RR Eagle soybeans update

JFK52

5 year old buck +
As I posted earlier, I planted one bag (140,000 seed count) of RR Eagle soy beans this season on four smaller plots. Innoculated them prior to planting. One plot is a long narrow pipeline easement of .8 acre. The other plots are quite small, maybe a few hundred square feet at best. All plots are near cover and are being used extensively. All were prepped last year with gly and some were disked then also. All plots were disked prior to seeding this year. I belly seeded in the Eagles, used a spike tooth drag next and then rolled them down with a 5 foot roller filled with water.
The smaller plots are being browsed to the point where I thought the Eagle beans would be killed. The Eagles just keep coming back and producing more leaves. The .8 acre pipeline plot looks the best. The Eagle beans are growing great and the shear size of the plot keeps the beans from being over browsed. I over seeded winter rye into all these plots as the Eagle beans did not canopy. I have not seen the results of the rye seeding yet. I am very happy with the overall results and plan on planting more Eagles next season.
One lesson I learned is to get the Eagle beans into the soil ASAP. I plan on planting them at the same time as my RR ag soybeans next season just to give the deer more time to browse them and for the Eagles to grow. It will keep some early browsing pressure of my ag beans. I only had one bag and portioned it out to cover all the plots. Next year, I will be buying more and seeding a lot heavier than this season. Plot size does matter, as a bigger plot is better. All plots needed two spraying of gly to eliminate weed competition. The Eagles can tolerate a tractor and sprayer being driven over them when they are young. They bounced right back after the second spraying. My Kubota does have turf tires. The Eagles are expensive for sure, but worth it in my book for my purposes. It will be interesting to see how long they keep growing here in Central Wisconsin. I do hunt the early season and plan on hunting over some of these Eagle plots. An added bonus of planting on disked ground is that I have been able to see a lot of deer tracks in the soil. I created a "track catcher" along with the plots.
Any questions or comments are welcome.
 
Sounds like they did their job for you. My only thought is to think about seeding heavy next year. It may not be the best outcome. The fact that they did not canopy is going to let your rye grow and provide some green this fall but more important early spring. It's the only reason I quit using them. I could never get rye to grow in them.
 
Same story here. When I only had a couple acres and deer kept them naked but couldn't kill them, surface broadcasting a cover crop was no problem. However once I plant enough to get past the tipping point and they got ahead of the deer they were way to thick and yellowed way to late for a traditional cover crop. I ended up having to take extreme measures: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.p...d-corn-field-transfered-from-qdma-forum.5543/

Thanks,

Jack
 
I did not think about the heavier seeding of Eagles creating a canopy that would not allow over seeding of a crop like winter rye. I only had one bag of seed that I got for half price, so I had to partition it out over the four plots I wanted planted. This might have been a blessing in that I did not have the density or Eagles as I do with my ag beans. I am in Wisconsin, so the pods on my ag beans are essential sources of protein for the deer to survive a snow covered winter.
My ag beans are planted in mid May. By the time they turn yellow and have put on their pods, it is too late in the season to over seed these fields. It is my first year with Eagle beans, so I am on the upside of the learning curve about them.
 
It is not just heavy seeding rates. Even at recommended rates, since they are forage beans, if they get ahead of deer they will be thick and tall. That is not as much the problem as how late the yellow.
 
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