I am not going to state an opinion myself and merely observe as this is a great "debate" topic for all of us land habitat addicts. Scenario: You have approximately a 2 acre spot for planting. It is 3 times in length to its' width (long rectangle) tapering at it's northern extreme. Corn or soybeans. For the sake of discussion both is not an option, you are filling your planter or spreader in the spring with either soybeans or corn....and go: *Assume soil testings, fertilizing and such is all completed, as I understand this stuff. Merely posing an either or questions of preference.
You have to rotate the crops because soy is a nitrogen fixing plant and corn is hard on nitrogen. Assess the soil to determine current nitrogen levels and then your decision will be made as to which you should start with. Sorry, this is not a debate. T
Depends on it's closest surroundings. Middle of nowhere with a few trees - corn. Surrounded by trees/cover - soybeans. There are a million variables for me.
What part of the country? Beans beans beans. I'll say it again. Beans. 1. Deer are more attracted to beans in late season. 2. If corn was planted you would need to constantly push over the corn to hunt them or the deer would not be visible in the standing corn. So plant the beans and (if legal) put up a corn feeder on the North end. And I would also put up a hot zone electric fence around at least half of the beans to be opened during late season or you may not even have any beans left in a 2 acre plot.
False to a point. If one plants beans and always in the fall overseeds with greens/annuals and such this process can be repeated continuously with zero soil issues...however most would say switch it up still in year 3 or 4 or so. Corn I get, that alone continuously isn't a good thing and seeding into corn can be tough if tightly packed in and limits sun exposure in the fall. However, just saying you HAVE to rotate is not entirely true. Besides fairly certain everyone knows the debate is which do you prefer if you had to choose corn or beans. Not talking yearly plan or supplemental feeders and such. Also going to add to OP, I understand the basics soil tests are always done each year, appropriate limings and fertilizing occur.
Continuous beans is not a very viable option either. So many things can go wrong with beans (disease, insects) to risk that in my opinion compared to corn.
IF beans were done, overseeding would be done every single year right before yellowing time frame...which is what IMO any bean plotter should do.
I agree but that doesn't help the two issues I mentioned, in fact, probably makes it worse if early enough.
Wouldn't see it making it worse, but as a side discussion, beans in general struggle with two things deer overbrowsing them or disease/insects like you said. Both could kill your soybean crop for a year, but IF we did beans planned fall overseeding would atleast still have food in the ground come hunting season whether it is growing up through standing beans or no beans at all. Nothing guaranteed that is for sure certain.
Retains more moisture (disease) and introduction of a new crop will being in new insects (not always bad ones).
Right, I agree completely but we are talking about corn and soybeans in this topic so all the rest is void, right?!
This is true, unless one says their reason for beans is ease of overseeding....I'll grant that could be a factor in reasoning.
Honestly, for sake of discusssion in this thread. *Raised in a recent discussion by some habitat addicts like myself. Was awesome discussion.
For discussion purposes, If the deer density was low enough that I could get a full stand of soybeans I would plant soy beans. If the density was too high for beans I would plant corn. How ever, in real life I would plant it in strips of different crops and rotate them each year.
Grant is an awesome man, and his overseeding into standing beans is precisely what we'd do if we go beans.
Why not oversees into standing corn as well? Has been done in both spring and late summer. In spring over seed when corn is about 12 inches tall. Brassicas will germinated and then go dormant while the corn canopies in July and August. When the corn yellows and the leaves wilt, the Brassicas will thrive, usually in September. As cheap as Brassica seed is its worth a try. Sent from my SM-G930V using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Some other habitat guys I know have had less luck overseeding into corn than soybeans for the canopy sun blocking which even dead standing corn has on things. The folks I know that do overseed corn use a row planter and seed every other or set rows wider than normal and always orient the field with rows running north/south for optimal sun exposure to rows.
