Making some lemonade out of lemons

Hoytvectrix

5 year old buck +
Long story short, the farmer who rents some of our fields decided to go with corn this year despite having 10 straight years of beans. We typically plant about 2.5 acres of beans as food plots on two sides of our property, in addition to to the 20 or so other acres of field beans that are rented out and harvested each year. This year, we knew the beans we were planting would never make it, so we decided to invest in a couple of electric fences. They went in perfectly and have done their job so well we will likely use them from here on out in the coming years. We drilled in the beans but I made a callibration error and planted too heavily in the first field. As a result, we had almost no beans in the middle 0.25 acres of an 1.5 acre food plot.

We eventually came up with the idea of planting some sunflowers in the middle of the plot given that it would be protected by the e-fencing anyways. So I ran to town and bought the only sunflower seed I could find, not knowing if it would even have any viable seed...

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I broadcast that in and went over it a few times with a drag. Eventually, I was pleasantly surprised with how much germination we actually had from the bird seed.
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As of a week ago, this is what the sunflowers are looking like:
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The only question at this point is when do we bring the E-fence down. I'm curious to hear what everyone thinks to do on this. The beans are a mix of 4 varieties of forage beans, and 1 variety of a standard field bean. This is in Northern MO, so we have a good 5-6 weeks of growing weather still, but I wouldn't mind opening the fence up and getting the deer patterned on feeding on bean and sunflower leaves before the bow openers (Sept 15th). Do we leave the fence up for another few weeks to maximize pod production? Is that negating the extra expense of purchasing forage beans? Will deer even eat sunflower leaves at this plant stage?
 
That looks great! I woudl leave the fence up until two weeks before the season. I do not expect them to hit your sunflowers.
 
If they were ag beans I's say leave the fence up until a week before late muzzleloader season. As it stands, I'd say any time. I doubt they will be able to decimate those beans.
 
if it was me I would wait till a week or so before the season started, keeping them safe, as once fence goes down they will be a prime food targeted by deer and bears if any in the area!

I know on some farms, beans might last long, but also know they can be destroyed in a few days if you have HIGH deer numbers
I have seen a 2 acre field of bears get destroyed in a about 10 days before, between bears, deer and other things that ate them
it was a super high deer dense area, seeing a 100+ deer in a field was normal there
not the norm for sure, but it cam happen

and if you want a late season plot,. why open up any sooner than needed!
when your the ONLY place near by that has food in late season, you will draw deer from afar, (farm above I mentioned was Only farm or ag plantings in about a 10+ mile area, pulled deer from really far away in late winter!)
and that will then lead to higher numbers of mouths to feed and faster harvest of your plot!

as for your solution to the plot, good for you for adding the sun flowers,
I used to build a lot of plots like that on purpose,. but typical did corn on outer edge and then beans or different things, this way NO one could see into the plot, deer seemed to feel safer in day time having quick cover near by and could set up blinds inside plots pretty easy!
 
I'd also put down some PTT and or Radishes in the fenced area where by the looks of it you have kept sprayed. They surface broadcast well and will take off with any moisture they get.
 
if it was me I would wait till a week or so before the season started, keeping them safe, as once fence goes down they will be a prime food targeted by deer and bears if any in the area!

I know on some farms, beans might last long, but also know they can be destroyed in a few days if you have HIGH deer numbers
I have seen a 2 acre field of bears get destroyed in a about 10 days before, between bears, deer and other things that ate them
it was a super high deer dense area, seeing a 100+ deer in a field was normal there
not the norm for sure, but it cam happen

and if you want a late season plot,. why open up any sooner than needed!
when your the ONLY place near by that has food in late season, you will draw deer from afar, (farm above I mentioned was Only farm or ag plantings in about a 10+ mile area, pulled deer from really far away in late winter!)
and that will then lead to higher numbers of mouths to feed and faster harvest of your plot!

as for your solution to the plot, good for you for adding the sun flowers,
I used to build a lot of plots like that on purpose,. but typical did corn on outer edge and then beans or different things, this way NO one could see into the plot, deer seemed to feel safer in day time having quick cover near by and could set up blinds inside plots pretty easy!

I would say that we have moderate deer pressure. In the winter time, when we are the only standing beans for miles, we can get up to 15-20 deer in the plot at a time. Our situation right now is fairly similar - there are currently no beans for at least 1-3 miles. I think I am leaning towards leaving the fence up and focusing on high pod production for the time being, with the near certainty that the late season will be as good or better than normal.

The farmer planting corn this year has really done a number on our deer activity (so far). At this point, we would normally have mature bucks on the property feeding on beans fairly regularly, but that has understandably not been the case. I think we are just anxious to start seeing bucks when we normally would have and just need to trust in the process.
 
I'd also put down some PTT and or Radishes in the fenced area where by the looks of it you have kept sprayed. They surface broadcast well and will take off with any moisture they get.

I did surface apply broadcast about 6 lbs/ac of a custom brassica mix in a couple of fields adjacent to one of the bean fields. I was planning on spreading some winter rye on all of our plots in about the middle of september. Do you think that would be a good idea, or should I consider still adding in more brassicas?
 
Sounds like you have the late season food covered. Good luck this season!!
 
It will be tough, but I think I'd wait until late season as well. Starting around thanksgiving. Will be some great December hunting.

Deer destroy young sunflowers on my place, I don't think they eat the mature ones as much however.
 
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