RR Soy Beans

i just cant say how pleased i was with the rr soys. next year i am going to try the corn also. like mike i still have deer feeding throughout my standing beans. i tilled my plot in the spring and broadcast the beans and retilled then in. then i went over them with a drag. about 5 weeks later i sprayed with roundup and it did the job.

Here is my RR soy plot from this summer, I plan on expanding 3X's.

Lew:

Deer will eat many forages but definitely have their favorites. From over 25 years of experimenting with many hundreds of acres of food plots, which were planted in many plant types I have picked up on a few of choice bits of info on what deer prefer.

Let's just stick to attractant type forages for now. The common thinking that white oak acorns are best is true, they can't be beat. Second choice just may be apples or pears. yes, pears deer love them. A close second is corn or fresh soybeans, with deer changing their first pick of the day from apples to corn or soys. I have over 700 wild growing fruit bearing apple trees with corn and soys planted each year right next to each other and for many years and have observed this changing first preferance by deer.

Type of corn planted will make a differance. Tony Lapratt, the Branch County sweet corn king, swears for the attraction of sweet corn. I can't disagree except that the raccoons will come from miles around and make short work of it unless there is at least two - three acres planted. Another corn type that works better than field corn is hybrid silage corn that has much less lignin (undigestible substance in plants to give them rigidity) in the leaves and stalk, which deer can't seem to stay away from. I like to plant this corn type as the destination point for deer and set up for them, but like sweet corn it dosen't last unless you plant 2-3 acres of it. RR corn works very good also If you don;t plant it in the woods. No corn of any kind or soybeans planted in the woods as an attractant will last long enough to be useful for hunting unless (again) you plant 2-3 acres of it. I plant a total of 21 acres of a variety of corn split between two locations each year with much of it left standing to be used as a winter carry over forage. Corn alone is all you need for winter carry over.

Lew, soybeans work year round ,with fresh soys, which would be planted the last week of July to the first of August being the optimum for the early October bow season. Think about planting them in a 30' wide food plot long lane (the longer the better) right in the woods. Of course this lane meanders right past your elevated blind. The downside is the deer will destroy them if there is not enough planted or an early frost melts them.

There is a solution to this problem. You can plant another 30' wide food plot lane right next to it consisting of a brassica mix (biologic maximum) and oats and wheat planted together around the end of August or wait three-four weeks after planting the soys and do the following.

Soybeans don't do well with competition, so give them a head start (3-4 weeks) and assuming you used RR soys spray with Round up followed immediately with a drilling (preferably) of the brassica,oats and wheat mix. If you have no drill you can just broadast the mix right on the growing soys with an expected lessor germination. Plant soys at the rate of 75-100 lbs per acre and the brassica at 4-5 lbs (no more) and the oats and wheat at 50 lbs each per acre. Lew when the soys are gone the brassica, oats and wheat will kick in for the remaindeer of the seasons. Use 200 lbs of 19-19-19 per acre at the soy planting and 100 lbs of urea 46-0-0 a the later planting. This saves a lot of space in your food plot and the fast growing rape and grains will catch up to the soys, which helps prevent total annilliation of the soys.

This formula took me several years of tweaking before I was satisfied and I'm happy with it. The fresh soys planted in late July is the trick for an attractant. I also plant many acres of soys in mid May for a high protien summer forage and ultimately a compliment to the corn for a winter carry over forage. Soys start to loose their appeal once the pods start growing in August and in late

I think I did something wrong with the buttons, so let me finish my thought. In late September before the leaves start to drop very few deer will vist the field unless there is little forage competition in your area, then you have another story. With just the pods of beans hanging on the stem you would think that the deer would fight over the tasty beans (I eat them), but they don't, at least not yet. They are a bit toxic. Come late January the deer will pay a vist and it will be permanent one even though it looks like there is absolutely nothing left in the soybean field. They still won't leave until the first of april. I have seen this same show repeated for over twenty years.

Lew, deer like many other forage types and the fresher the better. For attractants try to plant them in late summer, every late summer. this includes legumes like clover and alfalfa. I mention alfalfa with tongue in cheek for it is not the most digestable forage for deer. Alfalfa and red clover (mammoth variety) is designed for cattle, which can digest forage much more efficiently than deer. Alfalfa is 65% digestable for cattle and only 50% digestable for deer. Corn, young soy leaves, brassica, sugar beets and young wheat and oat plants are 85% digestible for deer, with young ladino clover being 70%. Yes, I plant a little alfalfa but only because it adds variety and deer do like it.

