Soybean Seed Purhase Decision Decisions

[FarmerDan]

I have a lot of trouble when I think about soybean seed types and varities for food plots. Production 'beans are easy. Buy what yields best. But food plot objetives are so diverse. The answers are scattered about thru many posts. So, while we endure a couple more weeks of winter I thought it might be a good time to ponder the subject. My question is why you do what you do when it comes to food plot beans and how you make a buying decision about what type of soybean seed you buy. Is it price? Availability? Do you like forage over ag beans? Do you consider the group designation? Where do you buy your bean seed? Online? Local coop?

Here are some things I struggle with. I think I want forage. There's argument made that deer don't eat or prefer the pods after plant leaf drop. But at my place they do eat the pods. They are gone by the end of winter - and there's plenty of other food choices. I did forage beans once and I'm up in the air about it.

Like the rest of you it's a challenge for me to get good forage growth because a couple deer seem to be unable to leave the young plants alone. Fence? I'm not going to the expense. I have seen, if I can believe my eyes, that if I plant into small grain stubble some of the attraction is removed. My only explanation is deer don't like to stick their noses into that sharp stubble! And, it would seem like if I wait until the weeds overtake the bean plants and then spray (gly) I end up with a better crop. Truth or myth? Short of a fence, any other ideas?

And a final question. Has anyone tried a goup NOT reommended for their latitude? Some explanation required. There are determinant and indeterminant soybeans. It has everything to do with flowering. Flowering ends vegative growth when the variety is determinante. Indeterminatne's flower AND continue vegative growth. They both have their places. I just don't know where my place is. I have more on that subject but I guess I'll leave my question there. Have you knowlingly tried one over the other?

Maybe all of this doesn't matter. But I think it a worthy subject to toss around - at least until the soil warms up!

Speaking of which - this soil temp map is in about it's seventh incarnation. I like it - now! Hows that disclaimer go? Your results may not be....
https://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature

 

[omicron1792]

I have a lot of trouble when I think about soybean seed types and varities for food plots. Production 'beans are easy. Buy what yields best. But food plot objetives are so diverse. The answers are scattered about thru many posts. So, while we endure a couple more weeks of winter I thought it might be a good time to ponder the subject. My question is why you do what you do when it comes to food plot beans and how you make a buying decision about what type of soybean seed you buy. Is it price? Availability? Do you like forage over ag beans? Do you consider the group designation? Where do you buy your bean seed? Online? Local coop?

Here are some things I struggle with. I think I want forage. There's argument made that deer don't eat or prefer the pods after plant leaf drop. But at my place they do eat the pods. They are gone by the end of winter - and there's plenty of other food choices. I did forage beans once and I'm up in the air about it.

Like the rest of you it's a challenge for me to get good forage growth because a couple deer seem to be unable to leave the young plants alone. Fence? I'm not going to the expense. I have seen, if I can believe my eyes, that if I plant into small grain stubble some of the attraction is removed. My only explanation is deer don't like to stick their noses into that sharp stubble! And, it would seem like if I wait until the weeds overtake the bean plants and then spray (gly) I end up with a better crop. Truth or myth? Short of a fence, any other ideas?

And a final question. Has anyone tried a goup NOT reommended for their latitude? Some explanation required. There are determinant and indeterminant soybeans. It has everything to do with flowering. Flowering ends vegative growth when the variety is determinante. Indeterminatne's flower AND continue vegative growth. They both have their places. I just don't know where my place is. I have more on that subject but I guess I'll leave my question there. Have you knowlingly tried one over the other?

Maybe all of this doesn't matter. But I think it a worthy subject to toss around - at least until the soil warms up!

Speaking of which - this soil temp map is in about it's seventh incarnation. I like it - now! Hows that disclaimer go? Your results may not be....
https://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature

How many acres Dan? Do you always plant the beans solo or in a mix?

And btw. Always enjoy your posts. Cool to get a farmers perspective on things

 

[Hoytvectrix]

We have tried forage beans at our place a few times. Sure, deer feed on the leaves throughout the summer but about a week before they start turning, deer can't be found in the plots until other food sources are worn out. The pods that were present only ended up lasting a 2-3 weeks. This has been the case on about 2.5 acres of plots in Northern MO, with fairly high deer numbers.

We have since moved back to field or grain beans. Typically, we buy based on price from the local Ag store. They do a pretty decent job with selecting the right maturity groups for our area, and they typically have around 4 groups represented per blend. We have since been using an E-fence to protect the beans. The fence is absolutely critical when we have corn planted all around us, but is still somewhat important for protecting pods if you have beans planted in ag fields around.

I will be trying something slightly different with one of our 1.0 acre fields. I will be planting grain or forage soybeans mixed amongst grain sorghum. The idea being to protect some of the soybean plants and supply nitrogen to the sorghum. I will likely back off the planting density for both by about 1/3rd or 1/4th and see how it goes.

 

[omicron1792]

We have tried forage beans at our place a few times. Sure, deer feed on the leaves throughout the summer but about a week before they start turning, deer can't be found in the plots until other food sources are worn out. The pods that were present only ended up lasting a 2-3 weeks. This has been the case on about 2.5 acres of plots in Northern MO, with fairly high deer numbers.

We have since moved back to field or grain beans. Typically, we buy based on price from the local Ag store. They do a pretty decent job with selecting the right maturity groups for our area, and they typically have around 4 groups represented per blend. We have since been using an E-fence to protect the beans. The fence is absolutely critical when we have corn planted all around us, but is still somewhat important for protecting pods if you have beans planted in ag fields around.

