Forage Soybeans

Bruce from Can. · Jul 28, 2016

Has anyone here ever growen soybeans for forage? My thinking is you would chop them with a forage harvester, or bale them and wrap. Can't ask any of my neighbours how this works cause nobody around me has tried it. Should be able to plant them in June and bale/chop in August. would the protein be similar to alfalfa or clover, and could I under seed hay?

4520BW · Jul 28, 2016

My dad said they use to bale soybeans when he was a kid...1950s. I have rolled up bean fodder behind the combine to use a outside bedding for the cows and they will it.

Jim Phelps · Jul 28, 2016

Mu grandfather used to raise a bean and millet hay, we square baled it. But it was really dusty , baler would be black with lent and dust. Also very heavy, we had to use a ground driven rake, our wheel rake would not turn it.

Glenn F. · Jul 28, 2016

Just guessing here, but by the time the beans have reached their protein potential I think the stalks are nearly inedible.

Glenn F.

mtf · Jul 28, 2016

We used to grow black beans and millet. Mainly for the dove hunts, because dad loved to hunt. The hay needed to be cut at early maturity or the cows didn't seem to like. I have not seen black beans for sale for years. Nathan

kevinecwi · Jul 28, 2016

I've seen it done as "haylage" put up in a tower silo. I'd say cut when the pods are just starting to show a bean. At the county fair usually there they have samples of soybean hay on display, dried down some from being cut smells just like the alfalfa next to it.

coonie minnie · Jul 28, 2016

It's usually done as an emergency type forage. There have been some varieties bred for more forage type use, but it has never really caught on. Disadvantages include less plant sugars than other types of hay, so poor fermentation; if cut too late, high oil levels in the forage from the beans; only one cut; relatively pricy seed for what you get back, etc.

In my neighborhood, just direct seeding alfalfa would be a lot better choice than trying to use soy as nurse crop. Soy also would provide too much shade. We typically no till seed alfafla in mid to late april after using a roundup burndown. Usually is ready to cut with few weeds by the end of June. If the weather is right, you'll get 2 more cuts by Labor Day.

Jim Phelps · Jul 28, 2016

We baled alot of bean hulls for farmers who feed silage. They said the need roughage in their diet. We have even baled corn stalks for one guy. Not sure how the cattle ate them.

Brown Swiss · Jul 28, 2016

You must be talking about the ones that grow 7 to 8 foot tall? I thought about planting some, just never did it!

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 28, 2016

My brother-in-law did it once and the protein was very good but he felt that he had to much sorting out and had to shovel feed bunks to often. Maybe he should have chopped it finer? Tom

hd6gtom · Jul 28, 2016

when foxtail moved into the country in the early 1960 s we had a been field that was taken over by it. We cut and raked it beans and all in the fall, beans were mature. baled it in small round bales and feed it along side alalafa bales. Cows cleaned it all up.

NY 986 · Jul 28, 2016

I've heard of it chopped like haylage and bagged. I never heard how it worked out.

MARK ROBKE · Jul 28, 2016

I still remember my Dad and uncle square baling soybeans when I was little,for their dairy herd.I tried it for my beef cattle,round baling it,but I was just experimenting,but the cows ate it fairly well.I tend to think it would make better balage.I believe it would help the soil as a legume too.Mark

Formerly PaMike · Jul 28, 2016

I planted forage beans last year. It was a disaster. They said said till just before the leaves turn, that will be max plant. I cut them, laid them out, and round baled them. I baled them too dry, so the leaves went to powder. The stalks were too big and course, and since it wasn't chopped they really wont eat the stalk. They did eat all the leaves up that they could find. I would give them a try. Don't let the stalk get too big and chop it wet enough that the fermentation helps break down the stalk.

LAA · Jul 28, 2016

There was a lot of soybean hay grown in the deep south as recently as 30 years ago, usually with a summer annual like sudex to minimize lodging and increase yield, the increase in the elevator price of soybeans as well as less livestock is the reason not much is grown today. There are very high yielding forage varieties available now and I would think in your area soybeans could be grown with oats to prevent lodging and make a high quality, high yielding hay.

hrRoss · Jul 28, 2016

i had a field of beans years ago, wasnt gonna get ripe before the frost, making pods, but were gonna be green, cut with haybine, mixed with corn silage, in the wagon,blew in silo. had 2 choppers going and wagons, 2 different farms 2 miles apart, 2miles from home, while my wife was in hospitol, sure coulda used extra person. cows ate like candy

Traditional Farmer · Jul 29, 2016

Your weather is pretty cool in the Summer so I'd try to mix in some Hairy Vetch with the Soybeans.Also cowpeas are about the quickest growing forage crop you can plant and its great feed.

george md · Jul 29, 2016

Bruce,
We raised soy beans and sorghum mix from 1954 to

74, planted a bushel of black wilson beans and 1/2

bushel of sorgum to the acre . Always made 1st cutting

of hay in late may or early june ,turned the ground ,

planted the beans , chopped for silo end of august or

early sept , plowed again and planted barley and wheat

with timothy and in spring added clover for next years

hay and the following year 1st cutting, and so the

rotation goes.

Protein is great , tonnage is great ,cows eat it better

than corn. We fed in a stanchion barn , never anything

clean up. Had a gehl forage harvester with 6 ft grass head

and it was all it could handle . Sorgum would be 6 to 10ft

tall depending on kind and weather, have had some that was

13 ft tall in the low land.

Quit farming in 75.

george

Forage Soybeans

Bruce from Can.

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4520BW

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Jim Phelps

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Glenn F.

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mtf

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kevinecwi

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coonie minnie

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Jim Phelps

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Brown Swiss

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tomstractorsandtoys

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hd6gtom

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NY 986

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MARK ROBKE

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Formerly PaMike

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LAA

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hrRoss

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Traditional Farmer

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george md

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