Will these still grow beans?

[strawhead]

The browsed pic is from today, the other from July 29.There are a lot of pods with BB sized beans. Will the beans continue to grow with the leaves being browsed so hard? Amazing how much deer eat.

 

[dipper]

Beans start drying up around Labor Day. Get out there and broadcast rye and oats

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Yes they will grow beans. Beans will stay small and then the plant transfers energy from the stems and leaves to make the beans. The more leaves you loose the less energy it has to make the beans. They have charts that show leave loss and how it relates to yield loss. My guess you will loose about 25% of your yield.

 

[strawhead]

Thanks Steve, raises my hopes. We have a lot to offer in other plots, but the deer tell us they like the bean leaves right now. The only yield is for the deer. We are just hoping to get some pods with beans for a little later draw. This is our fourth try growing beans. We have about 1.5 acres this year.
Dipper, we have a good bunch of rye,oats and radishes now. This is one of 3 similar plots. If the bean canopy clears we will certainly overseed.

 

[dipper]

It's gonna clear, the beans are done growing. If you don't have pods now, you won't have them come fall. I've been scouting deer over beans my entire life. In central wi, Labor Day, the beans start turning yellow.
Since you are a couple hours north, you might have planted later. The good thing for you, we are going into a warm trend this week. I'd still get those beans over seeded, they are beat up.

 

[strawhead]

We have excellent pod development. Today I checked and most pods have beans a touch larger than BB's. I believe they have grown a little since Thur. I didn't know if any bean growth would occur after the leaves get eaten off.

 

[SD51555]

Our beans aren't more than 6" tall due to heavy browsing all summer, and they're setting pods on what is left of them.

 

[dipper]

Your gonna get pod growth on beans almost browsed to the ground. Beans aren't like corn where they have one one or two seed heads. With beans, the seed pods will cover the majority of the plant. You will have pods 3' up on good beans. When u start loosing half your plant, you really have to reconsider planting them. They will become weed infested.
I always think of it this way, if I loose over half my crop before the crop is even done growing, what am I gonna have during nov. when I want to enjoy it?
I could try doubling ure seeding rate like mo does. Fence, or not plant like me.

 

[wiscwhip]

We chose to stop planting them because fencing is a PIA and we got nothing other than a few weeks of browse for newborn fawns and lactating does, then the 1/3rd acre plots were nothing but dead sticks. They will survive with a leaf attached, but once that last leaf is browsed from the plant, they only have a few days to sprout new leaves or they are toast, especially on sandy soil. Soys and corn may be "king", but there are many more things that can take their place without all the hassle and BS of those traditional row crops.

 

[ruskbucks]

Like dipper said,I have had my beans that only made it to about a foot high due to browsing produce pods. I couldn't believe it when I had pods some plants barely had any leaves.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Same story here - the beans in my heavily browsed area still produced pods and I had good hunting into November. The weed issue is a possible concern though - I had to spray a couple times because the beans were browsed so hard that then never fully canopied to choke out the weeds. I tried overseeding rye and brassicas right into the beans after my last spraying, but I didn't have any luck. The turkeys ate the rye seed and the brassica seed never seemed to do anything.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

You just have to plant as many beans as possible to get a nice crop and to ensure you get plenty of grazing opportunity for your deer all summer. Beans can take a lot of grazing and still produce a nice yield. I generally plant 2 or 3 different fields totaling about 6 acres over 300 acres. My beans come out great every year. Yet by January 1st I have zero beans left and most of my 6 acres of corn is also gone by Feb 1st. I feed the whole neighborhood.

 

[j-bird]

I have 100's of acre of beans all around me and a deer density of 15 or 20. The deer couldn't eat all the beans even if they wanted to! Beans are already starting to yellow here. I have some many beans around and so few deer I can plant plots as small as 1/4 acre of soybeans and they will do just fine - no fencing needed!!!

You boys send me some of your cover and I'll send you some of my ag land!!!!!!!

 

[ruskbucks]

The deer always seem to take the challenge of wiping out my 2 acres of beans. There is ag land with 60-80 acres of beans that they could eat till their stomachs pop. But they would rather eat mine down to stems. I'm not complaining thou.

 

[strawhead]

Thanks for all the replies. All is not gloom and doom here. Our number one goal is to put the deer in the best shape possible going into winter. We are really helping with that. The beans are really not in as bad of shape as I originally thought. The beans in the pods are growing. I had opened some central WI ag beans the day before I posted my first post and those beans were at least pea sized. I guess I prematurely panicked. The deer have only browsed the top layer of leaves and there are a lot of leaves left. They have not begun to yellow. I was surprised that the whole acre plus had been browsed almost the same in such a short time. We have done smaller plots of beans in the past and never got beans in the pods to amount to anything due to browsing of the leaves. The exclusion cage shows what the plants looked like before browsing. I am just very curious to see what kind draw the dried beans would be if we could get that far. I probably already know. They eat everything we plant.

 

[dipper]

I'm not saying it gloom and doom to broadcast rye. Broadcast the rye because it will be more food!
The rye will also scavenge any excess fertilizer the beans didn't get.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Just so you know......once the beans start yellowing they will quit eating them. Then once they are all dried up and mature a few weeks later....they will start hammering them. The first year I ever went big into beans.....I was hunting about October 10 over the field and the deer started pouring out. I had 22 does and fawns in front of me from 20 to 150 yards. It was dead quiet. The amount of noise those deer made from chewing the crunchy beans was incredible. I don't have a huge deer density. That was the most deer ever I have had in a field at one time. Too bad the bucks were no shows until after dark. 6 acres of excellent beans were completely hammered by December 1st that year. I will never go without planting beans if I can help it.

 

[Terrific_tom]

Just so you know......once the beans start yellowing they will quit eating them. Then once they are all dried up and mature a few weeks later....they will start hammering them. The first year I ever went big into beans.....I was hunting about October 10 over the field and the deer started pouring out. I had 22 does and fawns in front of me from 20 to 150 yards. It was dead quiet. The amount of noise those deer made from chewing the crunchy beans was incredible. I don't have a huge deer density. That was the most deer ever I have had in a field at one time. Too bad the bucks were no shows until after dark. 6 acres of excellent beans were completely hammered by December 1st that year. I will never go without planting beans if I can help it.

Same results that I have. Now if I could figure out how to keep all the turkeys out, the beans might last longer.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

I keep the turkeys out by planting 6 acres of corn in 2 different plots. They seem to like the corn better than the beans.

 

[strawhead]

Can tell I'm not a farmer. I am surprised by the growth of the beans with the loss of the leaves. Pods are indicative of what is in the field. Lots of pods.