I will be trying something slightly different with one of our 1.0 acre fields. I will be planting grain or forage soybeans mixed amongst grain sorghum. The idea being to protect some of the soybean plants and supply nitrogen to the sorghum. I will likely back off the planting density for both by about 1/3rd or 1/4th and see how it goes.

That was gonna be my suggestion. Try mixing beans with taller grain crop to see if you can protect beans a little for longer attraction in hunting season.

 

[FarmerDan]

How many acres Dan? Do you always plant the beans solo or in a mix?

10 acres of food plot on something just short of 400 acres on the farm...but, and I hope this is an interesting aside...land use in the "deer movement" range - Total of 3,200 acres. Breaks out like this (numbers probably won't add to the total - rounding for conversation purposes); Developed open space -250 acres; developed low & medium intensity - 60 acres; Corn - 200 acres; soybeans 133 acres; woody wetlands - 600 acres; hay & pasture - 150 acres; mixed forest 100 acres; shrubland 80 acres; open water - 6 acres; pines 250 acres; decidious forest - 1,300 acres; the rest is rotational wheat-soybeans / corn. It's a fantastic mix! Food plots here - a game of timing!

I'm a monoulture guy. I might throw some rye into the clover and use oats as a clover establishment cover. Lot's of you guys make a science out of multiple plants in the same space, but I choose to use my science elsewhere!

Land use source:
https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/

In fairness my username should be ex-farmerdan. Halfway thru my 70-years I decided my best opportunity was advising and assisting the real ag prodution heros.

 

[omicron1792]

I figured you’d say monoculture was your way! Once a farmer.

Could you plant a few rows around the beans if less interesting things? Maybe plant sorghum around edge, into millet, then a big plot of soybeans in the middle? Could give soybeans more of a chance?

 

[Diesel5610]

We have done forage beans for several years. Eagles forage beans are the only ones that have been able to withstand our browse pressure, and it has to be 3 acres or more. Every other bean we have tried ends up being a field of soybean stalks. If we do the managers mix which has some ag beans mixed in we will get some pods but they don't last long. They are expensive but they work for what we do and where we do it. This year we are going to drill fall plots into them in mid August.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I thought about trying to plant a buffer crop around a bean plot or 2 this year, but I think the deer will sniff them out and find the beans regardless! LOL Kind of like those guys that try and hide their sweet corn patch in their regular field corn field.......... the damn coons still find it.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Land use source:
https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/

Never seen that before, I love it!

 

[buckdeer1]

I have planted ag beans for years,same ones we plant in field next to plots.A couple years ago I started planting Real World beans and they kept up with the forage usage and when they finally started turning they had alot less shatter.Another plus is I could spray with Interline since Enlist and this will kill marestail and pigweed.Now last year nothing grew.I do try to broadcast wheat just as plant starts to yellow.This year I may get the seed blower

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I figured you’d say monoculture was your way! Once a farmer.

Could you plant a few rows around the beans if less interesting things? Maybe plant sorghum around edge, into millet, then a big plot of soybeans in the middle? Could give soybeans more of a chance?

I believe it was a QDMA article I read several years ago that did just that. It seemed to me it was more of a larger "destination" type plot so individual results may verry.

Whether round, square, or rectangular shouldn't matter. If memory serves me they planted corn in the center, soybeans surrounding the corn on all sides, and clover surrounding the entire plot.

I believe the idea is that the deer will feed in the clover first before moving to the beans and corn as to not wipe it out as fast.

Does it work? Who knows.

 

[FarmerDan]

I have planted ag beans for years,same ones we plant in field next to plots.A couple years ago I started planting Real World beans and they kept up with the forage usage and when they finally started turning they had alot less shatter.Another plus is I could spray with Interline since Enlist and this will kill marestail and pigweed.Now last year nothing grew.I do try to broadcast wheat just as plant starts to yellow.This year I may get the seed blower

Never seen that before, I love it!

I was skeptical about it many years ago to the point of personally challenging what they were doing and how they got their results. It's one of the things I do as part of my adult responsibilities. They convinced me I was wrong! Now, it's amazingly accurate for what it is - satellite images collected over the crop season and classified using some serious computing power. It's a picture made of up pixels of 30 meter resolution. There's aren't any land use areas exactly square and as a result there tends to be some over-shoot or under-run. Corn is easy. Soybeans are easy. Other crops with distinctive patterns are easy. Hayfield, grass, and big grass lawns not so much. Call the accuracy anywhere from 65% to 90%. So, when you think about habitat you need to think about the whitetail's typical home range. Call it 80% of anyplace you might find a single deer at anytime in a given year. Me? I think when you think about your own space you need to understand what's around you - what a deer might call home. Cropscape can get you in a good place to do that. If you have GPS coordinates for your property you can upload them and have Cropscape calculate acres of landcover by type in your control and that of a surrounding area, land over which you may have no influence. I'm a data guy and data gets a bad rap if you don't understand it. What you get out of this is a way to BEGIN thinking about how to tailor yours to make it more attractive. It's just the beginning, not the end - and it's just one way to (easily?) start and/or change your thinking.

 

[buckdeer1]

When you say sorghum do you mean sorghum used to bale or grain sorghum?Grain sorghum or milo gets eaten alot faster than soybeans because the head doesn't grow back and just about every animal or bird eats it,usually in the milk stage.

 

[omicron1792]

When you say sorghum do you mean sorghum used to bale or grain sorghum?Grain sorghum or milo gets eaten alot faster than soybeans because the head doesn't grow back and just about every animal or bird eats it,usually in the milk stage.

Good question. Sorghum is not a high value deer crop where I live. Birds do eat on it, but there are so many seeds and many birds won’t eat them till they are on the ground.