2015 South Dakota Crop Harvest Reports

I believe he is referring farmers discing the fields once the crops are harvested. Where a more common practice is to leave the harvested field untouched until spring leaving a food source for the birds throughout the winter. Correct me if I'm wrong viking.
 
stubble & un disced fields also help hold top soil & collect moisture from snow fall...

just like across the border in MN who cares about the wild pheasants or the habitat just turn the field over asap?
 
I kind of thought that never heard it called that before. Here in pa the dairy farmers are the ones that disc the fields. The grain farmers used to always let stubble for no till. The past year or two I've seen them start raking and bailing corn stubble for some reason. Used to be good for goose hunting but geese don't really hit those fields either. Not sure why that has changed.
 
Turning ground Black

Disking or digging the field after harvest, sorry I didn't explain earlier. South Dakota farmers use to harvest and wait until Spring to prep the ground for planting. Some still leave the harvested field until Spring. But more and more farmers are prepping the ground for Spring planting in the Fall.

I understand the smaller family farms are slowly disappearing and larger corporate farms are moving in.

Big farmers farm so much land that they have to prep as much land for Spring planting in the Fall because they just don't have time to prep and plant in the Spring.

So in my opinion as small farmers disappear, so will a lot of the habitat. Smaller farmers usually farm and have some livestock. So leaving grass strips used for pheasant hatch then baled for livestock works out. If you only grow crops the farmer works every inch to maximize yield, thus no edges or grass water run off areas for wildlife, these areas are tiled and drained to be farmed.

CRP is an option but payments have to compete with land rent and crop income comparisons.

If things continue the way they are in Eastern SD the hunting will be as good as Iowa pheasant hunting in the next 20 years. No offense to Iowa land owners.

Don't mean to sound like a downer but things are changing.

Viking
 
Doing tillage in the fall when the ground is dry prevents compaction and damage to the soil structure. If you wait until spring to do tillage sometimes the ground is too wet to even get in the field. You have to be as productive as possible if you are going to compete with CRP payments.
 
in MN the dnr turned to paying certain farmers to leave crops standing on private lands ajoining public lands & or reinversed them to leave it stubble instead of have the farmer just cut & turn the field over very good idea i feel...

i agree 100% with sdviking when all small farms go the habitat goes with it then its plant every acre tile the sloughs burn the wind breaks disc it black asap corp farming is no good IA has lots...

need some cattle nearby if they care about the cattle they care about there grass & that leaves plenty of cover for the birds nearby...

hope some corns off by oct. 24-28 taking a buddy out to the deadzone sdviking mentioned working our way west if need be... just trying to avoid the major crowds out near the MO river towns... we going west 1-2 days im sure booked our lodgeing today my buddy is excited took em to ND last year bad move SD would have been the place to take em ND pheasants kicked our asses...
 
I made the trip yesterday from Watertown, SD to the Twin Cities and back. There are not many beans left in the field and I would guess by this weekend the bean harvest will be done. And I was surprised to see a fair amount of corn also being harvested. I imagine with the warm dry weather we have been having the corn is maturing and drying down quite fast. Early harvest this year for sure.
 
10/5 crop report

SIOUX FALLS, SD, October 5, 2015 ? For the week ending October 4, 2015, warm, dry conditions were experienced until rain brought cooler temperatures late in the week, according to the USDA?s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Soybean harvest progressed, along with winter wheat seeding and calf weaning. There were 5.5 days suitable for fieldwork. Topsoil moisture supplies rated 6 percent very short, 24 short,
69 adequate, and 1 surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies rated 6 percent very short, 25 short, 68 adequate, and
1 surplus.

Field Crops Report: Corn condition rated 0 percent very poor, 4 poor, 18 fair, 59 good, and 19 excellent. Corn mature was at 80 percent, ahead of 69 last year, but near 82 for the five-year average. Harvested was at
12 percent, ahead of 5 last year, but behind 22 average.

Soybean condition rated 0 percent very poor, 3 poor, 19 fair, 58 good, and 20 excellent. Soybeans dropping leaves was at 95 percent, near 94 last year and 96 average. Harvested was at 46 percent, well ahead of 22 last year, but near 42 average.
 
Okay I am back out here again and will be "Boots on the ground reporting" Got in Pierre on Saturday. Trying to help pull some more corn out. Saw about 200 birds on one section alone on Sundays harvest. We never attempted anything today. High wind warnings. We might start up around dusk and pull until Midnight. MY folks have about 45% of all our corn done. Still have around 2800 acres to go. If all works well and no break downs, should have it down to 2000 by weeks end. Birds everywhere. Not even slowing down when I see them in the road. I am going to be here for two weeks. Will try and keep updates coming. Tomorrow everyone will be going full throttle. :10sign::cheers::cheers::cheers:
 
On a quick lunch break. Tearing through fields. Pheasants and pheasants. Anyone heading out this way will not be disappointed. Dad and I guessing the road side counts were not accurate. Looks like I will miss the opener. Work comes first. Largest flush so far I would guess at 50 today.
 
