Does anyone here use soybeans in their feeders rather than corn? I have been reading about how much more protein there is in soybeans vs corn and how you can still dispense soybeans from a normal feeder (instead of having a special protein feeder).

Supposedly, soybeans are very comparable in price to corn and have more than twice as much protein as "deer protein pellets".

Does anyone know the price of a 50# sack of soybeans? I paid about $7/bag for corn this year so if it is close, it sounds like soybeans may be the way to go.

Anyhow, I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with it.

Thanks.

The problem with soy beans is that they're beans.

In other words, they're really susceptible to moisture and any bit of humidity, etc will cause them to expand, rot and clog your feeder.

Just be mindful that if you fill a feeder full and get a decent amount of rain, the beans'll soak-up the humidity and clog the feeder.

But maybe not. Just personal experience. For what it's worth.

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Ha ha, some dumbass put soybeans in their feeder. You've never ever been on a soybean farm have you?

CO`26&`29, just be sure to lower your motor an extran inch or so over what you would do for corn, and if you can, widen a bit the hole from which your protein/corn falls from your bucket.

That should be enough to prevent any problem of clogging and you should definately see a difference in your deer in a year or two. Much more-so over just "protein" cause your feeding much better stuff.

Good luck!

How well do they work in a gravity feeder?

You can purchase a soybean and corn mixture (50/50) and run it in corn or trough feeders. We use it on our lease, but more for the attraction/odor than for the protein content. Also, deer do seem to like that more than just corn alone.

DVM

I might have to try this 50/50 mix. Thanks DVM.

Use a trough!

I would suggest a gravity feeder for anything aside from corn.

When I first started hunting in Childress, the guy who leased us the land was raving about how he feeds soybeans and his deer love it, blah, blah, blah. So we bought the 50/50 corn/soybean mix and started feeding it. The deer picked the corn up and left the beans laying around. It got to the point where we had to open up the feed pens just a little so the smaller hogs could get in and eat the beans. We did go to his place a couple of times to eat dinner with them and drink some beers and their deer were eating the beans like there was no tomorrow. I don't know what the deal was because we bought the same stuff from the same feed store. Weird.

Same thing happened when we tried to start feeding Record Rack at the FS Ranch in San Saba. Deer would not eat it. I have a buddy that guides at the Deep Creek Ranch in San Saba and they feed tons of Record Rack and their deer scarf it up like candy.

We feed a 1/3 - 1/3 - 1/3 mixture of corn, soybeans or peas and pellets out of both spin feeders and in bulk / free-feed feeders and have no trouble with any of the issues mentioned above....Good lids....frequent feedings and properly set spinner plates solve most feeder issues...Posted some of the results in a thread the other day showing our Llano County bucks.

Our deer left the soy beans laying on the ground. Surprised me.

We buy the 50/50 mix and have been feeding it on our lease in Canadian and have not had any problems. The soybeans are toasted we have been told. The beans must be toasted for the deer to get all the protein.

You beat me to it chief, they need to be roasted in order for the deer to fully digest them. It does take deer a while to get used to them though.

Toasted huh?

Have you had better luck with the Chile-Lemon or the Garlic-Onion flavors?

Actually it was the Jalapeno Garlic!