doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Slightly OT Any birds left in western SD

This has been the situation in Iowa for quite a while. The only cover now is along waterways, and with the wet cold springs nesting is toast. As long as there is more money in corn than there is in pheasants, you probably don't want to spend a lot of time and money traveling. The numbers here are so low my daughter called me a couple weeks ago, all excited, to tell me she had seen a hen! The really old guys have stories about the Soil Bank, We tell stories about CRP, hope my kids have something to tell stories about. Mark Robson

Yep, ethanol costs more to make than sells for, without subsidies.
I'm a wildlife biologists with many years service to the New Mexico Department of Game and fish. They will not touch the habitat issue and wring their hands in angst. Their only response is kill more coyotes and mountain lions.

Today I heard from the rancher near Pierre where we hunt each year. They escaped the heavy snows, cattle are well, and he is seeing many pheasants. We plan to hunt there next week. Apparently some areas are O.K.

I wish you and your party good hunting, Jerry.

Please let us know how it goes.

The ethanol situation varies from state to state. Here in WI, for example, you have to look to find gas without ethanol, and as Bob said, it's mostly the much more expensive, higher octane stuff. Even harder to find ethanol-free gas in MN. Meanwhile, in IA--ground zero for ethanol--you'll find an ethanol-free pump at virtually every gas station. The price usually runs 5-10 cents more than the ethanol blend. Go figure.

Re the habitat/weather thing, the situation began to change for the worse in Iowa as a result of the 1996 Farm Bill. That legislation placed a premium on the govt rental payment for ground bid into the CRP. That put Iowa farmers at a disadvantage compared to the states to our west, because Iowa farm ground is more productive. Therefore, the farmer has to make more per acre in order to justify taking the land out of production. Iowa did gain, however, in buffer strip cover. So there was a switch from big fields of grass to narrow strips of grass along waterways. But we did not notice much change for several seasons in terms of the total harvest, mainly because we didn't have any really severe winters. Then came a string of winters with more snow than normal followed by springs that were cooler and wetter than normal. 2003 was the last year Iowa hunters bagged over a million birds. By 2011, the total was just over 100,000. To put that number in perspective, going back as far as the DNR has kept records, the all-time low prior to 2000 was 724,000 back in pre-CRP 1984. Very sad.

I'm one of the "old farts" that tells stories of the Soil Bank. Born in S.D. I started hunting in the late 50's. Pheasants had to be seen to be believed. Simply slamming the truck door would often cause HUNDREDS of birds to launch out of a field. Soil Bank, if a faulty memory serves, started phasing out in about '64. I returned from college in '69 and everbody was scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened to all the birds. Fast forward 50 years, CRP is being phased out, grazed and/or hayed. Everyone is scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened to all the birds. Duh! I don't blame the farmers, they are simply businessmen looking at high prices offset by drought---drain, plow and make a buck. Renewing CRP certainly would help them and the birds. Oh, in the "good ol' days we jumped tons of coyotes and foxes out of those fields, the dogs mixed it up with skunks and racoons were a common sight---nature can take care of itself if man gives it half a chance.

Steve

I don't have a history in SD as far back as Steve, but 24-25 yrs ago I started hunting SD in the Huron area. The numbers of birds were amazing. I hunted there for 4-5 yrs and missed the next dozen years. When I returned to hunting the very same grounds, the birds were no where near the same numbers. My friend that owns the farm said that the current methods and weed abatement fertilizers have completely eliminated the grass that used to grow under the corn, sunflower, and other crops. I've been hunting that area for about 8-9 yrs straight now and each year the bird density has declined. Each year being worse than the previous. This year seems to be much worse than last.

I'll be there to visit with my friends this weekend. I'm not planning on bringing dogs nor a shotgun.

My family farmed and had land in the soil bank or CRP from the late fifties until we sold the last farm a few years ago. The farms are in the central Texas Panhandle, irrigated at first but the aquifer got too shallow to irrigate one farm several years ago. The seventies and eighties were wonderful for pheasant. The pheasant hunting seemed better to me before CRP and before RoundUp resistant crops. Flushed many a rooster out of the weeds along a barbwire fence. Every year there are fewer fences. Tree rows have been pulled up. The last two seasons the drought made it a waste of time to go. The CRP that wasn't grazed down dried out and broke off and blew away.

We have had some rain but the drought map shows us still in drought. Maybe the pheasant recovery will start this year. The cover at my bob white lease is good this year. Grasshoppers at the lease and the bird dog club were really thick before it cooled off.