We have had diddly squat! May as well be in NC and have better temps! I kind of hope it stays that way. Then I get to rag on my son in law to get out in my field and get it plowed and disked up. No excuse that the field is wet. His dad came out in the fall of 2019 to plow for him and it never got disked. It's not even fun riding on that with a 4x4.
With the cold snap we just had along with 7-8" of additional snow, the deer came in early last night. I couldn't get them all in the picture but there were at least 35 out there when this pic was taken. You can see where the deer have stripped the beans as they work up toward the house. They do this because they know that the dogs and I are in there. I have to sneak to the window because if there is too much movement from inside, they will flee the scene.
Well, I'm going to say that there are a lot of food sources around here. They may not be as concentrated as mine but there is ample browse and plentiful picked crop fields that get a lot action. There is some supplemental feeding in the area as well. Anyway, they make it to green up in pretty good shape. Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
Up here on the hill it is knee high ...deer are in the hill side swamps. I know that sounds strange but we have many swamp/ marshy areas on the hill. They are also in the pine plantations the civilian conservation core planted decades ago. Those and the I'm moving from the city to start a christmas tree farm ....failures.
I plant about 2 1/2 acres of beans. Adjacent to that is a 1/2 acre experimental plot which is in clover right now. We now have only about a foot of snow but the temps are very cold. -27 this morning. The deer are bedding in areas where there are clumps of pines. One of my neighbors has about a 10 acre patch of real thick pines and at this time a lot of the deer are coming from there to feed on the beans.
Seedway has a new tall tower soy bean they are marketing to hunters. I need to call my local dealer to price check. I wish they'd sell them direct, seedway isn't all that far from me. I'd rather skip the middle man. We are suppose to go to Texas at the end of May. But daughter and hubby said no to me stoppig and picking up some seed on the trip back. Well that would be my only reason to go during prime planting, so they will probably be taking that trip alone. Garden trumps a high school graduation. Besides I'm not sure I'd have a vaccine by then, white, not a prisoner, alian, first responder,essential worker,65, politician,ect ect. By then I won't even be fat enough...lol
I found out about soybeans for hunters when I called the co-op last year. They wanted to sell me two 50 # bags of special "Buck on the bag" soybeans for something like $375. I said how come they only cost $56/bag last year ........ Oh those are ag beans. Yeah, give me two of those. Jeez
Are you talking the seed way or just the usual " food plot '' gouged..lol Personally I prefer iron clay peas but they are like double to get up here in the North. I also like and use regular tall conventional soy beans that I've gotten to 40 inches.. Over seed with trictical or plant with buckwheat or hemp and even small plots will produce well in high density area's.
At first they quoted me the hunters food plot type of soybean. I made a post about it last year. I have good results with regular ag beans for less money. When we have a good growing season, temp and rain, my beans will hit 40" as well. They did last season. They were up to the pockets on my jeans. I also over seed the beans with patches of sunflower seeds. A lot of critter like those.
I have snowmobiles. Our snow year this year is so bad that I just finally went through them this weekend to ensure they're ready to go if we ever get enough snow to bother. On a normal year I'm usually riding by January or so. Thankfully I've had them for several years so they are long since paid for. They don't cost me any money if they just sit.
Wow! Last night was a record amount of deer in my beans at once. I counted 54 and was having a hard time keeping it straight. As you can see they are up in front of the house now.
I still wonder how more and more deer that aren't from the area find out about it. Early on there were some nice bucks out there. One 8 pointer kept a close watch on the house so it was tricky trying to get pics without spooking them.
