impact of drought

UGUIDE said:
I hope you are right! I mowed 20 acres of new tress yesterday and saw 2 hens and one brood of 4. Not a ton of cover there but I expected more birds in those trees. I only saw 1 rooster and heard one cackle the whole time I was there.
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I hope I'm right too Chris. And I believe I am. Let me ease your concern a bit. Here in Illinois we are in the same heat wave and drought as much of the country. Things are drying up fast.

Despite the heat and drought, from my (obviously non-scientific) observations in the field, our pheasant hatch was great, and broods are still alive and well. In fact, one of the areas I've been observing has more pheasant sign then I've seen in many years.

We are loosing birds--no doubt. But they are hardy and can survive some amazing conditions. We're still okay and will see good #'s this fall:thumbsup:
 
quail hound said:
Ok guys, bare with me here as this may be a dumb question. You guys out that way don't have any irrigation ditches or ag wells at all? You rely solely on rain fall for the crops? The only crop around here that's not irrigated is winter wheat. Sorry if this is a dumb question but this is very foreign for a guy out west where EVERY river is damned for irrigation and all farmers can suck up ground water with their ag wells during years where there is no snow on the mountains.
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Rob, there is some irrigation but nothing like what you have out your way. So, yes, we do depend on the rain mainly for our crops to grow.
 
1pheas4 said:
I hope I'm right too Chris. And I believe I am. Let me ease your concern a bit. Here in Illinois we are in the same heat wave and drought as much of the country. Things are drying up fast.

Despite the heat and drought, from my (obviously non-scientific) observations in the field, our pheasant hatch was great, and broods are still alive and well. In fact, one of the areas I've been observing has more pheasant sign then I've seen in many years.

We are loosing birds--no doubt. But they are hardy and can survive some amazing conditions. We're still okay and will see good #'s this fall:thumbsup:
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The brood counts will tell the story hopefully. Thanks for the encouragement. Seems the more work I put into habitat the poorer the results are.
 
UGUIDE said:
I hope you are right! I mowed 20 acres of new tress yesterday and saw 2 hens and one brood of 4. Not a ton of cover there but I expected more birds in those trees. I only saw 1 rooster and heard one cackle the whole time I was there.
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UGUIDE, Just out of curiosity:eek: WHY:confused::confused: Are you mowing:( 20 acres come on man:confused:
You guys are in a drought. VERY VERY Weird. So where do you think the pheasants are going to shelter??
 
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mnmthunting said:
UGUIDE, Just out of curiosity:eek: WHY:confused::confused: Are you mowing:( 20 acres come on man:confused: WTF!!!
You guys are in a drought. VERY VERY Weird. So where do you think the pheasants are going to shelter??
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Just my guess, but Chris is a business man. Pheasant population is down, a killer drought is scorching the area and beef growers are despite for hay to winter their animals. I'm sure they are willing to pay plenty for any hay they can get.

I have a neighbor who has 2-300 acres of very nice good grass hay and he's going to just leave it stand. He says he can't get decent money for it in the past. So he's not even going to cut it. I bet if I put the word out around Charles Mix. We could find a buyer willing to pay the trucking to get the hay down there.

Onpoint

Edit:
Never mind, I need to read back further. I thought he mowed it for hay. Carry on boys.
Onpoint
 
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"Nick, the birds are THICK this year." I heard this today from a gentleman who was in SD last week. (put a lot of entheses on the "thick" part)

From my area "We are hearing and flushing a lot of pheasants compared to years past." I heard this today from some habitat workers who have been in the field for much of the summer.
 
At Lake Andes, they got enough to wet the ground. Accompanied with 70 mph winds
 
mnmthunting said:
UGUIDE, Just out of curiosity:eek: WHY:confused::confused: Are you mowing:( 20 acres come on man:confused:
You guys are in a drought. VERY VERY Weird. So where do you think the pheasants are going to shelter??
Click to expand...

NRCS require at least 1 mechanical weed clipping 1st year and always requires weeds to be maintained in tree after that.

It needed it. Enough cover to smoke the slip clutch on the bush hog. Wild sunflowers and kochia were 6-7' tall in places. My seeded grass was about 6" tall (sideoats and blue grama).

I was approached about haying my CRP but will not do it.

Sometimes you guys tend to "Jump to Conclusions"

Here is a little office space video for you:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxuTyXQHqkI
 
quail hound said:
Ok guys, bare with me here as this may be a dumb question. You guys out that way don't have any irrigation ditches or ag wells at all? You rely solely on rain fall for the crops? The only crop around here that's not irrigated is winter wheat. Sorry if this is a dumb question but this is very foreign for a guy out west where EVERY river is damned for irrigation and all farmers can suck up ground water with their ag wells during years where there is no snow on the mountains.
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Even with irrigation, and correct me if I'm wrong for those that have hands on experience with this, with the extreme temps they cant pump water fast enough or in enough quantity to keep ahead of the evaporation.
 
UGUIDE said:
NRCS require at least 1 mechanical weed clipping 1st year and always requires weeds to be maintained in tree after that.

It needed it. Enough cover to smoke the slip clutch on the bush hog. Wild sunflowers and kochia were 6-7' tall in places. My seeded grass was about 6" tall (sideoats and blue grama).

I was approached about haying my CRP but will not do it.

Sometimes you guys tend to "Jump to Conclusions"

Here is a little office space video for you:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxuTyXQHqkI
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Yeah, but this a pheasant hunting/habitat forum. The stuff your mowing was:confused: some GREAT bird cover, no matter how you look at it.
YEAH and your dealing with feds. :cheers:
 
i think the long term goal here is to promote tree growth and substantial winter cover. you can't accomplish that if the saplings are covered up and choked out with weeds....:)
 
hunter94 said:
i think the long term goal here is to promote tree growth and substantial winter cover. you can't accomplish that if the saplings are covered up and choked out with weeds....:)
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AMEN! Hunter94. You are right, with this cover type the goal is cover that can help birds in mid winter in 5-10 years. Got to strike a balance between short term habitat needs and long term and critical cover missing from the landscape.
 
I was just at my place in Charles Mix. All I can say is, this was the lowest amount of pheasants I have ever seen and never heard. I only heard a couple of roasters crow the whole time I was there. Only seen two birds.

The only good thing, we did get some rain on Friday and Saturday. Not even many ducks around. The slews are all dried up and where there was water..very few ducks. Southern Minnesota had more ducks by far. That's very rare. Might be a year to look elsewhere for your hunting needs IMO. It's a long ways to drive for nothing.
 
I guess I'm more interested in the short term, sounds like pheasant cover is extremely short in SD this year.

I'm a strange old guy but, I would much rather have 20 acres of head high nasty weeds holding and Wintering a flock of Pheasants then 20 acres of mowed and groomed stuff that will be no benefit to much of anything.:(
 
UGUIDE has been developing his land for wildlife for some time now...that stuff he mowed between tree rows is probably a "rounding error" in the grand scheme of that chunk of ground...good for him for thinking longer term...those trees will do some good some winter not that far down the road...my cedars are 8 years old, and even a few years ago they were holding birds in the winter...
 
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