bears in my food plots

[J.DAUGHTREY]

Well Ive never had this problem before,I just planted about 3 acres in food plott.All soybeans for the deer and rabbits but I have some uninvited guests grazing in the beans and trampling them.Usally the deer and rabbits eat them down in a couple months if that long but I have seen big bear tracks in them after I planted and just spotted 2 bears in one about an hour ago.I wouldnt think they would move in the heat of the day but I was wrong.I wear a size 12 shoe and onre bears hind foot is eqeal to my shoe.Id say its a good one.I guess I will be replanting soon.On a good note Ihave seen several rabbits eating out of the plots and one buck about 2 inches on the outside of his ears.The plots that the bears havent messed with look llike a goat lot with all the tracks.Soybeans are the way to go and a hell of a lot less expensive than the crap they sell in a 5 lb. bag at bass pro.A deer will come a long ways once it smells beans coming up especially if their are no crops nearby.I am going to try to set up a game cam to see just how big a bear Im dealing with.

[JohnnyEvans]

need to put out a stealth cam to get some pic .

[J.DAUGHTREY]

Yea ,Im going to.Ilike to see just what Im dealing with.My boy is 11 and he's got blood in his eyes!He wants to hunt a big bear so I think I got one to work with as long as she doest tote around cubs.It could be a boar but been seeing smal tracks in the same area so Im guessing its a big sow.

[BUDC]

J. Daughtrey,
We have a problem on how to plant beans. I know nothing about the subject and am actually asking on behalf of those responsible to maintain our plots. How could we efficiently plant 4 areas of 2-3 acres each? We have a small tractor with disc, plow, rake, I call it a 'grader box' and bushhog. Do we have to have a seed drill/planter or is there another way?
Thanks for any advice.
budc

[J.DAUGHTREY]

The best way is a no till seed drill and plant round upready beans but unless you know a farmer most folks dont have one,Here is ther next best way to do it.Find a well drained area and disc it good,if it has a lot of growth disc it and let it sit out in the sun a couple days to drie it down and then fine disc it.Disc it one way and then another.After you have prepared your seed bed if you are planting soybeans then go and broadcast them with a seeder.You can use a push seeder just open up the slot so it will feed beans out or a seeder on the back of the tractor will work.Afunnel type if you know what Im talking about.broadcast beans on top of diced soil and then disc in lightly,in other words dont put the disc all the way down,it will bury the beans to deep and you wont have a good germination,you want them just under the soil.no more than an 1" or so deep.After a good rain they will be up in 4 or 5 days.With clover its a good idea to wait until Sept to plant and you can do the same thing except do not disc it in the ground use a chain link fence drag or something after broadcasting on a good tilled soil.Clover only needs to be about a quarter inch deep and it will come up good.It s hard to get going planting in the spring because the pplant doesnt get enough of a root system to hold up in dry heat in the summer.You are better off planting clover ijn the fall so it will grow slow all winter and then come spring put a 0 nitrgen fertilizer on it and it will take off.Soybeans and clover dont need much nitrogen becauise they put it in the ground so using a low nitrogen fertilizer is important and also for clovber especially it needs a neutal p.h. level of around 6 so if you are going to plant close to wood lots where the acidity in the soil will be likly high you will have to lime it.Good luck!!

[BUDC]

J.
Thanks very much for your reply. I believe we can make those suggestions work with the equipment we have(and some sweat!!).
Again, I appreciate your help.
budc

[Will S]

No doubt seed drill is by far the best way to do it. I cannot affor one and they sell used like gold. I have a 60" PTO tiller for the tractor. I till my plots and then broadcass them and go back and run over them with the disc. It's not perfect and wastes a lot of seed, just no perfect way to do it without a planter. The only big drawbacks to tilling are do not till around roots or stumps, and do not till runoff areas.

[BUDC]

I think a drill, like a tiller, would be in trouble in some places due to roots. Is the tiller the same sort of tool as a "soil conditioner"? I believe a 'conditioner' has a drum/shaft with teeth on it and doesn't go as deep as a tiller would. Maybe the 'conditioner' would be able to tolerate roots better.
I'm not the guy heading this project for good reasons, so all this info will be forwarded to the ones in charge.
Thanks for the input. Hopefully, it will be put to good use.
budc
What sort of spacing/density should be used for seeding? Does the fact that using beans as an attractant rather than highest yield per bush influence the planting practices? If beans are mixed in with the food plot seed, could the density be reduced?

[J.DAUGHTREY]

If you plant beans with a planter,sat on 15 to 36 inch rows you could mix in sorghum with the beans but alot of the bagged foodplot seed in way smaller than a bean so it would be hard to mix in planter hopperas to plant,now you could mix and broadcast as stated in my earlier post.If you decide to plant other seed than bean I would plant half in nothing burt beans and half in the commercial food plot mix and then you will have a good idea what will work and grow better on your souil.A field conditioner is mainly used to level and bust up the clods of dirt for planting.A good disc will do everything you need as long as you dont disc in your seed to deep.I have used this for years with great results.You will have some seed left uncovered but if you broadcast it thick it will come up.I used a commercial push type planter for grass seed with a hopper big enough to hold about a half bushel of beans and rigged it to the back of a four wheerler with one person operating the open/shut lever on the seeder when turning or moving out of plots,it worked great.

[J.DAUGHTREY]

Saw another yesterday evening running my rabbit beeagles,about 200 plus pounds and shotly there after my buddy saw another come out and stand up on his hind legs.