Broadcasting Beans----small food plots question

8N'r--WI · May 20, 2010

I have some 1/2 acre plots that were in corn last year...my plan is to chop up what is still standing with a bush hog, disc it all up, and broadcast RR Soybean seed on it.....

These fields are left for wildlife only each year.

Will this be a waste of time and money, or with adequate rain, can I expect to see any type of decent results?? Do I need to spray weed control after the beans are in?

If I want to improve the stand, should I plan on dragging the plots after seeding, or does anyone have any other ideas???

The guy that rents most of my ag land is already finished planting and I know it would be a waste of his time asking him to drill the beans in these small areas....

The wildlife won"t starve if my plots go unplanted this year...:>)

Thanks for all your comments....Tim

old · May 20, 2010

I put in food plots all the time. I do not spray for weeds etc but I also believe in doing things 100% organic. What you want to do should work just fine and if you have manure that will help a lot. I have one plot that has turnip, corn and millo in it and it has started to come up well and another plot with sweet corn and turnips and it is doing ok also

thurlow · May 20, 2010

You'll need to do something to get the seed covered; harrow, disk, do-all, whatever you've got. Might even consider sowing before bush-hogging/disking. Don't know what kind of disk you've got; may have trouble working up much of a seedbed behind the cornstalks. As to spraying......depends on what you wind up with and what you want. Any weeds are probably gonna make seed, also.

RobertTX · May 20, 2010

I put in a few acres of food plots every year. I disk once or twice, depending on soil condition, broadcast seed by hand, then disk again to fold the seed in. This works very well and I get excellent results if the rains are favorable. I have found that leaving some weeds, grasses, etc helps give some protection to the seed from birds and wild hogs.

jm. · May 20, 2010

Two diskings will work but your term draging could work but I like to either run over complet with tire of RTV OR USE A CULTIPACKER.
Cultipacker then when they are 3 to 4 weeks old small dose of roundup and you can get perfect beans.. I KNOW old not your way and if you want beans and other stuf forget the spray and do it Old,s way. It is only wildlife feed so what diffrence dose it make...What ever suit..We do some that I use a mix 1/3 soy beans / 1/3 milo (grain sargum) and 1/3 corn..Just leave it standing and by spring it is all gone..

paul · May 20, 2010

It works well.

You need some loose dirt.

Covering the seed with a drag or a light disking will be best.

You will need some weed control, or those 1/2 acre plots will become very messy & hard to control over the years. You will bank up a lot of seed in the soil & be infested for years.

Select or one of it's generics will kill all the grasses.

FlexStar will hurt most of the broadleaves well enough for what you are doing, tho First Rate or some of the others will do better.

Of course you could be starting with roundupready or libertylink beans & use those chemicals to control everything easily.

--->Paul

GordoSD · May 20, 2010

You have plenty of time for beans. Some plots I plant in late June.
SO you can double disc it now wait three weeks untile the weeds and grasses have emerged. Then knock them down with RU.
Then palnt and set your disc very slight angle and go over the seeds.
There's not a lot of overhead cover in mature beans so some weeds are neede so the raptors don't feed on the birds.

Gordo

8N'r--WI · May 20, 2010

Thanks again to all for all the info...I will try to take some pics of the progress....starting this Saturday...

Tim

Broadcasting Beans----small food plots question

8N'r--WI

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old

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thurlow

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RobertTX

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jm.

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paul

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GordoSD

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8N'r--WI

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