Well, we built it. Now we'll just need to see if the deer will show up this fall. We've had does show up this year but no fawns yet. Not sure what the deal is with that. Last year we had quite a few fawns. This is our 2 acre plot up by the house. We have a total of one acre of corn along the edge of the plot as a border from the neighbors place and 1 acre of beans btw the corn and the timber. We took these pic's last night. This is right at the edge of the beans. Out in the plot further they are close to 5' tall.
The fawns Are probably hiding in the corn or the beans. They could be 10 feet away and as lush as those beans are you wouldn't see them. I like the looks of your plot. I bet towards dusk that field fills up.
It is hard to tell. Looking west, like it is in that pic, there is a low spot that we are unable to see. We put our camera down there to see if the activity is in that area. There are plenty of tracks.
The beans are crazy tall in most areas here in Central IL. I imagine you just can't see the fawns right now because of height issues. will you be harvesting the crop or just eventually bush hog it after the season?
I've never personally had a bean plot. Is it a good thing or bad to have a plot look like that? To have a beans that tall means the deer are not eating it. Isn't that the purpose of them?
They'll find it. I wouldn't worry about that. And from the looks of your plot, they need to! You might not be able to see them in it. You've almost lost 2 good looking kids already! Haha!
If the beans are too tall at leaf drop you can always run an atv through in a few places for lanes. I think technically if you run a mower through it that's considered baiting in MO.
Probably do like last year. We just left them standing. The deer were in them when the weather would turn bad. Only problem with last winter was there wasn't much snow.
Not necessarily. It means we'll have food for the deer during the winter when all the crops have been harvested. The farmer that is renting our place also has beans planted. The farmer across the road has beans planted. The farmer down the road to the west has beans planted. If you walk along the edge of the beans that are next to the timber it is obvious they are hitting the beans. We have clover also that shows signs of being eaten on. The difference btw our farm and where we hunt at my in-laws is the deer density. Where we are at, there are many options for food and cover. At my in-laws there are many options for cover and only their place for food. The closest ag ground near my in-laws is 2 miles as the crow flies. We planted beans at the in-laws on July 9th. They took about 5 days to germinate. After 2 weeks from planting they were in the 6-8" size range. I checked them yesterday. Looks like someone had the mower set at 4". It is mostly just little sprouts now. In that part of the metro area there were 200 deer per square mile just few years ago. There are managed hunts at the county parks designed to cut back on the population. In the area around our farm the deer density is hard to determine. There are so many places to hide and so much food to eat.
I will try to catch it just before leaf drop and broadcast turnips or some Crimson Clover. Use the leaves as mulch. I think you are right about the mowing/baiting thing.
