV with a boomless sprayer. Weeds can also become a problem when browsing density is too heavy for beans to canopy.
So, it really depends on your situation. I'd say Banc's twice is probably what most folks do.
I don't know your case, but I'll give you some things to think about. If you are up north, you probably have exactly the opposite problem I have in the south and completely different objectives. Unless you have an unusual situation, I would not use Eagle beans. They are very expensive. They are focused on producing summer forage over pods. I use them because of their browse tolerance.
I would expect that deer densities are not an issue in your area and that the summer stress period is minor compared to winter. So, I would be focusing on pod production. Ag beans of the appropriate group as Banc shows would probably work better for you. Some folks up north experience a shattering issue. Deer can't eat soybean seeds off the ground very well. So, if the pods shatter and the beans fall to the ground, deer can't use them as well. So shattering may be an issue for you. Some beans tend to shatter more than others.
There is a guy who posts here, Don Higgins, who pushes Real World Beans (RWB). They are a mix of three types of ag beans selected for their characteristics, the primary of which is shatter resistance. They do sell for a premium over local ag beans and may or may not be worth it for you, but they don't command the premium that Eagle beans do. So, either way, I probably would not pay the high premium for Eagle beans in what I'm assuming is your situation.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

thanks for the info. Not a lot of deer in the area, and not a lot of land to plant. However I believe once the cold and snow arrive I will have more deer visiting the plot. Just trying to get some food out for during the winter months, as feeding here is against the law, also have some field radish and turnips planted and some winter rye.

How are the deer "behaving" since the cut? We had 2 locations get clear cut on our property. Old timers say it won't affect the deer. I saw new barren lands make them choose new travel routes!

When the property next to mine was clear cut, it drastically reduced my deer sightings the first couple years. It is finally now getting thicker and providing browse and bedding, so it's starting to improve. But it was definitely rough for a while!

We have seen exactly the same thing. Two separate 40's were cut directly to our north (land joining ours) three years ago and our sightings went way down. This year the clearcuts are really starting to take off and get really thick. I am not running any game cameras at this time but judging from tracks and grazing pressure it looks like the deer have moved back in now. Hopefully this year deer sightings will go back up.

 

[yoderjac]

How are the deer "behaving" since the cut? We had 2 locations get clear cut on our property. Old timers say it won't affect the deer. I saw new barren lands make them choose new travel routes!

The deer are whacked! There are still lots of deer and we get plenty of pictures but times and locations seem much more random. This will be a year when the playing fields is level for both novices and highly experienced hunters.
I shot a turkey opening morning with a crossbow, but in 3 days of hunting I have yet to see a deer while on stand. Two inexperienced hunters have had deer all over them but haven't been able to kill them yet.

 

[yoderjac]

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