FarmI wrote:
Many thanks to all for the responses on how to grow soy beans.

Now, to respond to 'bird:
"songbird" wrote in message

i've grown them from picking up seeds from the
field next to us (likely a glyphosate resistant variety)

And possibly also a GMO soy bean do you think?

That would be the case.


and didn't like those for taste as much as the few
lbs i picked up from the health food store that were
labelled organic. i planted those this year and the
difference was noticeable in terms of season, the
ones i planted turned brown several weeks later than
the soybean fields around us.

Was that too late in the season for you or was the alteness a good
thing? Are you going to save some of your current harvest for
replanting next year?

i space them 4-6 inches apart and rows a foot apart.
1-2 inches deep, they have pretty big leaves and smother
anything growing within a few feet of them so don't plan
on planting anything right next to them, or you can do
what i did with some of them to thin them out (so the
strawberries got some sunshine) i just trimmed off some
of the leaves. i used the trimmings for green manure
and worm farm food. chickens would probably eat them.

:-)) Perhaps our cows would like some rather than giving them to my
chooks. My chooks get lots of (self serve) greens but will come
running at the thought of some animal protein on offer -

I lifted up some rubbish while the chooks were watching and I uncovered a
mouse nest. The mice all ran for it, mother disappeared into the grass, the
pink babes disappeared into the chooks in about 10 seconds, I was nearly
knocked down in the rush.


the cows
come for green tidbits if they are in the paddock close to the veg
garden :-))


The horses will come and coach us over the fence when we are in the garden
to make sure we do it right and to ensure we give them some.


if my estimate of the harvest this year is correct
one bean gives between a 50 to 75 return.

That's a pretty good result.

harvesting by hand is a bit of work, but i like
being outside picking. stripping the stalks is not
too bad if you wait until the leaves have dried
and fallen off and the pods are mostly dry (i.e. not
green). i can pick three to four paper bags of pods
in several hours. long sleeved shirt required. it's
picky and dusty.

the shelling is also dusty, but there are methods
for doing that where you can avoid the dust too. i
put the dry pods in a pillow case and stomp on them for
a while. sort them from the chaff by dumping them from
box to box in a good breeze or if it is too windy and
rainy i use an inclined plane made out of cardboard and
they roll down it as i squish and crumple the pods to
get the beans out. i wear thin rubber gloves because
the pods will stick to cotton gloves.

i'm sure that beating the pillow case with a
baseball bat would probably work too.

the usual 90/10 rule applies, to get the first
90% of the beans takes 10% of the time and effort.
if i had chickens or pigs i'd not even bother with
the last 10% and let them pick through to get
those, but as i have both time and patience i end
up going for almost every bean i can find in the
pods. then later on, i go through and pick out
the beans i don't want to use for soymilk and put
those in the worm food bucket. the chaff gets
recycled back to the gardens one way or another
too. it makes good worm bedding eventually.

Thanks 'bird. A very good description. I've forwarded all responses
to my email addy for future reference. I might even try some this
year if I can squeeze some in somewhere - space is getting a bit on
the tight side now.

OK aside from "milk" and stock feed what would you do with them on a small
scale? Is it sensible (possible) to make any of the multitude of soy
products domestically that are made commercially?

David