2010 Pheasant Fest highlights and Comments

landman

landman

New member
The 2010 Pheasant Fest is over and here are some highlights and Lowlights comments.

Highlights.

1. USDA signs a Memorandum of Understanding with PF - this is a hugh development which will help conservation and wildlife.
2. Sec of Ag Vilsack announces a General CRP for this year and more acres for the CP37, CP33 and CP38 programs.
3. The Sat evening banquet was outstanding. Many awards were given and mega bucks were raised for habitat and conservation.
4. The landowner help desk was busy all weekend, which highlighted the deep interest from landowners willing to work with PF in improving conservation and habitat.


A lowlight.

1. The Pheasant Dinner on Friday night was horrible. The pheasant was overcooked to the point that very little pheasant was actually consumed and folks probably left a little hungry.

Some suggestions for next year.

1. More seminars on how to improve habitat and conservation.
2. A seminar or two on how to raise funds or how to run a banquet for PF chapters and volunteers.

Overall, Pheasant Fest was fun and informative. I would rate it a huge success.
 
Highlights:

Ditto from Landmans and + I got to spend quality time with Landman at Pheasant Fest.

Once again, glad I didn't miss it.

Another big move by PF was to officially denounce relases of pen raised birds or use of surrogator to improve bird populations.

they do support game farms however but denounce the advertised claims of the surrogator product.
 
I didn't make it to Pheasant fest this year, but am sure it was a good time as it usually has a lot of informative things represented there. Just curious, why do they not like the idea of the surrogator or released birds? If nothing else, don't the released birds take the pressure off native birds?
 
Glad you guys had a good time I wanted to go, but me and my two little germ buckets were sick and couldn't attend maybe next year. :(
 
I had a very good time at pheasant fest. Spent some money but bought some stuff at a great price. Thanks to all those that support pheasant forever!

The thing I enjoyed the most is how great people are in the hunting world!
 
UGUIDE said:
Highlights:

Ditto from Landmans and + I got to spend quality time with Landman at Pheasant Fest.

Once again, glad I didn't miss it.

Another big move by PF was to officially denounce relases of pen raised birds or use of surrogator to improve bird populations.

they do support game farms however but denounce the advertised claims of the surrogator product.
Click to expand...

Thanks Uguide, I enjoyed our quality time too. The Saturday Luncheon was the highlight of the show for me

I missed the announcement about the game farms and surrogator product but I'm not surprised by the assessment. There are many studies about the lack of effectiveness of releasing birds and I've often wondered if the surrogator could really make much of an impact. I would think the results would be low and short term at best.
 
Uplandnut and Landman, I will post some handouts I got on the pen raised and surrogator facts on the habitat forum when I get a chance. This will give you the facts behind the position.

Brad it was nice to meet you too. Yes the hunting world is a very special community. See you all in Omaha next year.
 
The only two Pheasant Fests I have attended have been in Des Moines. Enjoyed it as I did the other one in Des Moines. It seemed that there was less involvement and visibility (sign's, etc.) by Cabela's, Gander Mountain, Bass Pro, etc. Saw small setups by Scheels and Sportsman's Warehouse. Also thought it was interesting that there was a booth selling bed sheets. It also seemed that there were less of the individual hunting lodges/operations with booths. Long drive from Chattanooga, TN but worth it.

Superposed
 
=landman;

Highlights.

1. USDA signs a Memorandum of Understanding with PF - this is a hugh development which will help conservation and wildlife.
2. Sec of Ag Vilsack announces a General CRP for this year and more acres for the CP37, CP33 and CP38 programs.
3. The Sat evening banquet was outstanding. Many awards were given and mega bucks were raised for habitat and conservation.
4. The landowner help desk was busy all weekend, which highlighted the deep interest from landowners willing to work with PF in improving conservation and habitat.
Click to expand...

Landman, I noticed you posted info on the general sign up for crp. How significant is this gerneral signup to increasing crp? I keep hearing about how much crp we are losing. How do you feel this sign up will help improve the situation? Thanks for any help understanding this.:)
 
1pheas4 said:
Landman, I noticed you posted info on the general sign up for crp. How significant is this gerneral signup to increasing crp? I keep hearing about how much crp we are losing. How do you feel this sign up will help improve the situation? Thanks for any help understanding this.:)
Click to expand...

1pheas,

I am not speaking for Landman here but my impression would be the Mr. Ag Secretary make available any and all programs to keep CRP at current Farm Bill Cap which is 32 Millions acres nationwide. I don't have any stats on where we are at but might even be above 32 million right not. We are going from 39 million in previous farm bill to 32 Million so that is going to hurt right there.
 
UGUIDE said:
1pheas,

I am not speaking for Landman here but my impression would be the Mr. Ag Secretary make available any and all programs to keep CRP at current Farm Bill Cap which is 32 Millions acres nationwide. I don't have any stats on where we are at but might even be above 32 million right not. We are going from 39 million in previous farm bill to 32 Million so that is going to hurt right there.
Click to expand...

I'm told that we are currently just under 32 million acres so we are at the number of acres authorized by the last Farm Bill. The General sign-up this summer will replace the acres expiring on Oct 1, 2010. The General sign-ups all begin on Oct 1 so it pretty much new acres replacing old acres.

The Farm Bill authorized 32 million acres so in effect the Ag Sec is just doing his job. All the screaming and holloring from the conservation groups about new General Sign-up is just making sure he does just that - doing his job. Vilsack is a good guy so he should keep things going for CRP. That last Sec of Ag was a different story - so happy he is gone.
 
As already confirmed by Landman & Uguide the General Sign-up really just creates the opportunity for CRP acres to stabilize at the 32 million level and end the loss of acreage we have seen over the last three years. Given the political environment in Washington that was not a slam dunk. Now we just need to hope the rental rates offered for enrollment are high enough to keep landowners interested in the program and that the acreage lost this fall gets replaced.

On the positive side this should create some turnover in acreage and new parcels of CRP are usually more productive for wildlife than aging parcels. I also remember some pretty good pheasant hunting in the late 1990's and I believe during those years total CRP enrollment was at or just below 30 million acres.
 
Thank you for your answers to my CRP questions guys!:thumbsup:
 
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