Lew, and other friends who want the most desireable attractant type food plot, try the above secret and you will be in for a most pleasant experience.

Keep the fun in hunting!

Ed, Thanks for all the good advice, I will definitely use a lot of it. My property is in the WUP, and I live in southern MI, therefore I can't get up there all the time and have to do my work in blocks. Right now I plan to go up in May for a week to get major work done. I had three one acre fields cut out by a logger last summer. The fields look pretty good but need to be cleaned up and sprayed. Also I need to get about 4 tons of lime per acre spread. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to make my first planting of brassicas and clover. One field I may plant in RR soy Beans and feed the deer until the first week of Aug and then disc them under and plant an attractant crop. I'm new at this but I have the whole winter to think it over and modify plans. Thanks for your help. Lew

Luv2, Thanks for the advice. I have the winter to write down a game plan and think of different ideas. I may plant RR Soy Beans in May then disc them under in late July and plant brassicas. I like Biologic Maximum and their clover /chicory blend and plan on planting some of each. Also, last year I got one field planted with seed with an experimental blend from Remington. It was a mixture of brassicas and turnups and the deer ate everything down to bare dirt. So will be planting some of it also. It is going to be a fun year. Lew

Tomas:

Soybeans will not tolerate an early spring frost. They should be planted after the soil reach's 55 degrees F. In southern lower Mi the first week of May should work, in Mid Mi (Clare area) a Mid may soy planting has worked very well for me and in the UP my guess would be late May.

Lew, if you intend to plant soys in the WUP in late May, my suggestion would be to not work up the soys if any are left in July, but to broadcast right into them in mid July your Bio maximum blend at the rate of six lbs per acre and a grain like wheat or a combo grain as previously mentioned at the rate of 100 lbs per acre.

Lew, the soys will act as a nurse crop and allow the broadcst seed to germinate (you won't see much growth early on). The soys will be gone around the first of October due to munching deer or a good frost (29 degrees or less) and then your later broadcast planting will kick into gear and last till they are gone no matter what the temperature drops to.

Lew, do not broadcast into the soys if you have sandy soil, a dry condition or you want the maximum germination and growth of your brassica and grain planting. For sure a seed pushed into the soil works best and for dry conditions or sandy soil seeds need to be placed even deeper into the soil and firmed up with a cultipoacking.

there are many options available when putting in food plots and you need to pay attention to the type of soil and growing conditions (primarily moisture) at hand.

Keep the fun in hunting!

Thanks for all the great input. It is good I have time to think over my plan and get expert advice because of my lack of experience. From what I have learned I may not be able to plant soy beans in my area. I am in Iron county near Amasa and from the locals I have been told that frosts are likely in June/July/ August and from what I have learned here, this would kill soy beans. Therefore, I am back thinking of clover, chicory, brassicas and turnips. My soil is rocky but pretty good when you get the rocks picked out. Last year I got one field planted with an experimental seed mix from Remington and it did very well even with a low pH. This year I will have my lime on and have a much better pH and hopefully get good results from Biologic seeds. Also, I want to put in some more of the Remingtom mix if I can get it again. Also I will probably pick up some more good ideas from you guys that I will just have to try. I am definitly keeping the fun in hunting. Lew

Lew:

No, if you can grow the soys in your area and the soil is medium to heavy (loam -loamy clay) plus a recent rain or one expectected just broadcast the brassica seed right into it.

Lew, you did good talking to your neighbors about planting soys. The late spring frosts combined with the early fall frosts certainly shortens your growing season. That dosen't mean you can't plant soys and get the exceptionally high protein into your deer for at least part of the antler growing season. Lew, learn from your soil as I tell everyone. Remember you are planting for deer not growimg soys for a crop. So, why not experiment and plant some soys. You won't lose a thing if you add some brassica (rape,canola and turnips) as mentioned. Lew, listen to your UP neighbors but keep on experimenting for you may come up with a super recipe for your area.

Mike, by all means broadcast your wheat right into your previously planted brassica plot. I farmed for years and broadcasting wheat is very common. One year the field was too wet to drill my wheat and the planting season was closing in on me. So I went to the local elevator with my fertilizer spreader and had them mix wheat with fertilizer and pour it into my spreader. You would need to add a bit more wheat seed doing it this way but it works, for wheat is a very easy to germinate type of seed just as all brassicas are. I think they did it this way in the bible.

Keep the fun in hunting!