Small scale soybeans

[Dan in North Houston]

Attended a wedding just north of Nashville, kind of out in the country between Greenbriar and White House. Not much ag in the area, but quite a few small plots of soybeans that look to be about ready for harvest. Most fields that I saw were less than 5 acres. So what do you do with small plots of soybeans in that part of the country? I didn't see much equipment at all, just one old Farmall, probably about 100 hp size, with a small planter parked close by. No harvest equipment anywhere, a few small grain bins that looked pretty old. The roads are so narrow, it would be hard to transport anything more than 8' wide. Do they combine the beans, and if so, what do they do with them? It is mostly rolling woodlands with a few hay fields, bean fields, and corn fields. Saw very few cows.
I was surprised that the beanfields were not full of deer, as we saw several. Do they not like soybeans? If those bean fields were here in Texas, I'm pretty sure the wild hogs would make short work of them!

 

[leroy in ne]

I don't know about now, but research will show that many years ago soybeans were a hay crop in the southern states, not a grain crop.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

The deer decimate soybean fields here in rural NY state. We have hills and woods not entirely unlike that of Tennessee.

It would probably surprise you the size of the machines they can get into those fields with. The headers are on carts.

Some of them may be harvested with older machines. There will always be some little guy up in the hills trying to eek out a living.

 

[AZglide]

Attended a wedding just north of Nashville, kind of out in the country between Greenbriar and White House. Not much ag in the area, but quite a few small plots of soybeans that look to be about ready for harvest. Most fields that I saw were less than 5 acres. So what do you do with small plots of soybeans in that part of the country? I didn't see much equipment at all, just one old Farmall, probably about 100 hp size, with a small planter parked close by. No harvest equipment anywhere, a few small grain bins that looked pretty old. The roads are so narrow, it would be hard to transport anything more than 8' wide. Do they combine the beans, and if so, what do they do with them? It is mostly rolling woodlands with a few hay fields, bean fields, and corn fields. Saw very few cows.
I was surprised that the beanfields were not full of deer, as we saw several. Do they not like soybeans? If those bean fields were here in Texas, I'm pretty sure the wild hogs would make short work of them!

The fields around here are relatively small compared to the mid west. A couple of BTOs rent all the land they can get their hands on and rotate corn, soybeans, and wheat. As far as equipment goes everything I see new and full size. Haven’t seen a small combine in years. Harvest time rolls around a bunch of trucks show up, unload, put the header on and go at it. I’ve seen them finish a field in less than twenty minutes. Pack everything up and move to next field. I’ve seen them plant in fields you would think wasn’t big enough to turn around in. As far as cows, can’t make any money. As the old farmers died out equipment wasn’t replaced. Hay is too expensive if you have to buy all of it.
If you had gone further north you would have seen bigger farms. It’s not as hilly north of where you were.

 

[AZglide]

The fields around here are relatively small compared to the mid west. A couple of BTOs rent all the land they can get their hands on and rotate corn, soybeans, and wheat. As far as equipment goes everything I see new and full size. Haven’t seen a small combine in years. Harvest time rolls around a bunch of trucks show up, unload, put the header on and go at it. I’ve seen them finish a field in less than twenty minutes. Pack everything up and move to next field. I’ve seen them plant in fields you would think wasn’t big enough to turn around in. As far as cows, can’t make any money. As the old farmers died out equipment wasn’t replaced. Hay is too expensive if you have to buy all of it.
If you had gone further north you would have seen bigger farms. It’s not as hilly north of where you were.

As far as deer I counted seventeen this morning hanging around where I use to put out salt for the cows. Don’t seem to bother the crops much with the exception of my garden.

 

[Mule Meat]

When growing up at times we used hybrid soybeans for cover crops. They just got plowed under.

 

[INCase]

The fields around here are relatively small compared to the mid west. A couple of BTOs rent all the land they can get their hands on and rotate corn, soybeans, and wheat. As far as equipment goes everything I see new and full size. Haven’t seen a small combine in years. Harvest time rolls around a bunch of trucks show up, unload, put the header on and go at it. I’ve seen them finish a field in less than twenty minutes. Pack everything up and move to next field. I’ve seen them plant in fields you would think wasn’t big enough to turn around in. As far as cows, can’t make any money. As the old farmers died out equipment wasn’t replaced. Hay is too expensive if you have to buy all of it.
If you had gone further north you would have seen bigger farms. It’s not as hilly north of where you were.

BTO that farms about 10000 acres farms my wife's grandmothers land. a couple of the fields are only about 4 to 7ish acres. one spot up and down with the combine and the beans were harvested. biggest field she has is around 55-60 acres without any ditches or other obstacles. the piece behind us they can barely turn the tractor and planter around in. they actually busted off my property post this year swinging the disk around.
I know they waste alot of ground that way especially when they put corn in.

 

[Leroy]

I don't know about now, but research will show that many years ago soybeans were a hay crop in the southern states, not a grain crop.

