Planting soy beans

[centralmnhunter]

Has anyone ever planted soybeans and oats at the same time? What I'm thinking of trying is to plant both at the same time and then hit the oats with round up when the oats get approx. 6 inches in height. Would this help hold moisture, and when beans start to yellow help hold rye and brassica seeds when the fall rains come.

 

[sandbur]

I would try a side by side trial of each way. Get pictures and let us know how it works.

A dry versus wet year might change results-also depends on your soils ability to hold moisture.

 

[centralmnhunter]

My soil is a sandy loam. The first year I tried rr ag soybeans they did very well, I don't think the deer new what they were. The last couple of years I have been over seeding them with winter rye ( like 300 lbs to the acre) a lot of the seed does not germinate because my soil gets a hard crust on top of it.

 

[sandbur]

My broadcast rye does not do particularly well.
Tllagie is much better. I have the same crust problem on some of my soils.

 

[centralmnhunter]

I would like to go no till, but it will be a couple of years before I can by one. I was hoping that by planting something with the beans and then hitting it with round up, would help with the crusting problem.

 

[Deer Kar]

I Plant beans in the spring then broadcast oats and rye into them end of Aug. the beans are usually hammerd so bad by that time I could just about till them under but the oats and rye quickly fill-in the bare spots. Timing is every thing I have my best luck right befor it rains give or take a day or two..

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

If you want to grow soybeans then grow soybeans. Put NOTHING with them. Any competition will cause a loss in yield and in the end you get less beans in the fall. A good clean field of beans will provide a ton of food. Yes deer eat weeds and other stuff but if you want the beans to thrive you want them to stay clean. The healthier they are the more they can withstand grazing pressure. I have grown beans for 5 years now and plant about 7ish acres every year. Treat them like an Ag crop and they will do their part.

 

[Terrific_tom]

I have to agree with Steve O. on this. It won't hurt to broadcast something into the soybeans when they start turning yellow. Personally I haven't had much luck with broadcasting stuff into yellowing beans but I think that is due to me planting the beans so thick.

 

[j-bird]

I know a guy who is the leading expert on soybeans.............:D His beans are the best in the world............:D

I think I could actually get banned for this.........or lynched!

 

[Freeborn]

What kind of row spacing and seed count are you guys using? Anybody planting real narrow like 7" or so?

 

[kabic]

We have a Hay field that is being planted to corn this year. My brother in law convinced his dad to plant soy beans next to the woods. I'm also interested in spacing.

My guest is we can either broadcast or use the 4 row corn planter and then try to another pass with a half row offset. .i.e. 8 rows of beans where you would have 4 of corn

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Soybeans are idiot proof. Broadcast 50-75 into a disked field. Bergen drag it lightly disk and presto....you have a bean field. Beans are one of the most adaptable crops in terms of spacing. If crowded they don't quite get as big and if thin they get huge. But overall a good clean bean field doesnt very much in total yield. However I like to plant in the thicker side (75#'s and acre). The thicker they start the faster they canopy and keep weeds at bay. Spray with gly at 3 inches tall and again at 1 foot and your plot will flourish. If they are your first beans ever then you should inoculate them. Which is cheap and easy to do. They sell inoculate where they sell seed. Fill 5 gallon pail 1/2 full with seed add required amount of inoculate and about 16 oz of water and shake up. Plant 3 minutes later. You know your doing it right if your hand broadcaster is flinging back wet soybeans all over your pants. Repeat with more beans until field is covered. Then wash pants. I plant a rotation of beans and corn. Once you have had beans in a field and they did good. Inoculation is not needed again. My beans have probably went 45 bushels an acre come fall based on experts analysts by some farming people. Not one bean makes it to spring.

 

[Terrific_tom]

Here are some pictures at various stages of broadcast beans at 75lbs per acre. 1st pic is at 4 weeks just after spraying. 2nd pic is a couple weeks after spraying. Last pic is in August. I only spray for weeds once at between 3 and 4 weeks.

 

[centralmnhunter]

What are you using for fertilizer. And how many lbs per acre?

 

[Terrific_tom]

What are you using for fertilizer. And how many lbs per acre?

I don't fertilize my beans. I rotate my plantings so my beans are planted where I had brassicas the previous season. I fertilize my brassicas so the beans get the benefit of any fertilizer remaining in soil from brassicas and also benefit from the deep tap roots of brassicas [ Ground Hog Radish ] bringing any leached fertilizer back to the surface. The brassicas also benefit from the nitrogen that the beans put back into the soil. This has worked really well for me so far.

 

[wiscwhip]

We did the same thing as well TT. No fert on the beans, just whatever the rye and turnip residue could scavenge from the previous fall. The deer ate our beans to the dirt by July anyway, so we were basically just feeding lactating does and new fawns regardless.

 

[j-bird]

I plant my beans with a row planter - 15" centers. I plant roughly a bag/acre which is 140,000 seeds. I typically apply 50 lbs/acre of N,P & K at the time of planting. Spray gly (I use RR beans) as late as I can without damaging plants when I run the tractor thru the field/plot. Once the stalk is snapped the plant will die. Once the beans canopy most weed issues are addressed. I will plant roughly around memorial day weekend. Once beans yellow or even start to actually dry I will broadcast cereal grains and brassica mix into them (may even consider an annual clover) for some forage diversity. I plant ag beans and try to get something as shatter resistant as possible.

I can also tell you that fall planted soybeans are an awesome early season draw. Obviously once frost hits your screwed, but until then you may have the only young soybeans around and once the deer find them they will hammer them. I found that out as I disced under a strip to plant AWP one year - when the beans germinated the deer beat a path thru the plot after the young beans.