UGUIDE
Active member
The best thing to happen this year to pheasants in South Dakota is THE DROUGHT!
Here's why. Farmers could have drought proofed their crops had they used simple conservation agriculture practices. The new bleeding edge in commodity agriculture today is all about managing soil health. And to do that you use old school tactics like crop rotations, no-till and cover crops (mulch).
Farmers can bank moisture in the soil using these practices. In a state that receives 17" of rainfall annually this should be important.
I am seeing the results firsthand on my own ground by partnering with my producer renter and USDA and the CSP program. We locked in this rotation in a 4 year cash rent agreement.
Another of my partners that works for South Dakota corn growers has looked at our crops recently and says they are some of the best he has seen. We will have more info on results this fall coming later.
Simply adding wheat and cover crops into the corn and soybean rotation and going no till is mainly what is required to transform the landscape.
What can hunters do? Buy more products at your store from the organic section and more sustainably produced section.
Buying more dogs, guns and shells doesn't do much. PF prairie storm shells are only ones I can think of that is an easy conservation spend.
You should also have conversations with you farmer about his farming practices. You will hear that wheat don't pay and so only has corn and soybeans planted. this system has big problems on the horizon like weed resistance among a host of other issues with the list growing every year.
Some producers using the soil health systems can actually get off crop insurance because it mitigates their risk to a point where they don't need it.
Hunters that look for these types of producers this fall in drought areas will most likely find more pheasants in those areas as well because they are pheasant and cattle friendly systems.
Producers ears are going to be more open to listening to the not so new buzz going around the corn belt.
Here's why. Farmers could have drought proofed their crops had they used simple conservation agriculture practices. The new bleeding edge in commodity agriculture today is all about managing soil health. And to do that you use old school tactics like crop rotations, no-till and cover crops (mulch).
Farmers can bank moisture in the soil using these practices. In a state that receives 17" of rainfall annually this should be important.
I am seeing the results firsthand on my own ground by partnering with my producer renter and USDA and the CSP program. We locked in this rotation in a 4 year cash rent agreement.
Another of my partners that works for South Dakota corn growers has looked at our crops recently and says they are some of the best he has seen. We will have more info on results this fall coming later.
Simply adding wheat and cover crops into the corn and soybean rotation and going no till is mainly what is required to transform the landscape.
What can hunters do? Buy more products at your store from the organic section and more sustainably produced section.
Buying more dogs, guns and shells doesn't do much. PF prairie storm shells are only ones I can think of that is an easy conservation spend.
You should also have conversations with you farmer about his farming practices. You will hear that wheat don't pay and so only has corn and soybeans planted. this system has big problems on the horizon like weed resistance among a host of other issues with the list growing every year.
Some producers using the soil health systems can actually get off crop insurance because it mitigates their risk to a point where they don't need it.
Hunters that look for these types of producers this fall in drought areas will most likely find more pheasants in those areas as well because they are pheasant and cattle friendly systems.
Producers ears are going to be more open to listening to the not so new buzz going around the corn belt.
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