Has anyone ever tried this combo? I got a 5 acre field and thinking about going with this combo next year. This is what’s recommended by Ed Spin. It sounds like a great combo but I would have to have someone plant the corn, which I can find. Just wanted to get some feed back from people have experienced it. Obviously, it’s an expensive plot, but we all love doing it so that’s how we justify it. Ed recommended 2 acres straight corn coming from the hardwoods into a 3 acre Mix of corn, beans and beets.Feed back would be great.
RR corn, RR beets and RR beans
- Thread starter BobinCt
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
You are going to need to check out your Monsanto agreement on this. Corn and beans have pretty relaxed requirements. I'm not so sure that is true for beets. I can't remember what I read in the agreement specifically on beets, but I do remember I crossed them off my list because of that.
Thanks,
Jack
Thanks,
Jack
j-bird
Moderator
never planted beets of any sort. I have mixed corn and beans before. I tried it via broadcasting this year and the beans did great....the corn was a flop. I have had far better luck mixing beans and corn with a row planter. Corn in one hopper and beans in the other. I spaced my rows so it went 2 rows of corn on 30" centers and 2 rows of beans on 15" centers.....looked funny, but it worked. I spaced the corn like I should for best results and then adjusted the beans as best as I could get with the plates I had. They where thick, but still did fine. I know corn is pretty temperamental with competition and spacing and beans are far more forgiving. I simply sprayed once when the weeds started to hide the crop and things went fine. Something else you can do is walk the rows once the beans dry down with a broadcast spreader and spread cereal grains or brassica into this as well and help add some food diversity to the plot in late summer as well.
I realize this isn't exactly what you are talking about, but it's about as close as I have come. Corn is much more of an issue with overcrowding than beans so between those two let the corn be your guide. I don't have experience with beets. I also run my plot rows as north and south as I could to try to ensure the corn didn't shade out the beans.....not sure if it was really needed, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.
I realize this isn't exactly what you are talking about, but it's about as close as I have come. Corn is much more of an issue with overcrowding than beans so between those two let the corn be your guide. I don't have experience with beets. I also run my plot rows as north and south as I could to try to ensure the corn didn't shade out the beans.....not sure if it was really needed, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.
nitro27
5 year old buck +
I've mixed the 3 together in several test plots. Beets mixed with corn only grew/matured on outside edges of corns. Beets DO NOT like competition/shade. (That why beet farmers are so fussy with weeds) Pretty much with same when mixed with soybeans. I now only plant separate plots of each.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I planted beets, radish, and turnips together, rather thick, and the beets grew fine, until the deer ate the tops down to nothing, then hit the bulbs hard shortly after that.
I have my RR corn and soy beans no till planted. I am glad my farmer friend will do that for me as it is not a large amount of acres we are talking about. He plants each RR seed in a separate field. These are primarily over winter foods for my deer herd. I did try RR sugar beets but planted them too late and got small beet bulbs. The deer have all but ignored the beets. So for my needs, separate fields is the way to go.
Nova
5 year old buck +
Same for me, I have 3 different plots that are 1 acre that I rotate, beans get wiped out quickly, but corn does well until fall due to having more than enough other food. Deer density is quite high, but 55 acres of alfalfa, 5-6 acres of clover, 4 -5 acres of beans keeps pressure off corn until it gets cold.
Wild Thing
5 year old buck +
I have never planted the 3 together in one plot and I have to agree with Nitro27 that sugar beets do not like to be shaded so I wouldn't consider planting them with another crop - especially corn. RR sugar beet seed is way too expensive to risk being shaded out.
I planted two 0.5 acre plots of RR sugar beets in 2016 in south-central Upper Michigan. Although I got them planted somewhat late (June 12??) I still had a very good crop which fed my deer well into late February. I also found 11 shed antlers (5 in one plot and 6 in the other) in the spring. I put E-Fence around one plot and left the second one unfenced and had minimal browsing issues on the unfenced plot. That being said, I believe our deer developed a strong likeness for them and they heavily browsed my unfenced beets early on this past year (2017). In 2018 I plan to E-Fence all of my sugar beets. I used my no-till drill to plant the sugar beets, corn and beans.
I had a good thread on this planting on the Michigan Sportsman forum but, unfortunately, Photobucket dumped all 33 photos I had on it when I didn't subscribe to their premium membership. Here are a few of those pics:
I planted two 0.5 acre plots of RR sugar beets in 2016 in south-central Upper Michigan. Although I got them planted somewhat late (June 12??) I still had a very good crop which fed my deer well into late February. I also found 11 shed antlers (5 in one plot and 6 in the other) in the spring. I put E-Fence around one plot and left the second one unfenced and had minimal browsing issues on the unfenced plot. That being said, I believe our deer developed a strong likeness for them and they heavily browsed my unfenced beets early on this past year (2017). In 2018 I plan to E-Fence all of my sugar beets. I used my no-till drill to plant the sugar beets, corn and beans.
I had a good thread on this planting on the Michigan Sportsman forum but, unfortunately, Photobucket dumped all 33 photos I had on it when I didn't subscribe to their premium membership. Here are a few of those pics:
Last edited:
