Deer love soybeans! They are attracted to them from when they come out of the ground to the last pods available during late winter! Unfortunately, deer can damage and even kill soybeans if they browse them too much when they first start to grow.

Knowing this I often plant soybeans at twice the normal rate in small plots. This allows deer to feed but there are simply too many young soybean plants for all of them to be damaged.

Planting at a higher density doesn’t hurt the beans as the young plants are not competing for water and nutrients like more mature plants. By the time the soybeans mature deer have usually thinned the plant population enough that the remaining stems can mature without too much competition.

If you are planting small plots with soybeans, trying increasing the planting rate if deer are wiping out the crop before hunting season.

Growing Deer together,

Grant