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Corn and beans in same food plot?

Old Buck

Old Buck

Life Member
I've had great luck with both corn and soybeans individually in food plots. Now I'd like to try both planted together. Has anyone tried this and if so how did you do it and how did it work?

I have a 4 row corn planter and a 6' drill available. Both corn and beans will be roundup ready.

Old Buck
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Old Buck</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I've had great luck with both corn and soybeans individually in food plots. Now I'd like to try both planted together. Has anyone tried this and if so how did you do it and how did it work?

I have a 4 row corn planter and a 6' drill available. Both corn and beans will be roundup ready.

Old Buck </div></div>

Yep...I've tried it...read thru our thread on Roundup Ready Corn and Soybean Combination Plots

It has info on planting both together or seperately. I would suggest trying the Eagle Brand vining RR forage soybeans with your corn since it will climb the stalks.

I have such high high deer densities that they were pretty hard on the soys but the combo can and does work although higher yields of either are more likely if each is planted and managed on it's own.

I had the best success using Dual Magnum 2 residual herbicide rather then RUP (it's safe for both corn and beans) The combo is a way of maximizing forage per acre and over seeding some turnips into the whole thing in late August can even add more to your plot. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Follow up question...

It seems logical that the corn would reduce the growth and yield of the beans, but does adding beans impact the yield of corn?
Other than moisture competition, it seems the corn would soon overtake the beans and be unaffected. I'm just looking to take some early pressure off my dedicated bean plot.
 
I’m sure the beans compete for moisture, but not for N like grass and weeds. Whatever the yield loss of co-planting (just coined that word!) its well worth it for me. With my deer pressure they seem to leave the beans alone longer. Don’t know why, I would think the taller corn would just give them cover while they mow…

I'm worried what the consequences will be of co-planting year after year with out a rotation of a completely different plant. We shall see, I'm going to test it...
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Field Service</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I’m sure the beans compete for moisture, but not for N like grass and weeds. Whatever the yield loss of co-planting (just coined that word!) its well worth it for me. With my deer pressure they seem to leave the beans alone longer. Don’t know why, I would think the taller corn would just give them cover while they mow…

I'm worried what the consequences will be of co-planting year after year with out a rotation of a completely different plant. We shall see, I'm going to test it...
</div></div>

One thing about moisture...the sooner the ground is shaded then the more soil moisture retention. Shade also helps control weeds.

Long before herbicides some farmers used to plant corn and soybeans together although the rows were much wider so it's possible to "over think" something like this. We just become accustomed to the way things are done now and make assumptions about what is possible or...not /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I hope anyone who plants this combo will share pics and pros and cons of this food plot combo.
 
Here are a couple pics from last year. This plot was fertilized, tilled with a tiller, broadcasted RR corn and beans, then re-tilled. This plot was planted very late in the planting season, I think early/mid June and produced great! Guessing the pic was taken in July some time most likely late July. It's really easy to over due the corn. This plot is ~1/2 acre in size, I used a bag of beans and about 1/2 gallon of corn. I know it's really heavy on beans, but I was afraid with the late planting date that I may not get a corn crop (110 day corn). I was wrong with the excess rain and late freeze everything worked great. I was also worried that I would have a large loss of soys by burying them to deep with the tiller.

Corn was free and I spent 30 bucks on the bag of soys. Still a cheap plot.


This year I'm going to broadcast N, till, drill the corn, broadcast beans and cultipac a couple times. Thinking I can get by on a lot less seed with this method and seal in some moisture at the same time. Hoping to try some Eagle RR Forage soys as well.

Do you guys think a double cultipac will give me the seed depth that I need for the soys?

P1010315.jpg


P1010342-1.jpg
 
With smaller food plots i like what has been show.

I have broadcasted beans and have had no issues at all even without cultipacking. The key is getting them in just before a ran.


