Planted a Couple Soybean Plots. Update 2

[Terrific_tom]

A lot of people say that a 1/2 acre of soybeans will be browsed off before they will mature. This will be the 4th time that I have rotated this plot to soybeans and always have had the beans produce beans. I always have another larger 2 1/2 acre plot of beans about 200 yards away from this plot so I think that helps a lot. Also there is other ag fields in the area but none of them have soybeans. This plot has always been my guage as to the deer population in my area. This year Langlade County is Buck only. My land is only a mile from Marathon County and 3 miles from Shawano County which both have an abundance of doe tags available this year so I am sure that my deer numbers will grow in the next few years.:)

 

[wiscwhip]

You are a very lucky guy TT, there was no thought of soys being allowed to "mature" in our area. They couldn't even get to the flowering stage before being eaten to the ground, much less get to the point they could put on pods and mature.

 

[Terrific_tom]

You are a very lucky guy TT, there was no thought of soys being allowed to "mature" in our area. They couldn't even get to the flowering stage before being eaten to the ground, much less get to the point they could put on pods and mature.

That could change as I said in previous post. My land was always in a DMU that had parts of Shawano and Wauapaca Counties so there were very liberal doe tags given out keeping the deer numbers very low by me. Now with a buck only season I can see the deer numbers rising in a couple of years making it a lot harder to get the 1/2 acre plot of beans to make maturity.

 

[wiscwhip]

Ahh. Now I see what you were saying. That may very well be what you find happening if your population does come up. With as low as the population is now in our area, we may have had a chance, but as I said earlier it only takes a couple momma does and their fawns to wreak havoc on a small plot in very short order. After the first 2 try's we put a borrowed trail camera(didn't own one at the time) up to see just how many deer were in those plots and both times we planted soys after that, it was the same thing. 6-8 deer would eat the whole thing to the ground in a week once they found the young soys.

 

[Terrific_tom]

Update:
I was up to my land this past weekend with son and son-in-law. My son saw 2 bucks that were outside the ears while riding the ATV in. Sprayed the soybean plots and 2 plots that will be planted with a brassica mix in a couple of weeks. The soybeans are growing very well for 22 days. There was no deer browse on the soybeans at all. With all the rain the deer have plenty of natural browse all over.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Last year in SE MN I planted 2 soybean strips that were each around 1/2 acre. I planted them on June 30th. The strip in my lower field was browsed quite heavily and the beans were kept at about 8-12" tall until late August/early September when the acorns started to drop. For about 2 weeks the deer pounded the acorns and this allowed the beans to grow like crazy. That strip recovered enough to produce a fair amount of pods and beans for late season hunting. The strip in my upper field wasn't browsed nearly as heavily and in some areas the beans were close to waist high and they had a lot of filled pods for late season food. There's a lot of ag in our general area, so the deer will have access to ag soybeans. I don't know if they deer would leave my place if I didn't have soybeans, but I don't intend to find out.

In my experiment, nothing could compete with the all around draw of soybeans. And they were relatively easy to plant as well.

 

[bryant]

We planted 6 acres Memorial Day and there aren't 6 plants left now. Got up about 5-6" and gone in a week.

 

[huthut]

We planted 6 acres Memorial Day and there aren't 6 plants left now. Got up about 5-6" and gone in a week.

Bryant,

You must have alot of deer. We have quite a few deer and i have 4 acres getting heavily browsed but certainly still surviving.

 

[bryant]

A lot of mouths to feed for sure.

 

[Terrific_tom]

Was up to land this past weekend to plant some plots. The soybeans are doing OK. They seem to be a little behind schedule but I think that is due to the cool weather that we are having here in Wisconsin. They look better than a lot of beans in Wisconsin. The spraying I did 2 weeks ago did it's job as the beans are weed free. The 1/2 acre plot is showing signs of browse, may have to over seed with rye. The bigger plot has a little browse but the growth is keeping up. Here are some pics.

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Beautiful plots!

 

[dipper]

That exposed soil just makes me cringe. We are in a semi drought right now in central wi. I believe it is about 2" below rainfall for July. I am so glad I broadcasted rye in parts of my bean plots in June. The young rye is really protecting me right now, and is going to help me even more if it stays dry. Which appears to be happening.
The good news is it's gonna be another killer day on the waupaca chain tomorrow. Can't go wrong with sandbars, bikinis and cocktails.

 

[Terrific_tom]

That exposed soil just makes me cringe. We are in a semi drought right now in central wi. I believe it is about 2" below rainfall for July. I am so glad I broadcasted rye in parts of my bean plots in June. The young rye is really protecting me right now, and is going to help me even more if it stays dry. Which appears to be happening.
The good news is it's gonna be another killer day on the waupaca chain tomorrow. Can't go wrong with sandbars, bikinis and cocktails.

Dipper most of the exposed dirt that you are seeing is on the edges of plot caused by turning around with spreader. In a couple of weeks you would be hard pressed to see any dirt. There was plenty of moisture in the ground up by me.

 

[dipper]

You are assuming we will get rain between now and than. Things can change pretty quickly in a week if you aren't protecting your soil. I'm seeing beans drying up in central wi that have a thicker canopy than yours.
Most don't think of what drought does until it hits. I'm not saying you should panic, your beans look nice.

I do see what appears to be some pigweed germination, are you planning on spraying again?

 

[bwoods11]

That's a nice bean plot, bet you will get plenty of deer in and out of there

 

[Deer Kar]

The plot looks great. Did you put out and exclusion cages in the plot? It is always interesting to see the browse difference . Once the deer find them they will stay on them.