soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

hey I was woundering if I was to plant soybeans how many acers would I need to plant? would like a 2 acer plot be ok or would thay eat that up in a few weeks? Becose I was looking and thinking about planting soybeans and then plat like 5 rows of corn around it? You guys know more about what it takes than me LOL

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

A few years ago I talked with Brian Murphy of QDMA about this and he said if you have a heavy deer population like is common in the southeast that a 8 or 10 acre plot would be the smallest he would mess with. Sounded like a lot to me, but I would plant all I could. If you could fence it with some of the deer ribbon fencing I have seen till the beans get 8 or 10 inches high smaller acerage would be more helpful.

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

We do 1-2 acre plots - but we do several of them. Also, the neighboring land is farmed, (alfalfa, & soybeans both are planted 20+ acres) so our plots are not hammered to death.

They get a lot of use still- and sometimes the 1 acre plots are too small and get over-browsed.

2 acre plot


1 acre plot


Sometimes we mix it in strips with corn


FH

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

hey man thaks! I have never planted any are thay alot of trubble to keep up? I mean how much do you have to spry them and things? and also do you have to have a high ph like ALf?

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

Good looking plots there farm hunter. Looks like your have very good soil whereare. Wish ours was as good, its a silt type soil, very rocky and hilly. Soil test showed 2 ton of lime to the acre. Did all of that it grows decent but not great. It takes a lot of time to get plots looking good. You must get plenty of rainfall there as well. It gets really dry in the hills of Arkansas during the summer months (july and august). Sometimes its difficult to get somethings to grow well.

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

Thanks -

We do get lots of rainfall and snow - well over 30" per year of water.

Our soils are not great - they are typical Upland soils - Rocky (limestone), with a clay/loam - Heavy soils that hold moisture well. The pH is not good - the best is 5.5-6.0 pH (our soil test suggests 8 tons/acre for clover)- and that is why we grow corn & soybeans in these sections.What we have done is turn the soil over - each of the last 10 years - and not harvest crops - so the soil has been improving. We grow clovers in other plots that we have workon th pH.



As far as growing soybeans - we double row plant them (best we can) 15" rows - in Late May. we don't fertilize much anymore - but put down a little (200 lbs/acre Urea) at planting. We use Roundup Ready Soybeans.
Then in late June, we spray 1 time with Glyphosate (roundup) - We get some weeds because we only spray once - but we don't care - we still get lots of growth &beans.

We do not wory about running over some plants - they fill in fine.



FH

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

farm hunter looks like you have all the right equipment to do it with. I have a john deere 990 with front end assist, its a 40 horse. I have alot of attachments for it but the chisel plow is the one that I use in the hills its so rocky up there. Seems like every year the rocksmust take up to much of the nitrogen because I will pick them up and they just grow back lol. I feel for all the folks who tries to put in plots without the aide of a tractor, they make the job so much better and easier.

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

I've planted them in foodplots that range from 50 foot x 100 foot plots to 5 acre plots. If they get overbrowsed will depend on how close those plots are to other food sources. I think soybeans are great, providing both a summer through winter food source.

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

You can plant as little or as much as you want. As a summer annual and replanting in the fall, or let it stand all winter.
With deer under 20 per square mile, and good natural available habitat, as little as a 1/2 acre plot will leave the majority of it standing in December. High deer populations and poor habitat make soybean plots very short lived. This plot was devoured during the month of December once snow covered the ground. White clovers, RR corn, and RR sugar beets are adjacent plots.

That works very well together, go for it.

RE: soybean's what is a good size plot?
 

I have been down the road with soybean plots several times. I have had plots ranging from 1/2 acre to 3 acres. At 1/2 to 1 acre, the deer literally mowed down the plot...when I say "mowed", it literally looked like a mower had gone over it and cut everything back to a height of 2-3 inches. Anything in a retention cage went up over a foot. At about 2 acres, the plot was better, but still suffered a lot of browse. As a side note: I have good habitat (plenty of acorns, plenty of crops around the area including corn, beans, alfalfa) but the smaller plots seem to really get hammered.

What did seem to help was planting a decent sized plot of clover on each side of the beans. It seemed to take some of the browsing pressure off the beans.