They started out as a hay crop here in Ohio.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Food plots for the deer often are soybeans as the seed is much less expensive. I was shocked when I saw a video from the 1950s of people mowing them for forage. Apparently that was a big thing around here too and people would seed them going into winter which is astounding to me as well

 

[mtf]

What you were seeing are old tobacco fields that are no longer groing tobacco. Both burley and a lot of dark fired tobacco used to be grown in this area. There are some cattle scattered around, but land is selling for prices that make production ag not feasible. These small fields are more than likely tended by a big time want to be farmer.
This is not far from me, just a little south and west.

 

[Crookedwrench]

We see semis hauling beans from that area in TN to our markets in Owensboro, KY. We have river Terminals and we are blessed to have Owensboro Grain that processes the beans. OG was family owned and sold to Cargill last year.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

Beans are an interesting crop, and I can’t tell a soybean field from other types of beans. There are some edible beans grown around me, but while they are growing in the field don’t look any different really than soybeans do. So perhaps these smaller plots you are seeing are edible beans. I know some farmers grow beans that will grow very tall plants, well over waist high. And they cut them green with a discmower and run them through a forage harvester and put them into a silo as high protein forage.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Soybeans for forage would be long gone by now. Soybeans for a cover crop would be in early stages of growth right now.

These beans are dry and ready for harvest, at the time of the year when you're supposed to be harvesting soybeans. All signs point to them being harvested in the near future and trucked off to the grain elevator.

 

[Dan in North Houston]

Attended a wedding just north of Nashville, kind of out in the country between Greenbriar and White House. Not much ag in the area, but quite a few small plots of soybeans that look to be about ready for harvest. Most fields that I saw were less than 5 acres. So what do you do with small plots of soybeans in that part of the country? I didn't see much equipment at all, just one old Farmall, probably about 100 hp size, with a small planter parked close by. No harvest equipment anywhere, a few small grain bins that looked pretty old. The roads are so narrow, it would be hard to transport anything more than 8' wide. Do they combine the beans, and if so, what do they do with them? It is mostly rolling woodlands with a few hay fields, bean fields, and corn fields. Saw very few cows.
I was surprised that the beanfields were not full of deer, as we saw several. Do they not like soybeans? If those bean fields were here in Texas, I'm pretty sure the wild hogs would make short work of them!

Thanks to all that posted.
I stopped at one field to get a closer look, and confirmed they were soybeans. I see from the internet that soybean prices are around $9.70 per bushel, and it also says that the average yield in the US is around 50 bushels per acre. I have no idea if the plots I saw were anywhere close to average, but I guess if you can harvest a crop and get close to $500/acre before expenses, it's going to net more than my small scale hay farming.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Thanks to all that posted.
I stopped at one field to get a closer look, and confirmed they were soybeans. I see from the internet that soybean prices are around $9.70 per bushel, and it also says that the average yield in the US is around 50 bushels per acre. I have no idea if the plots I saw were anywhere close to average, but I guess if you can harvest a crop and get close to $500/acre before expenses, it's going to net more than my small scale hay farming.

Prices are way down this year, as I understand it. Going to be hard to make money even with a bumper crop.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Yup beans are down abour 5-8 dollars a bu. Corn down about 1-3 per bu. Yup if not contracted earlier will be hard to make a dime this year. Fertilizer is still proud at Potash being 400 ton and MAP is 6or800 ton was told yesterday.

 

[Leroy]

When growing up at times we used hybrid soybeans for cover crops. They just got plowed under.

Never heard of a hybrid soy bean. Think I saw my first soy beans around 60 years ago. Possibly longer.

 

[jm.]

Attended a wedding just north of Nashville, kind of out in the country between Greenbriar and White House. Not much ag in the area, but quite a few small plots of soybeans that look to be about ready for harvest. Most fields that I saw were less than 5 acres. So what do you do with small plots of soybeans in that part of the country? I didn't see much equipment at all, just one old Farmall, probably about 100 hp size, with a small planter parked close by. No harvest equipment anywhere, a few small grain bins that looked pretty old. The roads are so narrow, it would be hard to transport anything more than 8' wide. Do they combine the beans, and if so, what do they do with them? It is mostly rolling woodlands with a few hay fields, bean fields, and corn fields. Saw very few cows.
I was surprised that the beanfields were not full of deer, as we saw several. Do they not like soybeans? If those bean fields were here in Texas, I'm pretty sure the wild hogs would make short work of them!

Most of the that area or Robertson county is farmed by two diffrent operations on set of brothers farm about 12,000 acres there. You mention not seeing harvest equipment they have very update operation and from the roads you just do not see the large river bottoms but even then 100 acre fields are not like one sees one up in ill and ohio. But to answer your question just normal farming that is not as profitable as say one level 2500 acre field cost time and money to move equipment but they will just come thru and work all those small fields.

 

[Mule Meat]

Never heard of a hybrid soy bean. Think I saw my first soy beans around 60 years ago. Possibly longer.

May not have been hybrid. All I know is once they were plowed under. They did not grow back.

 

[Charlie M]

Do soybeans still need to be roasted to make them useable for animal feed? When I worked in a feed mill in my late teen years the area started growing soybeans and the owner of the mill bought a roaster to roast them. We would eat the roasted beans all the time. Once in a while you would hit a raw bean and you could tell that right away - tasted pretty ugly.