Here is a strange tip I heard.

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
A guy on the podcast said a tip for late season, cold weather, and snow conditions. Focus more around beanfields this time of year as it makes for easier scratchin' vs. corn 🌽 or other crops. First time I heard that.
 
Me too. I figured they wouldn’t be too particular of food type if they are forced to scratch snow.
 
Pretty sure I don't buy it. Consider an unplowed bean field & an unplowed corn field. I suppose the corn stalks might hold slightly deeper snow. But I have to imagine in most corn fields, there'd be enough area blown clear just as much as the average bean field, such that one or the other wouldn't be "easier scratchin". My experience has been given equal access to corn or beans, late season roosters will choose corn every time. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they're willing to expend a little extra effort for corn.
 
Interesting take but corn has more energy for the birds in cold weather. It’s the ideal cold weather food. Corns = carbs. Beans = protein. I’m with A5.
 
Dakotazeb said:
I've also heard in the past that pheasants have a difficult time digesting soy beans. Although I've never found anything to confirm that.
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Looks like there’s truth to that. Here’s what AI had to say about it.

“Yes, wild pheasants likely have a difficult time digesting agricultural soybeans due to the trypsin inhibitors in raw soybeans. These inhibitors interfere with protein digestion, which can make soybeans a poor food choice for them. Unlike ruminants (like deer), pheasants have a simple digestive system that isn’t well-equipped to process anti-nutritional factors in soybeans.”
 
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I'm in Iowa. I've shot plenty of roosters with a craw full of soybeans. I think they eat the grain that is closest and easiest for them to access from their escape/roosting cover. I don't think it's a conscious decision for them.
 
In the article I read several years ago it said a pheasant could have a crop full of soybeans and literally starve to death due to their inability to digest them.
 
I think A5 nailed it, those corn fields blow full, not clear. IF there is snow on the the ground that has blown, that snow will be as deep as the top of the corn stocks 6 inches to 2 feet, depending on the corn head and operator. Beans are cut close to the ground and will catch very little snow, which is much easier for them to dig through. The cover will catch snow until there in nothing to catch the blowing snow. About 5 years ago, we had some tough snow conditions, the pheasants works across a half mile bean field that butted up to our CRP and then started across the road into the next bean field before the snow melted back where they could find other food. They left it looking like a dalmatian, black and white, as they work further and further across the field. There were a hundred of them at times. After that I began leaving a steel drum of shelled corn in the field, just for tough times. Not unusual, (very common here) to harvest birds, even with no snow, with their crop full of beans.
 
peake said:
I'm in Iowa. I've shot plenty of roosters with a craw full of soybeans. I think they eat the grain that is closest and easiest for them to access from their escape/roosting cover. I don't think it's a conscious decision for them.
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They eat lots of beans, but I do think they make conscious decisions about their diet. As stated above, "...given equal access to corn or beans, late season roosters will choose corn every time." This seems to happen more frequently once winter rolls in. I assume the decision is mostly related to nutrition, but it could also be due to taste, aesthetic presentation, peer pressure, etc.
 
When there's significant snow, pheasants find areas (commonly high spots) where the snow has blown off the most. Even if there's still 8" of snow, they'll find those areas & feed there in lieu of areas with 18" of snow. Not quite sure how they do it, but they do. Sometimes I suppose it could be by trial & error digging, although much of the time it seems they just go directly to the best spot. Must have an innate understanding of snow hydrology.
 
Dakotazeb said:
In the article I read several years ago it said a pheasant could have a crop full of soybeans and literally starve to death due to their inability to digest them.
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I don't think that can be true. I've hunted areas with cattails surrounded by bean fields (no corn to be had), and they were plenty alive, and tons of birds living there (private land).
 
remy3424 said:
I think A5 nailed it, those corn fields blow full, not clear. IF there is snow on the the ground that has blown, that snow will be as deep as the top of the corn stocks 6 inches to 2 feet, depending on the corn head and operator. Beans are cut close to the ground and will catch very little snow, which is much easier for them to dig through. The cover will catch snow until there in nothing to catch the blowing snow. About 5 years ago, we had some tough snow conditions, the pheasants works across a half mile bean field that butted up to our CRP and then started across the road into the next bean field before the snow melted back where they could find other food. They left it looking like a dalmatian, black and white, as they work further and further across the field. There were a hundred of them at times. After that I began leaving a steel drum of shelled corn in the field, just for tough times. Not unusual, (very common here) to harvest birds, even with no snow, with their crop full of beans.
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I see the same things all over my area. Funny you mention the dalmation look. Made me laugh as I access the visuals stored in my own memory bank. It is so true. Pheasants are survivors. They eat whatever it takes. I hunt areas that have zero cropland for many, many miles and they survive out of seeds and who knows what else. I have heard the accounts on the digestibility of soybeans so that leaves me wondering how? Our birds are all pretty much wild birds and survive harsh winters and also mild winters on a steady diet of soybeans. 🤷‍♂️
 
Like all waste grain ( not food plots) whether it be corn beans wheat or whatever else, it has a finite cycle in game bird diets and it’s a pretty narrow window in my neighborhood hood ( admittedly I don’t live in refrigerated country) It gets eaten sprouts or rots PDQ. So it would not surprise me to see a crop full of beans on pheasant that didn’t starve to death from eating them, he’s finding another meal most of the year anyway.
I do crop surveys on all birds taken and note the change through the season(s)
Our telltale sign of quail being plum out of food is when we start seeing Chinese tallow seed and clover on the Gulf Coast and broom weed and fillaree in the rolling plains where wheat is common. Maybe the same for your bean eating pheasant? Diet of last resort? At end of quail season on rolling plains I just head for broom weed patches perhaps this the reason for this dudes observation? Corn under a few feet of snow might as well not be there, I know I cut beans right at the ground so there’s nothing much to keep snow held up there ( of course my experience is limited with snowfall we get it once every 15 years or so 😀) Guy might be onto something is all I’m saying and I eat lots of stuff that ain’t particularly good for me when I’m hungry and hypothetically I’m smarter than a pheasant 😀
 
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I've read several articles that talked about the digestibility of soybeans and while I don't have the science to contradict those claims, I've shot a lot of pheasants with a lot of soybean filled crops. On the property I manage, the farmer utilizes no till. Each season I'll have a mix of harvested beans, harvested corn and unharvested corn. I've never kept records, but I would guess that 15% of the birds I harvest there have soybeans in their crops. For me, it comes down to ease. There is very little waste in the harvested beans and picking is easier, so it makes sense they'd be there. At the end of the day, I just find it very difficult to think that pheasants would continually eat soybeans if there was nothing in it for them.

I do believe corn to be the superior grain and the numbers of pheasants in places near corn versus soybeans tend to support that argument.
 
We tend to do better around picked corn fields that haven't been plowed under. I have never really thought about the beans vs corn debate but thru the years we have almost always done better around corn fields. With that being said I have shot roosters with there crop stuffed with beans. I guess maybe if they had a choice they would focus on corn but they will do what it takes to survive.
 
Corn also eats different. Soybeans tend to split. Corn does the same but crumbles and shatters as well, sometimes to dust. We call that pig feed on the combine. It’s already ground. Yes you set yer machine to minimize that but you can’t eliminate it. Already making it easier to ingest and digest.
 
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