The need to develop non-lethal, successful, and realistic methods to manage crop damage caused by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has increased with the prevalence of locally abundant deer populations and societal demands for non-lethal wildlife management. Tests were conducted to find if placing legume border crops at the edge of a soybean field would reduce deer damage to soybeans. Two border crop varieties, Deer Treat and Game Mix (L1) and Deer Plot Legume Mixture (L2) were tested with free ranging deer at the SIUC farms in Illinois. Data collection included track counts, soybean browse counts, legume browse counts, and yield. The objectives were to compare deer attraction to legume border crops adjacent to a soybean field with track counts and browse damage and compare browse damage and yield of soybeans planted adjacent to the border crops. Track counts showed a difference among the treatments (F2,81 = 4.73, P = 0.0114). The L2 (x¯ = 202, n = 30) and L1 (x¯ = 196, n = 30) treatments had approximately 24% higher track counts that the control (x¯ = 160, n = 30). Based on nip counts, there was no evidence that deer preferred L1 (x¯ = 116, n = 15) over L2 (x¯ = 100, n = 15) over the other (F1,8 = 2.73, P = 0.1116). Early season soybean nip counts were 147% higher for the L2 ( x¯ = 37, n = 9) treatment than the L1 ( x¯ = 15, n = 9) treatment at 9.1 m from the border crop treatments (F1,4 = 24.31, P = 0.0003). Comparing soybean yields there was a difference between treatments (F2,4 = 78.97, P = 0.0007) with L2 (x¯ = 3,658 kg/ha, n = 3) and Control (x¯ = 3,292 kg/ha, n = 3) having at least a 40% higher yield than L1 (x¯ = 2,347 kg/ha, n = 3).
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