Planting Forage Soybeans for deer
Glycine max
Deer hit this hard. That is the point.
- Seeding rate
- 50 to 70 lb
- per acre, broadcast
- Minimum plot
- 2 acres
- smaller gets browsed out
- Plant
- Late spring into early summer, after last frost
Rates are broadcast figures. Drilling runs roughly a third lower. These are starting points from extension guidance and have not yet been re-checked against a second source per record, so treat them as indicative and soil test before you buy seed.
About Forage Soybeans
The highest-yielding summer forage available, and the crop most likely to fail on a small property. Forage varieties are bred to keep producing leaf rather than to set pods and shut down, and on adequate acreage they will out-produce anything else in this list. Protein is high and deer take them from emergence to frost. Adequate acreage is the whole caveat. Two acres is a realistic minimum under moderate pressure, and less than that is usually money spent to feed deer for three weeks. Under heavy pressure people run a two-wire electric exclusion for the first month and take it down once the canopy closes. Broadcast at 50 to 70 lb per acre. Drilling is meaningfully better for soybeans than for most of this list, and worth hiring if you can. If the plot is under two acres, plant clover instead and accept the smaller yield for the far higher chance of getting anything at all.
Soil and care
- Soil pH
- 6 to 7
- Drainage
- Well drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Maintenance
- Moderate
Similar to Forage Soybeans
Other food plot forages with the same deer rating.
- Cereal RyeSecale cerealeZones 3–9Frequently damaged
- Crimson CloverTrifolium incarnatumZones 5–9Frequently damaged
- Forage ChicoryCichorium intybusZones 3–9Frequently damaged
- Forage OatsAvena sativaZones 5–9Frequently damaged
- Forage RadishRaphanus sativusZones 3–9Frequently damaged
- Iron Clay CowpeasVigna unguiculataZones 6–11Frequently damaged
Protecting Forage Soybeans
Deer will destroy this without protection, so the question is which kind you are willing to pay for.
- How tall a deer fence needs to beEight feet, and six is the most common expensive mistake in deer fencing.
- What a deer fence costsMaterial ratios are stable even when prices are not, and installation reliably doubles the figure.
- Repellent that actually worksThe egg-based recipe that reproduces the active ingredient in the commercial sprays that win university trials.
- Check it is actually deerDeer tear and leave a ragged stub. A clean 45-degree cut is rabbits, and slug holes get blamed on deer constantly.
Where Forage Soybeans grows
Hardy across most of these 50 states on zone range alone. Mountain and coastal areas sit outside the ranges used here, so check your own zone before ordering.
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- New York
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- Virginia
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Wisconsin
- Ohio
- Indiana
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- Georgia
- Texas
- Colorado
- California
- Oregon
- Washington
- New Hampshire
- Vermont
- Maine
- Rhode Island
- Delaware
- West Virginia
- Kentucky
- South Carolina
- Florida
- Alabama
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Iowa
- South Dakota
- Montana
- Wyoming
- Idaho
- Utah
- Nevada
- Arizona
- New Mexico
- Alaska
- District of Columbia
- Hawaii
Browse from here
Every list Forage Soybeans belongs to.
Hardy in these zones
Common questions about Forage Soybeans
- What is the seeding rate for Forage Soybeans?
- Broadcast 50 to 70 lb per acre. Drilled rates run roughly a third lower. Soil test before buying seed, because pH matters more to the outcome than the rate does.
- When should I plant Forage Soybeans?
- Late spring into early summer, after last frost. It is a warm-season crop and needs soil that has genuinely warmed, not just a frost-free date on a calendar.
- How big does a Forage Soybeans plot need to be?
- About 2 acres as a realistic floor. Below that, deer graze the crop faster than it establishes and you get bare ground instead of forage. Local deer density moves this number more than anything else.
- Do deer actually eat Forage Soybeans?
- Frequently Severely Damaged on the Rutgers scale, which measures how heavily deer damage a plant. On an ornamental that is a warning. On a food plot crop it is the specification.
- What hardiness zones does Forage Soybeans grow in?
- Forage Soybeans is hardy in USDA zones 5 to 10. Outside that range it will either not survive winter or will struggle with summer heat.