Article 4 in The Case for Pheasants Series from UGUIDE

Very good points Chris. As we like to joke about when we are out West " a good dirt farmer is a bad pheasant farmer" meaning very clean row crops, no weeds in the corn.
Hopefully the administration in DC will have some sense and open up more acres to be enrolled in the CRP program in SD and the rest of the pheasant producing states.
 
Excellent post. Thanks for taking the time to write the article.
 
Chris Very good series of articles !!! Have you done any research on how the Bt gene insertion in corn has effected any insect numbers ?? ( grasshoppers ) GMO is not a friend to wildlife. Have you sent these to all of your U-Guide farms ???
 
markvan said:
Chris Very good series of articles !!! Have you done any research on how the Bt gene insertion in corn has effected any insect numbers ?? ( grasshoppers ) GMO is not a friend to wildlife. Have you sent these to all of your U-Guide farms ???
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Hi Mark, I did send this to Wolf Creek and some others but not to all. I sent also to a lot of state agencies, PF Biologists and others.

It is borderline controversial so it could stir some conflict but that is OK.

The next article I will write will be called "Solutions".

My renter who farms my ground does a very sustainable rotation with wheat, cover crops and only conventional corn. The GMO testing shows no ill affects but the horse sense on the street says otherwise like my renters that say their cattle prefer the conventional corn over GMO.
 
Crestwoodbuck said:
Very good points Chris. As we like to joke about when we are out West " a good dirt farmer is a bad pheasant farmer" meaning very clean row crops, no weeds in the corn.
Hopefully the administration in DC will have some sense and open up more acres to be enrolled in the CRP program in SD and the rest of the pheasant producing states.
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The low prices have caused a pent up demand and a backlog of CRP acres wanted but the 24 million cap has been hit so I think that will bode well for getting more acres or a higher new cap in the 2018 farm bill.

Both CRP and crop insurance could use ALOT more reform in general.
 
Quit spending tax dollars on short term projects like Ethanol and CRP to buy votes. Invest by BUYING highly erodible land that should not be farmed anyway, taking it out of production permanently. And then MANAGE the land correctly, for the benefit of all wildlife. Promise the Agricultural community you will promote trade, and not do any moronic stuff like Jimmy Carter's grain embargo. Goverment will stay out of their lives.
 
Chris-- ANOTHER very good article !!! thanks for putting so much research and thought into these articles . I still question how much influence the Bt gene (GMO corn ) has had on insects for pheasants. Foxtail in corn ( all row crops) was a great place to hunt pheasants, Round-up has taken care of foxtail for farmers.
 
markvan said:
Chris-- ANOTHER very good article !!! thanks for putting so much research and thought into these articles . I still question how much influence the Bt gene (GMO corn ) has had on insects for pheasants. Foxtail in corn ( all row crops) was a great place to hunt pheasants, Round-up has taken care of foxtail for farmers.
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There's no doubt the "cleanliness" of the fields since the roundup ready system has been a round is a major impact to wildlife. Insecticides and fungicides are another. Even the aspect of field edges has changed dramatically over the years.

Good news is FSA has more cost support for Organic growers and there is more demand for consumers. Soil building is also growing among producers and they are doing a better job of mining for nutrients and building soils.
 
UGUIDE said:
Article 5 - Solutions just added to the series

http://www.uguidesdpheasants.com/news/solutions/
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Agree on the externalities and how well the architects of the system have been able to push those costs to others. Does seem like the general public is getting more wise but a more equitable shift will take a lot of time.

Another externality that doesn't get much attention yet is how the current food system has shifted our cultures eating habits so far towards reliance on processed foods (some estimates as high as 63% of caloric intake) and its resulting increase in chronic health issues. Average annual health care costs per person have now jumped to over $10K and now equals 18% of GDP. Not sustainable and while the current health care system has many flaws it is not the only culprit.

Also agree on the feeding the world propaganda. Great article 3 or 4 years ago in Scientific American on the "corn system" and how current corn production is actually used. Rough numbers were 40% ethanol, 40% animal feed, 12% exports and 8% direct food consumption. Also broke down how an acre of IA corn could generate 5 times more calories for human consumption than it currently does and is actually a less efficient producer of food for human consumption than an acre of farm ground in less developed countries like Bangladesh & Vietnam. I'd link the story but not able to get it done on my tablet.
 
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