What kind of damage is this?

[KurtNYC]

These were soybeans (edamame). The first part of the row is pictured. The next ten plants or so are similar but the damage stops a little higher up the plant.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Looks like somebody came along with a weed whacker.

[KurtNYC]

2. Thanks. That was my first thought too.

My co-farmer thinks this is ground hog damage but I saw straight edge cuts through some of the leaves on the plants that are left. Also the crabgrass seems cut on the edamame side of the row but not on the onion side.

I hope it was a ground hog because if it was a string trimmer I'm pissed.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Deer?

I see the onions are untouched.

[uppityperson]

4. Do you have deer as this looks like perfect deer groomed plants.

[KurtNYC]

7. There is an 8-foot fence on the field but...hmmm

When I have seen deer damage it looks to me like they grab the stalk and then strip upward with their teeth clenched. And you get teeth marks on the stalks and more shredded leaves. This is very clean and uniform but I really don't know which is why I asked.

I appreciate your and everyone's answers. Really hadn't thought about deer because of the fencing but there is a gate and it is not impossible for deer to hop an 8' fence (one study showed 5% of deer could do 8'). There are deer elsewhere on the property but I have never seen any on the field, even before the fence went up.

Found this:

One research project showed nearly all of the deer jumped a 6-foot fence, most jumped a 7-foot fence, but less than 5 percent jumped an 8-foot fence. That doesn’t mean the other deer couldn’t jump 8 feet high, it simply means they didn’t during the study. While I was in graduate school at the University of New Hampshire we had a deer at our research facility get spooked and jump over an 8-foot fence after taking only 1 to 2 steps.

http://rackpack.qdma.com/featured-articles/how-high-can-deer-jump

The fence wasn't cheap. It would be just my luck to have Olympian deer. Maybe it is time for a critter cam.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Rabbits?

Rabbits love young bean plants in my experience.

[postulater]

6. Deer.

[littlemissmartypants]

8. Rabbits and deer. eom

Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp

[littlemissmartypants]

9. The bunny population has been very busy

In my yardage. Deer will jump over 8 ft. I wears my shadez out side. I'm growing sage, oregano, roma, sunflowers and worms. One squash. Literally. One. Thanks bunnies!

Dig it.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

10. Looks like it could be groundhog to me

One we had that lived near our garden a few years back would start at one end of the row of sunflowers and eat it pretty much then move on. Ate less on each plant. And one groundhog we have this year living next to our driveway in a rock garden das ate a lot of weeds that grew up around a sitting car and looks just like this. Ate most of the leaves off and now I just have to pull the stalk!

[ginnyinWI]

11. Looks like deer to me, too.

One year, before my fence, they came and ate all the green tomatoes off my plants, and all the leaves on the jalapeno plants. But they didn't eat the jalapenos!

I have heard (from the guy at the Farm and Fleet store) that a deer can jump a very high fence, but they need a running start. They are smart enough to know that if they jump into a small garden, they won't be able to get out. So we put up a five foot wire fence, and haven't had any deer go in. Now my plants are only threatened by slugs and bugs.

My garden is about 17 x 20 feet, too small for a deer I guess.

[KurtNYC]

12. One of my friends uses two low fences, one inside the other, on his farm

He says deer have no depth perception so they wont jump the first fence because they don't know how close the 2nd one is. Seems to work for him so far. It is just 2 rows of electric ribbon about 4' off the ground.

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. Looks like what deer do to my garden (before buying the motion detector water scarecrows!)

I've got a persistent rabbit at my beans this year.