Corn and soybeans as primary food sources

[The Silence]

I wanted to find out from you guys when corn and soybeans are used as primary food sources especially at this time of year and through the summer. Do they ever eat just the leaves of young corn and beans or do they wait for certain developmental stages of the plants such as tassling, pod development etc?

 

[JNRBRONC]

Deer will browse young corn leaves. The deer love to bite the silk tips of ears of corn. Then eat the corn once mature. Soybean leaves until they turn color in the fall, then pods.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Muskrat24]

Definitely eat young bean leaves and corn at stages. They eat the ear shoots and tops out of the corn just prior to tasseling which keeps each corn plant that this happens to from producing an ear.

 

[Central Iowa]

Deer will browse young corn leaves. The deer love to bite the silk tips of ears of corn. Then eat the corn once mature. Soybean leaves until they turn color in the fall, then pods.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I second this. They love the tender beans when they start growing. I have added soybeans to many of my cereal grain mixes if I have some to get rid of in my late summer / fall planting.

 

[Sligh1]

I love nutrition of beans. Wish they got in ground earlier in planting season. Agree on above with corn. Early on, I thought my (too small!) corn plots looked “great” - only to find out baby ears were all gone & I had beautiful stalks left

One problem with beans..... “attractiveness” to deer, IMO, is not what it was 15+ years ago. Last year with crazy lows- sure- they ate every last one. But - even on normal “cold” winters - doesn’t seem preferred like it used to. IMO- the further genetic modifications have changed the taste or something. I’ve got a few varieties that do better than others. I know some companies are marketing a more heirloom or earlier GMO type of bean because of this. Dunno what’s in a deer’s brain but reaction & draw now vs 10-20 years ago has changed. I’ll still do em but corn & all of dbltree mixes & even clover/alfalfa gotta be part of equation.

 

[Central Iowa]

I love nutrition of beans. Wish they got in ground earlier in planting season. Agree on above with corn. Early on, I thought my (too small!) corn plots looked “great” - only to find out baby ears were all gone & I had beautiful stalks left

One problem with beans..... “attractiveness” to deer, IMO, is not what it was 15+ years ago. Last year with crazy lows- sure- they ate every last one. But - even on normal “cold” winters - doesn’t seem preferred like it used to. IMO- the further genetic modifications have changed the taste or something. I’ve got a few varieties that do better than others. I know some companies are marketing a more heirloom or earlier GMO type of bean because of this. Dunno what’s in a deer’s brain but reaction & draw now vs 10-20 years ago has changed. I’ll still do em but corn & all of dbltree mixes & even clover/alfalfa gotta be part of equation.

Interesting Skip. I haven’t noticed I guess.

 

[goatman]

I love nutrition of beans. Wish they got in ground earlier in planting season. Agree on above with corn. Early on, I thought my (too small!) corn plots looked “great” - only to find out baby ears were all gone & I had beautiful stalks left

One problem with beans..... “attractiveness” to deer, IMO, is not what it was 15+ years ago. Last year with crazy lows- sure- they ate every last one. But - even on normal “cold” winters - doesn’t seem preferred like it used to. IMO- the further genetic modifications have changed the taste or something. I’ve got a few varieties that do better than others. I know some companies are marketing a more heirloom or earlier GMO type of bean because of this. Dunno what’s in a deer’s brain but reaction & draw now vs 10-20 years ago has changed. I’ll still do em but corn & all of dbltree mixes & even clover/alfalfa gotta be part of equation.

Could be the adaptation of the whitetail that we all know. If you got shot at or smelled stink over beans you might change diet also. But the deer I hunt are still coming to beans in cold weather or snow on the ground. I've also heard roundup beans aren't desirable but have not noticed that.