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Cost for beans

arm

arm

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I’m looking for some opinions on the best way to get beans on my property. There is a continuous 2.5 open ground acres right in the middle of the tract that would take the illusive whitetail sightings to the next level. I have no ag equipt. I have a good renter that does my hay and does corn/beans on his other properties that are not connected to mine; this eliminates the “hey I’ll pay you market price to leave beans standing here for me.” I have no problem asking him to plant for me and feel pretty confident he’ll be willing to work it into all his other operations for me. What am I looking at for him planting 2.5 acres of bean for me? Since he is already planting elsewhere, I’d just ask him to provide everything, i.e. the seed. I should be able to spray the area early spring and should be able to manage any extra spraying needed after planning. So, I’m looking at seed, fuel and his time…what else am I not thinking about?
 
I'd plant untreated beans. Price anywhere from 40-55 a bag. At 144,000 population 3 bags will cover it. Cost of planting thats completely up to the guy running the planter.
 
For 2.5 acres your seed costs will be about 2.8 bags of beans at about 45 dollars a bag =$126 ( All dependent on price per bag and planting pop i used 155,000 but for deer can be alot less) Thats about all I can help you on . (Edit Trapshoot beat me to it )
 
Going rate is 15$ to 20$ and acre to plant. No-till on the higher end. I know ISU has about 125$ an acre custom rate for the whole shebang start to finish. Although there most likely won't be anything left after summer unless you fence it.
 
Central Iowa said:
What's your plan after the first year of beans?
What's the arrangements on the hay?
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Plans are loose and I need to do a bit more google work. All I know now is I THINK I can start with beans first, and rotate back and forth to…[insert different plant family here]. Do this yearly with the entire plot or split it up and rotate…I'm not sure. Just being 2.5 acres I think I need to do the entire thing in beans so they can withstand the browse?? I have other existing plot locations already that are 1 acre or less; possibly I fit those into the rotation with the 2.5 acres (kind of a no brainer I guess) but again I think I need >1 acre stand of beans at a given time. The renter does some of this other ground in beans, corn, beans, hay for a while and rotate again…I’ll pick his brain too. Agreement with the renter on hay was 50/50 this year since I just bought it this spring and somehow during the exchange of hands he thought he lost it and didn’t fertilize. We’ll be have to a rental rate next year and I thought about working this extra food plot work into that.
 
JNRBRONC said:
https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/pdf/a3-10.pdf

Maybe look at the rates for no till soybean drilling, doubt the seed is included.
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Good link…less than what I thought. Thank you

Oct-Lull said:
Although there most likely won't be anything left after summer unless you fence it.
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Unfortunately I have that thought in the back of my mind too. I know for sure I won’t put a hot zone around something that big unless I came across a great deal on it. I mean, 2.5 acres has SOME shot at survival no? There are ag fields in the general area but nothing that would be as sweet and secluded as what mine would be ;)
 
Just depends on deer population. I have seen that much eaten to the ground, but generally I would think what would happen is they would browse it heavy enough to limit the potential for beans in the fall. Helped do some broadcast beans in a 2/acre that was planted with the plan it would all get eaten while still green, and it was.
 
Also depends on what type of ground you are surrounded with. If you're the only beans for a couple miles in any direction the deer will eat them faster than they can grow. On the other hand, if there are other row crop acres in the vicinity the pressure will be a lot less on your growing beans and center on your's when the others are harvested.
 
Getting spring planted beans through to late fall or early winter is a many tentacled beast. I have had both successes and failures through the years in this department. :D Here are some thoughts based upon my experiences...

If you have higher deer populations, then you either need to bite the bullet and e-fence them off OR go with enough acres to outpace them. Generally speaking, you will need 2+ acres to have a chance of them not getting wiped out...but that varies on where the plot is in terms of visibility. But really, 4 or more acres would be more like it. A hidden plot = more pressure. A visible plot = less pressure. But there are of course downsides to visibility...such as poachers.

I finally succumbed this year and e-fenced about 1-1/2 acres of beans. To my pleasant surprise, the fence worked and the beans were never marauded during the summer. (Note - I think this was also due to there being plenty of other food available this summer. Had it been a dry summer, etc, then I suspect there could have been more motivation for the roaming herds to have defeated the fence. :D)

If you want a coop to spray them for you...and I am convinced that you WILL NEED to spray beans after emergence, then know that they do not want to diddle with small plots. They want to put those wings down on those big sprayers and go...so I have found that it will be hard to coordinate with a coop unless you have 4+ acres to spray and even then, that is small potatoes to them. We sprayed our own 1-1/2 acres with a ATV mounted sprayer.

If you can get beans through to late December, I don't think there is anything that will draw deer better at that time. But after about 5 or 6 years of trying to "poor man" a couple of acres through to the end of the year...I have only managed it once...about 5 years ago now. Drought, mistimed or missed sprayings, drought, too wet to plant on time, drought, too many deer, drought, etc, etc, etc,...oh and drought...have caused me to whiff several times.

Even so, I have generally not spent too much on these follies and the deer have had some good bean eating during the summer and I have salvaged most of those plots with a rye/mix planting in early fall. So not a total wipeout, but there are plenty of factors to battle to get your plot where you want it, when you want it.
 
There is about 40 acres of row crop on the neighbors about 400 yards away from this plot location and then 350+ acres across the road about a half mile away. I don't have the best grasp on herd numbers in the area yet but based on trail cam work it's med to med-high. I'd like to fence it but I need to evaluate that cost...$800-$1000? Thats an awfully big birthday present
 
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arm said:
There is about 40 acres of row crop on the neighbors about 400 yards away from this plot location and then 350+ acres across the road about a half mile away. I don't have the best grasp on herd numbers in the area yet but based on trail cam work it's med to med-high. I'd like to fence it but I need to evaluate that cost...$800-$1000? Thats an awfully big birthday present
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I think I had about $500'ish in enough fence for a 3 wire system. That included a new solar charger...although I did have most of the steel fence posts that I used prior to starting. So that covered fiberglass posts, all connectors, wire for two of the strands and tape for one, the grounding rods, etc.
 
It definitely needs to be all beans. I planted two 1 acre plots about 200 yards apart and the deer absolutely destroyed them. I had to go in and plant brassicas.

I'd also recommend using eagle seed forage soybeans instead of ag beans. They withstand browse much better and grow about 6-8 feet tall.
 
hoosierhunter said:
It definitely needs to be all beans. I planted two 1 acre plots about 200 yards apart and the deer absolutely destroyed them. I had to go in and plant brassicas.

I'd also recommend using eagle seed forage soybeans instead of ag beans. They withstand browse much better and grow about 6-8 feet tall.
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Eagle don't set many pods?
 
Try beans once & see what happens. Worst case scenario , you plant some rye over the bean stalks & have a green plot for later. I've done beans a lot of years in a row with no problems other than needing to switch from RR beans to Liberty Link. Price-wise I always found a dealer ready to give me year old RR beans at no cost. Not so much with Liberty Link, but I have a contact for next spring so that too may change.
 
I had to replant last year... Question-Would it be cheaper to buy a hotzone fence package or buy everything separate???
 
If the deer pressure is mid to high. Ur gunna have a hell of time keeping them out. I to have the same problem at my plot. Beans will just get destroyed. Went with a clover mix. Looks good this year.
 
Gave up on beans. I plant a total of about 5.5 acres of corn. More for the nutrition than an attractant. I look at it this way, if I can get 150 bu/acre out of corn and only 50 bu/acre of beans I'm looking at an increase of 550 bushels to get the wildlife thru the winter.
 
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