These beans are called forage beans, because they produce a lot of plant compared to the popular ag varieties. Farmers who want a lot of seed really don't want to have a whole lot of plant if they can help it. However, folks cutting silage for cattle like the plants that produce more leaves and stems. All that freshly growing plant is very high in protein and they cut it green and use it for feeding their cattle. What this means to the deer manager is you get a very high protein source out there when bucks are growing antlers and does are nursing fawns. With the Group 7 maturity, you get probably a 4-6 week longer growing period vs the Group 4 and 5 ag beans. I planted mine at the same time my neighbor planted his ag beans and he was harvesting soybeans in August when mine didn't even start to drop leaves until early October. I also found that these beans do produce a good amount of seed. I have never harvested mine but I'd say last year's crop would've done very well had I run a combine through it.
I know a lot of y'all have small acreages to plant and you have heavy hog pressure. In my experience talking with landowners. hog rooting on freshly planted corn is a gigantic problem, to the point some of these farmers are replanting 2 and 3 times in places. A 3 acre corn plot doesn't stand a chance. I don't think they have as much of a problem with freshly planted beans because the hogs are going for the corn kernel under the dirt. Also, I don't have any problem with raccoons raiding the bean pods like you will have with them raiding corn ears in a plot in the woods. If you want to grow better deer, having a summer bean plot is exponentially better than having a summer corn plot. The deer are going to come to the corn mostly during the fall and winter. If you have heavy deer pressure, I have heard to plant at least 2-3 acres of beans, and most folks are putting up electric fencing at least until the beans get a foot tall or so.
I planted these soybeans mainly for ducks. The amount of seed out there right now (February 16) is astounding and I've had ducks in them like flies for the last month. Soybeans are not the preferred hot crop for ducks, and I'm no biologist but I think it has a lot to do with the metabolizable (is that a word?) protein vs corn, and the fact that soybeans rot very quickly in the water as compared to corn and rice. However, these forage soybeans do not shatter easily (which means when they are mature, the seed pods don't pop open for weeks or even months as compared to some of the ag varieties that will pop open and drop their seed on the ground in late fall). For that reason, I think they are good for ducks because you have seed up out of the water on the stalk for a long time. My forage beans started dropping seed around January 1 last year, and this year they are still holding most of their seed in the pod as of February 15. In fact, the ducks are pulling the pods off of the stalks as high as they can reach and eating them that way.
I get my forage bean seed from Specialty Seed in Straight Bayou. They deliver seed to co-ops all around the state as well. Their website for the forage beans is http://www.foragesoybeans.com. This year I'm going to try some of their non RR Tyrone forage soybeans mixed with Iron Clay cowpeas in deer plots. I have some spots where I don't want glyphosate drift on young trees, and I can spray clethodim (Select, Volunteer, etc) for grass and not hurt the trees or the cowpeas. I'm also considering planting an upland mix of Laredo soybeans, partridge pea, wooly croton, black-eyed susans, and clasping coneflower for quail and deer. I planted some Laredos a few years back and they came back pretty thick voluntarily the next year. They are a tough little bean with a hard, black seed coat that lasts a long time on the dirt.
Pics from this past year.
Planted on May 21. This picture is on May 30. If you have a small acreage and a high deer population, this is the most vulnerable time in the growing cycle for the beans.
This is on July 10 (peak fawning time in Mississippi) after being sprayed twice already with glyphosate. Spraying on this date with Blazer just for coffeeweed.
August 17. They are about 5.5' tall.
October 22. I know folks who say the deer will feed on the beans all winter long, but I don't have enough deer to really know.
January 24. The ducks didn't even fool with this hole until about mid-January right around the big freeze. Several hundred specklebellies also found it and they stripped every stalk above what the ducks could get. The mystical flight of the steel shot ensued.
