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.

I see the onions are untouched.

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:

Rabbits love young bean plants in my experience.

Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp

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.

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!

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.

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.

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