So how much would you guys be willing to pay a farmer to leave soybeans in? For ease of conversion, let's say an acre worth. Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
If it were my ground and I was leasing it out and the hunters wanted me to leave an acre of beans like I just cut, $600.
I was going to say $550 so I wasn't too far off. For whatever reason they are not in favor of doing so (they lease the farm ground). Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
Depends on what they yield over the rest of the field. 60 bushel beans @ $9.10 = $546 + $100 of inputs on the low side= $646 - $50 doing a favor for the hunters ~$600. Farmers don't like to leave anything standing in the field, it's directly the opposite to what they are used to. Experience programs us to expect it to be a burden at a later date to deal with. If the farmer is leasing the ground and the land owner requests it left and the farmer is compensated he should keep his mouth shut and be obliged to do as asked.
I agree with Covey, it is against the grain and mentality of a farmer to leave crops...so you might have to pay slight premium for him to do so. I've decided we'll go with discing the soil and broadcast then drag and roll....and pray. Now the question becomes the difference in Soybean seed selection. Being the plan to overseed is our desire I could care less if I have green beans in October...prefer they be turning yellow in mid or late September for overseeding prior to season....so maturity length I know what we'll pick. However, shatter resistance.....experiences? I've discussed in PM with some but sure others would love it discussed here too. How many of you have experienced shatter? If so was it with supposed shatter resistant beans or no? I know Real World beans claim to have the best resistance...but don't know anyone directly I trust that has used them and can back this up.
I've yet to see an AG bean that doesn't shatter in the fall on warm windy days at least to some extent.
Have you only used Ag beans then greatwhite? I've already assumed shatter isn't as big of a deal for me, since overseeding is going to occur and the food lost is not crop money lost like farmers would see shatter as.
Yes. I'm not sure how many companies are out there that breed just for "food plot beans" but we have soybean breeding projects through the U of M and every bean I've seen shatters eventually, especially under the conditions I mentioned earlier. At home we use 100% Asgrow beans but we use just about every kind out there plus the U of M breeder beans at work. I guess, like you mentioned, shattering of food plot beans in my opinion isn't the end of the world. They are still going to be on the ground and with no tillage, will be available to the deer and other wildlife as long as they don't rot.
I have done soybeans three different ways to date with success changing very little between them. We typically plant our soybeans at approximately 75lb per acre. We recently bought a planter which brought great results as most would expect, but utilizing a 2 row corn planter every spot that we went over essentially twice (30 inch planter making us "double plant" to reduce to 15 inch rows) the beans did not grow well. Now the year before we simply used a moultrie spreader to broadcast the beans at a the same rate and had ridiculous results. Of the 2 acre chunk we plant we cultipacked half and dragged the other half with a harrow drag and growth was indistinguishable between the two different sections. Realistically the biggest thing about soybeans is that they are "weak" against being planted too deep. I have seen soybeans sprout on top of the soil and dig their root systems into the soil to become strong plants with large yield. All in all no matter how you plant the soybeans make sure you have a well prepped soil bed that is well aerated and that the soybeans have some soil cover after planting.
Ty, head into your local coop and talk to one of the guys in there. Let him know what you need them for, and ask if he can point you in the direction of the best variety for your situation. I ended up using Wilcross Soybeans which are grown locally. Their booklet has a chart on it that shows how resistant each variety is to certain environment factors. One of those factors is shatter resistance. Clearly at some point, they will all shatter, but some varieties are more resistant than others. Your local coop will know what will work best for you and you are only paying ag prices vs. buck in a bag prices. I feel like I payed about $40-$50 a bag the last time I purchased them. I know Real World are quite a bit more than that.
Depending on your deer density, you may want to be more worried of over browsing than shatter. Deer will probably still find the beans even if they shatter, but if over browsed from the start there may be no pods. I know Eagle Seed has some high browse resistance varieties and varieties that grow 5-6' tall. However, if there is a local Deer Hunters association they may have a foodplot seed program and give you free seed as long as you sign a waiver stating that you will not harvest the beans. They will be last year's Ag soybeans that didn't sell, but they are free. Just somethings to keep it mind on your journey
Ty, We used Real World seed last year. Planted 2 acres of their beans. Didn't have any of them harvested at all. We disked them under April 24th. We ended up having a better crop of beans this year than last. The winter we had last year was fairly mild with less than 5" of snow for the whole winter. They are by far the most shatter resistant beans I've used. We had beans this year and last year that were 5' tall and we're covered with beans from top to bottom. Hope this is helpful.
Help me out here Covey. I'm not a farmer, so i'm not really that familiar with these things. Are you saying to buy seed from a farmer that harvested the seed in the fall and re-plant it in the spring? Just wanting to get clarification. If so, what do you think the cost savings would be?
I do think that is what he was implying, but I would look around for an organization that gives out free foodplot seed like pheasants forever or deer hunters associations. That way, you get RR seed which for us is a big deal because we always have a weed problem. Someone may have mentioned that if you plant beans from RR seed that they hold on to the trait, but I am not certain on that.
Bin run is a general term used to describe non-certified seed whatever the source may be. Cost savings will vary with bean market price. Right now buying beans directly they are a bit over $9 a bushel. That's a bushel, not a seed unit...so a full 60#. There are some potential problems with doing it that way however. PVP (plant variety protection) varieties and beyond that seed may be too dirty to run through a planter. PVP beans can be bought for "feed" though *wink wink* and for those that broadcast and harrow or roll in the dirty beans don't matter. Yes, RR beans carry the trait over generations.
