Food Plot Failure?

By GrowingDeer,

  Filed under: ,

← Grant's Answers — Ask Grant

Question
We planted 7 or 8 acres of Eagle Brand forage soybeans in May in Macon County, Georgia at 50 lbs. per acre.  We probably have 30 or 40 deer per square mile per QDMA charts (maybe more) and some hogs.  This is a QDMA antler restriction county and we are more restrictive.  We have a decent buck/doe ratio.  We herbicided and drilled the seed.  While we have had some drought, the beans got to about 6-8 inches by early June and then they were completely eaten by last week (July 15th)!  Nothing left except nutgrass.  Any idea what we may have done wrong?

Don

Don,

It doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong, except maybe underestimate the local deer herd density.  There were 75+ deer per square mile at The Proving Grounds (based on a camera survey) last fall and we had 50 acres of food plots on 1,500+ acres of land.  Our small plots were heavily browsed, but our larger plots (3+ acres) looked like production soybean fields in Iowa.  This and other observations from properties where I work, including in Georgia, leads me to assume something is out of balance at your property.

Here are a few thoughts…

  1. I always like to plant soybeans as soon as the soil temperature is 62 degrees at 2” deep.  This allows the beans to grow rapidly before heat and drought stress usually is a factor.  By allowing the beans to become established during the early spring, they can withstand droughts and browse pressure much better than beans established during periods of higher stress.
  2. There is usually more quality native forage available during the early growing season as compared to later.  Quality native forage serves as a buffer to newly established beans by providing attractive alternative forage.  Any relief of browse pressure from the young soybeans will likely pay huge dividends in yield per acre a month or two later.
  3. I’ve been extremely pleased with the Gallagher Food Plot Protection System at allowing soybeans to establish healthy roots and forage before allowing browsing.  This is a great option in areas where the deer herd density won’t allow quality forage to become established.
  4. Bullets are back in good supply!  If your goal is balancing the local deer herd’s density with the habitat’s ability to produce quality forage, then it sounds like an increased doe harvest may be a good option.  If possible, a better option may be to combine reducing the herd’s density by implementing a doe harvest while providing more quality forage simultaneously.
  5. It usually requires a different herbicide than Roundup to kill nutgrass (I’m assuming we are both talking about Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.)).  Some of the recommended herbicides that will control nutgrass are not compatible with soybeans.  I recommend you read the labels on some relatively new herbicides such as Image and Manage.

Growing Deer together,

Grant