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Standing Corn

eiowaarcher

eiowaarcher

Member
I am in the process of buying another piece of land but this time with a fair amount of tillable on it. I have my normal plots scheduled but I’m looking to plant a 6 acre field to leave all winter for all critters. Two questions. First, corn or beans or combination of both? Second question, after you leave standing corn all winter what do you do with it so you can plant it next year (mow/disc, bale it, other ideas..)?


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I would plant 50/50 corn and beans and rotate. That way you have both food sources or alternate beans and corn on one half and have Deadly dozen and brassicas. Deer buffet.
 
eiowaarcher said:
I am in the process of buying another piece of land but this time with a fair amount of tillable on it. I have my normal plots scheduled but I’m looking to plant a 6 acre field to leave all winter for all critters. Two questions. First, corn or beans or combination of both? Second question, after you leave standing corn all winter what do you do with it so you can plant it next year (mow/disc, bale it, other ideas..)?


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If you have 6 acres I would think about going 1/2 beans and 1/2 corn and rotating it year to year. I have never had standing beans last through the winter, so you probably would have a "moonscape" by mid-spring that you could plant right into. Even if you had some stubble left, you could still plant/drill right through it.

Corn...that depends. I have had years where the corn lasted until late April/early May and then I just mowed it all off, most of which was just stalks by then. This year...all of the actual corn was gone by say Jan. 20th and I will be mowing off the stalks sometime in the next few weeks. Our area has had such drought the past couple of years that the deer hit the standing corn in July/August to the extent that I had quite a bit less grain on hand to last through the winter. I just didn't "make" a lot of corn this year with the drought and what was there was very popular early and it was all gone months earlier than in previous years.
 
6 acres.... is it secluded? How’s deer density? Other crop ground close by? U saying “fair amount of tillable on it” - I assume then u have a good bit of other crops close to it that will take some pressure off it during growing season?
 
Not really secluded but the one neighbor turned his ag (15-20 acre I’d say) into CRP so I’m sure that will play a big role. All neighbors still have some ag along with good food plots. Lots of deer in the area. I will also be planting 2 acres of turnips and 1.5 acre of rye/peas with this 6 acre field.
 
eiowaarcher said:
Not really secluded but the one neighbor turned his ag (15-20 acre I’d say) into CRP so I’m sure that will play a big role. All neighbors still have some ag along with good food plots. Lots of deer in the area. I will also be planting 2 acres of turnips and 1.5 acre of rye/peas with this 6 acre field.
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Not sure if it is possible but I would plant some of the 3.5 acres into clover. It's pretty much self sustaining and can feed quit a bit of deer throughout the year! It would help keep some of the pressure off of the 6 acres of standing crops plus keep deer on or @ for the entire yr and not just the fall/winter.
 
The deer really hit the corn hard here this year. 5 acres planted was 80% gone by mid-November.

I’m sure the coons and other varmits had their share as well. But in fairness, the corn didn’t do as well as it should have so they were eating less than usual.

Hard to beat soybeans. Ideal setup I’m thinking about is putting my corn on both sides of the beans and allowing one of the fields of corn to run up taught against the woods. That way they feel more safe eating the beans in day light surrounded by the corn. If I happened to position ground blinds just inside the corn to “watch” them eat beans, surely they wouldn’t mind.
 
Here’s some basics on corn & beans.....
low deer #’s - get away with less acres of course.
Medium to high..... in a secluded spot with no crops within a short to medium distance.... 10 acres is pretty much minimum. Crops close by- id say half that is needed. Here’s what I’d do to give it the best chance..... plant every single drop & acre to corn or beans (except maybe a little clover along edge if u have that now or frost seed).

Then.... go take all the edges and areas that got destroyed (there will be some) & convert that into ur brassicas, rye mix & ur rye mix with clovers for next spring (like above- agree on having a .25-.5 acres in clover). When it’s time to plant dbltree rotation- u will have a full corn or bean field to pick apart the worst areas & will have bought urself a buffer by making it bigger while growing all summer & talking browse.

*side note.... beans are not going to be prime performers late season IF it’s warmer winter or days. Corn - say u mow or run it over - warm or cold it’s generally good. But, bottom line - the insurance for warmer weather will be having all the variety of dbltree mixes & clovers. One grain, one brassica section, one rye mix & one clover section = 4 food sources & honeslty not very difficult to do!! It’s a perfect system imo. Tiny bit more work but a no Brainer after u trial and error this stuff for years.
 
50/50 Beans and Corn, rotate every year. Run a short season bean such as a 2.5 or 2.9 variety and over seed it with turnips and rye when the leaves start to yellow. By running the shorter season bean it allows for the sun light to penetrate in and give the turnips a chance.
As for dealing with the Stalks the next year- I shred and burn them. Then no-till the beans in.
 
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