Pheasant Industry in SD

[Brentbullets]

Just have to marry the right woman. Not all are bad. I get to go pretty much wherever I want. 48 years, she was raised in a family of hunters.

 

[hyresmack]

Wife's are good for a few things, hunting is not one of them

 

[benelli-banger]

Or, have an open marriage policy…she may encourage you to go…hey, wait a minute!!!! What the????

 

[Dixieman]

You’re right Tommy. Contributed to one divorce. Didn’t matter I did it anyway and no regrets. My ex wife said you love your setters more than me. Thought for a minute and said you know you are right. Fortunately I am married to a much more understanding woman. They are priceless and few and far in between.

 

[cheesy]

All I know is when they say “I don’t F’n care where you go on our anniversary this year” that she doesn’t really mean that.

But man, we killed a lot of birds 4 years in a row that weekend.

 

[jonnyB]

Teach a man to hunt and fish...and you'll never see him again. One of the issues in my first marriage, however, not the only one.

 

[roadscholar]

I kinda won the wife lottery, she likes to hunt almost as much as I do. We went to SD to hunt pheasant for our honeymoon, 9 years ago. (while living overseas, no less) And now we live here.
That's not how things were with my first wife, to say the least.

 

[Dixieman]

I hear all of that brothers. All true

 

[Chessie 67]

I made the mistake of getting married on 11/11. I hunt the Kansas opener every year. PS, I am no longer married…

 

[GetTothePoint]

My ex wife liked chasing cock, she just didn't like to pheasant hunt.

 

[cheesy]

I made the mistake of getting married on 11/11. I hunt the Kansas opener every year. PS, I am no longer married…

11/7 for me. I only hunted Kansas at the time. That year it was the first a Saturday of November, so the season didn’t open until the following weekend. No big deal, we hunted second weekend, populations were high, limits on public ground.

Well, populations in the tank now, we hunted second weekend elsewhere, and my buddy always wanted to go to SD that week.

Now we still go, but at the cost of a week in Florida leading up to it. Not all bad, the fishing is good that week.

 

[jmuller19]

My ex wife liked chasing cock, she just didn't like to pheasant hunt.

Uff da. Sounds like my ex. No good. LOL

 

[That1uncle1776]

Well for one thing, these operations that raise pheasants, are a huge industry in itself. There is a lot of work and technology that goes into these pheasants that they release.

Bs, its like having hogs

 

[That1uncle1776]

When I was in high school my dad and I hunted near Ord, NE. We hunted near Comstock too. Lots of pheasants in the late 70's. We had a farmer sit us in a field one morning and shoot pheasants as they flew in from the roost and the cedars on the hills.

Good area BTW

 

[Goosemaster]

we've done raise and released bird on our quarter section of wetland bank property here in SE MN since 2019. things we've done and have now implemented. (we are surrounded by black fields) no other large pieces of grassland within 3-4 miles of us.

1) we do 2 batches of 250 straight run birds. 1st batch we raise to 7 weeks old then release them all onto our property. this year our 1st batch was only 150 of the original 250 (had some rain issues) we see a fairly high survival rate into the hunting season. This year we are estimating close to 50%.

2) 2nd batch we release the hens at 7 weeks old and keep the roosters. we then will supplement through out the season if necessary. This year with the hatch on our property and or survival of the 1st batch we have yet to release any of the birds. (100+) waiting patiently for freedom. We do a large hunt on Thanksgiving weekend and will release the majority of them then.

3) food plots. the birds are in them every time and we typically hunt 5 out of the 7 days a week.


with the variability of the hatch each year this ensures we can have successful hunts.

we blinder the birds at 4 weeks old. typically 75% of these have fallen off by week 12-14. (getting caught in the net etc) The birds will at times pick on one and kill it but this year they've behaved themselves.

our biggest predator is owls. usually when they are younger. ie 4-12 wks old. and a mink back in 2020 that slaughtered 25 of them Thanksgiving day. man what a blood bath.

We all know that in order to keep up with demand these guys will always need pen raised birds.

I know what our input costs are per bird if we raise them to "maturity". maybe $7/bird. feed for the 1st 12 weeks is the biggest cost. Then we switch to corn. and when harvest starts we get permission from local farmers to pick up dropped corn, most offer to just fill the bed of our truck for free with shelled corn but we pass.

so when preserves are paying $30/bird for nonblindered from these raisers that's an insane price.

I am against releasing any birds. Zero.