Report from a custom combiner around Aberdeen is that corn is still too wet in that area at 30% (they try to wait for 17% or less). They have been doing a few fields of wet corn but they are currently on sunflowers now that beans are all done. However the number of acres in corn this year in that area is way down which is something the crop harvest reports don't always tell you if you are reading the summary. Therefore the amount of standing corn should be less than you are used to seeing in the last couple years.

Their take on the birds is "lots of young dummies"- that bird survival/carryover wasn't that good but the spring survival rate was excellent. So with the low winds and cold nights/warm days forcasted, there is a good chance there will be plenty of dummies around early in the day out sunning themselves without a lot of crops to run and hide in. Should make for a good opener.
 
Thanks for the reports Meridian; keep them coming. I'm hoping that the lush vegetation this year skewed the numbers toward the low side just as the drought years were skewed toward the high numbers. Getting antsy. Few days to take off.
 
Sat out tonight and saw nothing but roosters. Had same experience seeing birds on road. Had I not seen a group of 10 hens today pop out of a little strip of brome grass I had left to mow I would have thought things were oddly strange. Seems like they are in bachelor groups already.

If the rooty to hen ratio is what it looks like it indicates an excellent hatch. Did not see a rooty with partial colors. Could not tell old from new birds.

Can't wait for the harvest counts to come in from our camps for this weekend.

PS. Beans look to be done around Armour for the most part and a good share of corn is coming out. Lots of activity in the field.
 
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meridiannursery said:
On a quick lunch break. Tearing through fields. Pheasants and pheasants. Anyone heading out this way will not be disappointed. Dad and I guessing the road side counts were not accurate. Looks like I will miss the opener. Work comes first. Largest flush so far I would guess at 50 today.
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Keep posting constant updates about your location and alllll these birds you're seeing and you'll have plenty of company. :thumbsup:
 
i seen same thing in MN on the SD border many bachelor groups were seen... did find full color birds with barely able to flyers...

i hope by oct.24 some corn is off more then not im hopeing...
 
hunter94 said:
there are birds all over SD.........its no secret....besides, did you get the GPS coordinates? :eek:
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Still waiting to hear back from him. I got 26 guys in 15 trucks with our 17 labs ready to rock and roll. :cheers:

It's not a secret SoDak has birds. The cities that even have birds most of the time isn't a secret, but I just don't understand why somebody would just repeatedly broadcast the amount of birds they're seeing around an area they want to hunt. What purpose does it serve? Sure, say you've scouted and what you've seen, I personally just don't understand why you'd want to broadcast that to other hunters and Internet scouts.
 
I would say as a whole true bird hunters are gentleman and more than willing to help people. What he is doing is a great thing.

Problem is, people are focusing on the small percentage that will not respect boundaries and other hunters and will do anything to get another bird. I believe a lot of people are good natured and appreciate the insight and will respect the information.

I get not giving up your honey hole but it really is no secret where the birds are so I see little harm in what he is doing and appreciate the information. It does not change where I am going but simply gets me excited to get out there. Then again, I am from Indiana where there is someone everywhere you go so I am used to it. When I go to south Dakota, I feel like there is no one around. Hunting is to competitive these days.
 
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If I knew that what I posted was only viewed by active members on this forum. I'd have no problem stating anything about where I hunted, what I saw, what I shot, bird numbers etc. There are several UPH forum members I'd love to share a field with and hunt with any day of the week. But I'm from Texas, and I've seen first hand what can happen to great public hunting once people start running their mouth. And I also see what's happening to SoDak now. Y'all are traveling down the same road we are already at the end of. Pay to play. You have guides leasing out properties out the wazoo up there and now a ton of day leasers and pay to play guys. And most of the guys paying are from out of state. Just like most of the guys that would see these posts and flock to those areas are out of state guys. And typically, the disrespectful hunters who piss off farmers, or the hunters who have the money to knock on Farmer Joe's door who usually lets people hunt his farm for free if they're decent respectful people, now want $200 a gun a day to hunt, and those guys are out of state hunters. This is the only upland forum I've seen where it's more about birds bagged than dog work. I enjoy this forum because there are some here who live in these states and have great insight to crop situations, public land situations, crow reports etc. but this forum also has more dead weight members and Internet scouts than any forum I've seen. And for that reason I just don't see the benefit at all of saying hey I was in this town and saw a toooon of birds, they're everywhere, you can't drive down the road without hitting them etc. Because if you don't think there are guys looking at this that are from out of state looking for a good report so that they know where they could go, you're crazy. If you don't think there are people that use posts like he's made as a guide on where they should go, you're crazy. And it's not just one person, the guy that saw it tells a friend, then he tells a friend, then he tells a friend, snowball effect. If the posts were limited to productive, insightful, knowledgable fellow forum members, I'd be all about it and would help anyone in any way I could, it's just not the case these days. SoDak is being massively commercialized, and take it from someone who's entire state has been nothing but commercialized, it is absolutely horrible.
 
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