With larger plots and knowing that deer tend to like edge cover i like the idea of having corn and beans planted every other round. Anybody ever try this? I understand that this is difficult to plant if you only have access to one planter or drill, but i think it has advantages when considering deer behavior.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Do you guys think a double cultipac will give me the seed depth that I need for the soys? </div></div>

It should work great..even once over should be fine. I have broadcasted them and just ran a harrow over them but they came up very uneven...not a problem except that deer and turkeys hammered them as they came up. If there is even germination then they come up all at once and at least have a fighting chance!

I have seen corn and soys planted...2 rows or corn and two rows of soys but deer mowed the soys feeding in the protected rows of corn. Any combo can work if deer pressure isn't to high.

Planting corn around the outside and soys in the center can provide a poacher screen but plenty of forage in the center. My reasons were soley to maximize forage per acre with limited acres.

Always interesting to see diffrent combos tried and pros and cons discussed. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
OK.......here's a dumb question. Can you mix the beans and the corn in the same hopper on the planter??
 
Not really. If you are using a planter, you use different plates for planting corn and beans, unless you are using Kinze plates. They will plant both. This year we are going to try an every other row plot. First 6 will be corn, then every other row will be beans. Should be interesting.
 
Would double culipacking cause too much compaction and make it hard for the corn to break through the crust?

The 'Bonker
 
I'm not sure why anyone would even bother with this. If you have had great luck planting individually, why change your operation? Plain and simply the soybean plants are going to act as weeds, sucking water (most limiting factor in crop production)and N from the soil. Soybeans are luxary consumers. If there is extra N available in the soil, they will first utilize that before they start fixing N from the atmosphere. They will not provide N to your corn in this growing season.
I'm sure both crops will grow together, but you will not get the same yield as if planting seperately.
I would like to hear how your research turns out.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: midwestfoodplots</div><div class="ubbcode-body">We use JD71 series planters and there is a universal plate that we use and seems to work pretty good. </div></div>

I actually have it backwards, Kinze will not work. Have to switch plates when using a Kinze planter, but most older JD planters will plant both.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'm not sure why anyone would even bother with this. </div></div>

If you have limited acres to plant food plots on then you can achieve more forage per acre by combining crops. True production of each might be slightly reduced but over all it produce more production per acre.

Corn will out grow/out perform the soybeans if planted at conventional planting rates and mine was completely unaffected by moisture levels.

There is no question that higher fertilizer rates may be needed but plenty of people have tried this combo and had great results.

Personally if I had unlimited acres and lower deer numbers I would just plant corn becuase IMO it's hard to beat. I've found it impossible to produce enough on 6 acres to keep deer from eating everything in sight by late September.

During the growing months the deer fed more on the growing soybeans and left the corn alone. That alone was an advantage but it still wasn't enough.

Why change your operation? Why not?? That's half the fun...trying something different! That's how better mousetraps are built... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
I planted corn on 40 inch rows with soybeans in between. The corn was and still is amazing. If it were to be harvested, it would have been 160+ bu/acre. That is without fertilizer. The beans were just okay. The lack of good sunlight hurt the beans. Both were Roundup Ready products. Two days ago I still had at least half of the crop standing.
 
Well, I'll be mixing the two this spring when my plots go in so I'll be sure to post pics of how it turns out. Could be ugly. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
dbltree, I agree that trying new things is fun. It is just my opinion that this really has more negatives than positives. There always has to be a nay sayer. If you have limited acres, I wouldn't take the chance of having a crop failure; by increasing the stress on the corn plants from the interseeded beans. I don't believe that you are going to increase forage/acre by doing this. Also, as I mentioned before why fix something that isn't broke. Maybe a person with limited acres should look more at an perenial forage than at corn and beans.
In the case of the 160 bushel/acre corn; just think how much longer that corn would have lasted if it were 200 bushel corn instead of 160. A little bit of N goes a long ways. What did the beans yield?
I don't plant a whole lot of food plots, 6 acres. I would rather leave around half stricly to corn and the other half to beans and perennials. You can replant the beans throughout the growing season if you want to keep forage available. I don't hunt over my food plots, I really put them there to keep deer around in the winter for shed hunting. Corn is key!
 
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