Check out why I think soybeans should be a part of everyone’s food plot strategy if you have the ground and means to plant them. Go to the articles section or open this blog post and Click Here Now is the time to start planning out your food plots for 2013….if you haven’t already!!!
Whitetail Habitat Consulting @ Full Potential Outdoors
Whitetail Habitat and Hunting Consultant
Very Informative, I think i am going to read it again, right now….I was thinking of switching from Rape to Soy Beans this year, so this was a big help to read. Thanks.
I found your article very informative on planting soy beans as a food source and attractant for white tailed deer. For years my food plots were a combination of Clover, chicory and alpha. then in the fall I would plant rye and oats. I look forward to enhancing my food plots with adding soy beans to the mix. Thank you for providing the information on soybeans to all hunters/sportsman.
Clover and Alfalfa plots during the summer are a favorite of mine too. Alfalfa is awesome until it gets cold. Winter rye and oats are great fall plots! I have never tried chicory? I like soybeans so much because like most hunters, my hunting areas/farms are not huge…and if other hunters in the area have standing beans or bait (where it is legal or not) the only thing I found that can compete and win are standing beans. Thank you for the feedback.
Terry, was wondering how your soybeans turned out this year if you planted any? Good luck this season.
Peppy: Is there any place around our area you are a ware of that handles Round-Up ready soy beans, and the right fertilizer. Once again thanks for all your wonderful articles on managing ones land.
Roger Mancl
Roger, for you I would go to Jay Mar in Plover. Their prices are ok but they have a decent selection and they can hook you up with the right fertilizer. For soybeans, they have a 4-14-42 mix or something like that that I have used before. Use a high category I or low II seed for your area.
Pep
Can you go through a step by step process on planting soybeans. Like you I have access to a small tractor and disk. Do you disk plant en disk again. What about compacting? Any advice is appreciated so as not to waste time and money.
Dennis,
A step by step would simply be to disc-plant-disc again. It would be impossible to describe exactly how for each scenario…for example are you starting from corn stubble, sod, crp grass, weeds, etc. The bottom line is this:
1. Disc the ground enough so that you are confident that once the seed is spread you can cover the seed with soil in a pass or two with you disc. This might be very little on bean stubble and quite a bit on sod.
2. Spread the seed and fertilizer.
3. Disc again to cover the seed. Ideally, 1 inch or so is a good depth for beans but using this method of discing them in you won’t get this perfect and some beans will remain above the ground. This is ok.
That’s pretty much it. Hope this helps.