Corn vs Soybeans Late Season Food Plots - Which is Better?

[@LVFFarmVlogs]

I can't remember if you have tried this or not, but have you tried planting corn on 38's with your planter then come back and plant beans between the corn rows with the same planter making 19 inch spacing? I plant 30 inch rows due to farming, however I have been looking at buying a wide row planter to try what I described above. I still have a wide row corn head for my combine. Just curious if you've tried it. It seems like there are more hunters interested in growing beans and corn together than there are farmers. I fall in the middle, both a farmer and hunter! Thanks for any help and thanks for the crop videos each year. I find them very interesting

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

I have tried every other row. The beans don’t do very well. Still too much shade but the corn does great. Every plant has 2 big ears due to the extra sunlight. I would do strips of 4 rows of corn and 4 rows of beans. I did that this yr in my flag plot and the corn still put on 2 ears per plant in blocks of 4 rows.

[@craiglamb8056]

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to an update on your turnips and brassica plots.

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

Yeah I’ll have to get some footage of some of the brassicas next time I’m out. With all this snow coming they will soon switch over to mainly corn and beans probably.

[@nealhall1160]

What size rows to do recommend for corn. I watch most of your videos (great job. Love the progression you show during your videos). But you just say wide row narrower rows I know they won't be perfect but what is the average row spacing for corn

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

Don’t go less than 30” Deer don’t like to walk down a bunch of very tight rows. I mainly plant 38” because our old 2 row planter is set up at 38 not 30. I have done every other. Plant a tighter row 20-30 every other when you do the second pass just move a little closer.

[@Josh-lx5wh]

Aaron goeppner I’ve noticed the same…my corn goes nearly untouched until I knock some down. Which is great because I can knock it down at different times to somewhat dictate their feeding patterns to time of season.

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

I’m pretty sure knocking it down the reason why the deer like it is because it absorbs moisture from the snow or from the dirt. Making the kernels more palatable and not as dry and hard. Plus the deer can just eat with their head down like they normally do. Instead of trying to shove their face halfway up a cornstalk.

[@patrothwell9138]

Nice video. Are u going to do a video on your Brassicas food plots

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

Yes I will try and do an update on the Brassicas next time I’m out. With all the snow coming the brassicas are going to be buried and they’ll probably switch to corn and beans mainly.

[@tonyperry3859]

I planted about an acre of soybeans. They devoured them before they got 8 inches tall. What can I do to keep them out

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

Unfortunately other than fencing the plot there’s not much you can do. You must be in a heavily wooded area. I never have deer over-browse my 1/2 bean plots. Sure there’s browse but not so much they can’t survive and make pods. I would try planting corn and see if that makes some grain. Deer don’t seem to pick on corn that much in the growing season. Otherwise brassicas may be your only hope to get a good late season food source on your 1 acre plot. Getting more acres planted will obviously help too.

[@aarongoeppner413]

Do you knock any down with your 4 wheeler? That’s the only way I can get them to eat my corn

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

Yes, sometimes I will drive it down with a four wheeler or mow it up with a brush hog. Usually a small percentage of the whole field.

[@aarongoeppner413]

@@wisconsinwhitetail9744 what do the deer do once you knock it down?

[@daveguttormson6315]

Please don't plant foodplots right along a busy highway!

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

Believe it or not having a plot in the backyard and right across the rd has actually reduced the number of deer hit on our stretch of rd. In the past when I only had food in the backyard 2-3 deer were getting hit a year. In the last 2 yrs of having food across the rd too only 1 deer in 2 yrs.

[@jerrybrewer4851]

Beans work better until the snow covers them.

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

In the past couple years the snow has never gotten deep enough to cause that problem by me. Maybe this year though, we’re supposed to get a foot of snow in the next 2 days. 😳

[@jerrybrewer4851]

@@wisconsinwhitetail9744 3 foot of snow on top of my beans right now. Washburn county.

[@ashton3027]

You should buy some real world nutri crave corn they say if you put your corn and there’s side my side the deer will almost always go to there since it has more protein same with there soybeans with the higher oil content if you put regular beans beside there’s hope you try some of there products next planting season like deadly dozen that there is different plants the deer like better all season long

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

It would be interesting to try some of Don Higgins Nutri-Crave corn. I’ve heard it’s basically just a silage corn variety. Silage corn usually has more moisture and the kernels do not dry down as much making it more attractive to wildlife and deer because it’s not as dry and easier to digest and eat off the ear. That Nutri-Crave corn probably would be eaten more by raccoons in the summertime too like my silage corn. My silage corn always gets hit harder by raccoons throughout the season more then the normal field corn. So you have to take that into consideration as well.

[@tonyperry3859]

What type of soybeans did you plant?

[@wisconsinwhitetail9744]

I don’t know the variety. All the soybeans I’ve ever planted in any of my food plot videos are just harvested beans from the year prior from a farmer my dad knows. I don’t buy treated soybean seed. I do buy seed corn. Harvested untreated corn tends to get eaten a lot by birds when it sprouts up. They are just normal ag varieties of beans. I’ve never planted any forage soybeans.