I thought I would share a little proof of concept I have going on in the backyard. We didn’t plant soybeans at the farm until August this year due to scheduling difficulties, but regardless I planted a little section in the backyard too (just for the heck of it). The first image below is from September 13th and pretty much every bean had been nipped on to some degree by neighborhood deer. Eagle Seed makes a pretty big deal about how their beans will keep coming back (second image) as long as there is a leaf or two remaining (do generic beans do this too? I don’t know). After these first two pictures were taken I started putting out a couple cups of Milorganite every couple of weeks. Basically there has been almost no browsing since then. I put out the last application of Milorganite yesterday so I expected deer to be back in the beans in a few weeks. The third picture is from this evening, October 10.

I mention all this because I know some struggle to or avoid planting soybeans because the deer devour them before they can get going. Don’t have pictures handy, but I’ll be set up this weekend on trails leading to standing beans up at the farm. Yes, I know acorns acorns acorns, but deer are piling into our fields and wearing out the beans. This is with about 2 acres of beans. I use the Milorganite to keep deer out long enough for the beans to get established and able to keep up with browsing pressure. Last year we had pods into the first weekend of rifle season, even with the drought hampering the beans. Obviously, the success of this approach depends on deer density, other available food, etc. Maybe generic beans plus an electric fence would be cheaper in the long run, but wanted to throw these observations out there for consideration. (I’ll be expecting my check from Eagle Seed and Milorganite soon)