Chipdasqrrl
Active Member
How much acreage would it take to get soybeans to have pods at least into December? I would guess there are about 15-20 deer using this 80 acre property, and the nearest ag is a large cornfield about a mile away
Minimum Soybean acreage?
- Thread starter Chipdasqrrl
- Start date
Bottomland
Active Member
If I have less that six contiguous acres, they will wipe it out within weeks. But my deer density is extremely high.
Crimson n' Camo
Active Member
I'd probably want a minimum of 10 acres.....just depends on the deer density and how much other food is available.
Chipdasqrrl
Active Member
Sounds like I can't expect pods to last long with a few acres, but I'm guessing it wouldn't take as much for forage throughout the Summer
Jason Broom
Well-Known Member
Corn and soybeans are people food, although they are great for deer food plots, if you have the right conditions (and deep pockets) to grow them. For my money, there are much less expensive ways to achieve the same great results. On my property in Northern Michigan, I can't even get brassicas to grow on smaller plots...deer just nip them off as they come up. I'm tellin' ya, they have NO sense of deferred gratification, whatsoever! 
Even with relatively low densities, creating well-screened plots following the Lick Creek rotation is the easiest, most cost-effective recipe for success. Soybeans are a big roll of the dice, unless you have a lot of "green" to gamble.
Even with relatively low densities, creating well-screened plots following the Lick Creek rotation is the easiest, most cost-effective recipe for success. Soybeans are a big roll of the dice, unless you have a lot of "green" to gamble.
swat1018
Well-Known Member
You probably won't have to worry about pods with intense summer grazing......
farmhunter
Well-Known Member
I do it with 6 acres - and no protection. I cannot plant them everywhere though - on a pipeline type plot- they wipe it out - and it never canopies - I do better in 1-2 acre blocks - in the bigger field. Field edges can get sparce. We have 30+ deer per square mile. We plant 3-4 acres of clovers too - and try to keep them close to each other. We have a dairy farm neighbor and that helps.
With ag beans - we get pretty decent pods with heavy use - somewhere there is a limit though.
This is a 2014 plot - In this one I didn't get the rows as close as I usually do - still without browse they would have canopied - some of my plots are better - this is about as "bad" as I like to see it get - but it takes about 6 acres.
Mid August Prime growth for this example
same plot - Sept 21 - this is how they looked - still lots of pods going into fall - but you can see that going into sept - they can really wipe out a plot - but the leaves then yellow and drop anyhow.
that said - its all relative to what other food is around too - but I thought a visual example might be good to see.
some plots get like this at prime late August - but by Jan - ( jan 15th in second pic.) pretty much every last bean is gone. There is actually a few beans left up near the shooting hose on 1/15 - but close to all gone
9-3-16
1/15
With ag beans - we get pretty decent pods with heavy use - somewhere there is a limit though.
This is a 2014 plot - In this one I didn't get the rows as close as I usually do - still without browse they would have canopied - some of my plots are better - this is about as "bad" as I like to see it get - but it takes about 6 acres.
Mid August Prime growth for this example
same plot - Sept 21 - this is how they looked - still lots of pods going into fall - but you can see that going into sept - they can really wipe out a plot - but the leaves then yellow and drop anyhow.
that said - its all relative to what other food is around too - but I thought a visual example might be good to see.
some plots get like this at prime late August - but by Jan - ( jan 15th in second pic.) pretty much every last bean is gone. There is actually a few beans left up near the shooting hose on 1/15 - but close to all gone
9-3-16
1/15
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