My wife and I hunt a very large piece of private property about an hour due west of Mobridge, hearing all this doom and gloom I called the rancher that we are fortunate to have befriended and asked him what the outlook is.
His words were as follows, yes we were in a drought early but they have gotten some good rain that is producing grass. If the areas people previously hunted were heavily grazed last fall/early spring they are going to have some issues seeing birds because this will take a year to come back. He said he has seen a drop in birds but not that much that he would tell anyone not to come out, he did say they are looking a little immature for how late in the season we are at but there will be plenty for my wife and I to have a good time. His property is also loaded with grouse so we will have those to go after also. Yes a lot of the ranchers around him are cutting CRP to make up for the loss of hay, and yes many sold livestock early anticipating not having enough feed to carry them over. He also sent me a picture of his corn and I think he isn’t in any danger.
What he stressed to me it is all on how each individual rancher is managing their place if you are going to see birds or not, he knows of some that are telling their regular people that pay trespass fees not to waste their time coming out. I do think there are people that will tell you anything you want to hear due too this is how they make their living and or supplement their income but we do not pay to hunt this land and I believe what our guy is telling us.
His words were as follows, yes we were in a drought early but they have gotten some good rain that is producing grass. If the areas people previously hunted were heavily grazed last fall/early spring they are going to have some issues seeing birds because this will take a year to come back. He said he has seen a drop in birds but not that much that he would tell anyone not to come out, he did say they are looking a little immature for how late in the season we are at but there will be plenty for my wife and I to have a good time. His property is also loaded with grouse so we will have those to go after also. Yes a lot of the ranchers around him are cutting CRP to make up for the loss of hay, and yes many sold livestock early anticipating not having enough feed to carry them over. He also sent me a picture of his corn and I think he isn’t in any danger.
What he stressed to me it is all on how each individual rancher is managing their place if you are going to see birds or not, he knows of some that are telling their regular people that pay trespass fees not to waste their time coming out. I do think there are people that will tell you anything you want to hear due too this is how they make their living and or supplement their income but we do not pay to hunt this land and I believe what our guy is telling us.
