Soybean Plot

Trying soybeans for the first time or our Red river county property. Went with a roundup ready forage soybean from eagle seed. Planted 4/21 and fenced it in the next day. Applied fertilizer mid May. This picture is from this past weekend. Now that the beans are up 2-2.5’ I’m going to drop the fence and see how hard the deer hit it. I’ll put it back up and they hammer it. Got two other plots within a mile that aren’t doing very good. I believe it had to do with the soil staying wet too long.

Dang Chris, looks like you've taken up farming.

Yeah I’m really happy with how this one turned out. This is even on soil with a 5 pH. Going to apply lime this winter. I want to get everything figured out by the time my boy is old enough to hunt.

How big is that plot? If it is smaller than a couple acres the deer could have it down to dirt within a short time. So what you could do is drop the fence on some of it at a time, kind of rotational browsing. If it is bigger than a couple acres you shouldn’t have to worry about a thing.

looking good

This one is 1.5 acres. They say these soybeans will come back from browse pressure if they are just nipping the top. Going to let them at it for a week and see how much they eat. Our deer density is fairly low so i think we will be fine.

looking good. I like to put my feeders (usually don't put feeders near plots) outside of the plot. This way more mature deer use the plot that are feeder shy. I know this does't apply for most of mid to southern Texas, but sure does in the northern part.

Awesome plot!

Different spot from before but shows how well they are doing.

Slymer, You may find out you are not correct in your estimate of the deer population. I lease in RR county, SE of Clarksville I have seen during the season herds of 30-40+ deer in a single evening hunt. You may want to keep a very close eye on the plots but don't be surprised if the deer don't hit it as hard as you think. If they have not seen Soybeans before, may take awhile for them to realize what the beans are.

I find It hard to believe one strand elec fence is keeping them out lol

It’s a three wire fence. All three are hot. I had dropped the outer wire already in this picture.

Right now is when everything is drying up and maturing. I would drop the fence, toss in some oat and brassicas and let them eat! The oats and brassicas will come up nicely and add green to it when the beans brown out.

That's the plan. probably going to go with a brassica, rye, wheat mix from eagle seed.

No way I’d over seed or plant any grains(including forage oats) until Sept.

I’m planning on mid September.

I wouldn't plant Wheat, but Oats are ok to plant at anytime the soil temp is warm enough to germinate. Being doing it for years. I really like the Throw N Gro Extreme Oats for this time of year on my mature soybean plots.

My soybean plots will be yellow by bow season. I plant them early so they will produce beans for the late winter. If I plant my beans too late, they are not mature enough to handle the browse pressure after things dry out in July (like now). Also, if I plant beans late, the july dryout usually kills them on a normal year in my area.

If I want any green in my soybean plots for early bow season, I have to throw out seed in mid august and pray for rain.

Your plots that are not doing well, I would disc up in September and plant some wheat/oats/brassicas after 9/15ish in your area.

IF you don't believe me on your better bean plot, just try a small area of the plot and throw some Throw N gro Extreme Oats in with the beans. I bet come early bow season you will wish you did the entire plot.

This year has idea conditions for soybeans planted in well draining soils. I planted beans on soil that has never seen a bean and the farmer next door thought I was crazy. He was right, but I got lucky and they turned out to be 70 bushel beans that I chopped down for silage bales. Made over 2 tons of forage to the acre.

Very impressed with how these beans turned out. Tallest plants are over 7’. Starting to see a bunch of pods as well.

Very nice.