Summer Food Plots Continued from 6/16/16 Post

As you can see in these two pictures the Hybrid Soybeans and Iron Clay Peas are really working great! This makes the third time the deer have hit them hard this summer. Notice the dates on each picture, in a matter of a few weeks the deer devoured the bean and pea tops. The good thing is I have a solid stand which is allowing the plants to come back strong and allow this heavy browsing. If you go back to my original post on 6/16/16 'Summer Food Plots' you can see the progression with pics. Between the two dates on these pictures I had over 700 pics of deer browsing the tops!

That is incredible. They have eaten, in basically 3 weeks, what looks like 1/3 of the height of the plants. What did you use to keep the deer out after first planting and until they got as established as they are in the top pic? Also how many acres are planted like this?

Wow! Great job on the food plots. Looking good. Good luck this season!

beauxnarreaux, Yes they have eaten about a third of the height in about 3 weeks. I planted back on May 23rd with the hybrid soybeans and iron clay peas. I didn’t do anything to keep the deer out. This was my first time putting in a summer food plot so was just experimenting to see what the deer liked better. I planted one 2 acre plot and two 1/2 acre plots. After the first three weeks the deer destroyed the soybeans but left the iron clay peas alone and I can’t figure that out. After about a month and a half the deer started hitting the iron clay peas which allowed the soybeans to grow back. Then towards the end of July I wasn’t seeing as much activity in the plots. Last Friday when I went back to check on the food plots I was blown away at the browsing that had taken place in the previous three weeks. It was like a light switch had turned on! All three of my plots looked like someone took a weedeater to them. I have cameras on all three plots so had thousands of pics of deer all over the plots 24/7. Pretty neat stuff!

Will you leave them into bow season and thru fall and winter or disc it under and plant fall plots? I may try that next summer seeing how well that worked for you.

I’m going to try both, disc and re-plant half and leave the other half standing and plant into the standing beans and peas. There are some really neat videos about this on GrowingDeer TV, go check them out.
So far I have been impressed with the Eagle Seed Soybeans. Based on what I have seen so far I plan to double my planting next summer.

Food Plots still growing strong as summer winds down. The deer have taken their toll on the beans and peas but they keep coming back. Bean and pea pods are forming and should make for some great food source for the turkeys this winter. Peas that were close to tress are growing up the trunk which was cool to see. As you can see in the pictures from this past weekend the browse line is very distinct.

Wow! Some great stuff here. How big you think the bear is? Looks pretty big in the pictures.

Great to see that fawn with those bears being around. Love the pics, keep us updated on how they hold up going into winter. Thanks for the tour around the place too, great to learn from others.

huntnut, That big male is around 350 pounds best guess at full body weight in the late fall. He loses a great deal during the summer. He is a bruiser and have been getting him on camera for several years now.
beauxnarreaux, glad you could make it up and thanks