2017 Pheasant SD Survey

benelli-banger said:
If Warren Buffet were a pheasant hunter, he would spend the whole season in SD...befriending farmers who will not be bothered too much this season...good time to make friends, get to know some areas...things bounce back, and you will be remembered as the nice out of stater who came to SD anyway...and brought walleye, or smoked salmon, or wild rice, or a good pie...and whiskey!!!!
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No. If Warren Buffet was a pheasant hunter he would most likely purchase several sections of land in SD and have a caretaker maintain it specifically for upland game habitat.

I do agree with the rest of what you stated.
 
Ol'gun said:
No. If Warren Buffet was a pheasant hunter he would most likely purchase several sections of land in SD and have a caretaker maintain it specifically for upland game habitat.

I do agree with the rest of what you stated.
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my point is that Buffet tends to do the exact opposite from what the crowds do...he is a contrarian investor. So, this is a good year to be a "buyer" of SD pheasant hunting...go meet some farmers...they will be hassled less than in years when numbers of birds are high, every yahoo comes during those years. make some friends...things will improve in time, and those relationships will pay off. buffet isn't a hunter, though he does own a farm in Nebraska...I understand that with a net worth of 60 or 80 billion dollars one could buy a few sections of land. for example, 9 years ago, when our economy was collapsing, he stepped up and was an aggressive buyer of stocks, and he wrote a letter to America that was published in several newspapers essentially stating that this was a fine time to buy American assets, like stocks. Of course, hindsight being 20/20, one could have bought the Dow at about 6500 in March of 2009...it is now about 22,000...and you would have earned dividends of about 5% annually as well...not bad. So take a long term perspective...come out, knock on doors, hang out in cafes and bars, meet people...you will set yourself apart...I have spoken to 4-5 farmers in the past few weeks in my area and they actually are pretty favorable in their reports...i would come out later in the season, you set yourself even further apart when you are out there when it is cold..and snowy. and the birds are bunched up, which works to your favor.
 
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UGUIDE said:
:) Our weekly pheasant harvest survey will tell a different story as the weeks of the season roll out.

what does that mean? you are expecting a robust harvest of pheasants, evidently? I hope so. Do you dispute the report by GFP? Chris, there is no doubt that there are pheasants in SD...but there is no doubt that the heat and drought made chick survival very difficult...they can't regulate their own body temps for the first 14 days, and temps above 95 result in a fairly high rate of mortality. Where I hunt, the temps were in the mid to upper 90's roughly the second week of june...the period with the highest chick hatch. Now, I recall at that time or shortly thereafter, you postulated that perhaps hens know that the heat/drought does result in poor survival, and perhaps they abandon their clutches and renest, on the basis that better conditions await them 30-60 days down the road. I hope and pray and perform voodoo exercises in hopes that that is true...really, I do...but I don't think so. But my voodoo exercises were fun. You are in the pheasant hunting business; I get that. If I read the various threads that have been circulating on this board over the past month or two, I would question your credibility...just saying. Not trying to be a jerk...I just want you to know that your positions/responses are highly curious, to put it mildly. Like I have said, I talk to lots of farmers and ranchers in a 25 square mile radius, as recently as yesterday, and I am getting surprisingly decent reports...and these folks host hunters every fall...and they are hunters themselves. We know there were 16 routes out of 110 that had increases this year vs. last year...there will be some decent hunting. But to suggest that much of SD, ND and MT weren't severely hurt by the drought is folly, and you risk damaging your credibility. I also know that many/most of the farmers in my general area who host hunters for a fee also supplement the wild bird population with released birds...in some cases LOTS of released birds. So hunters will come to SD and shoot roosters...

one very interesting map that was the very last page of the GFP brood count survey shows the state breakdown by county, comparing changes in CRP acreage from 2007 to 2016...there are about a dozen counties in S/SE SD that have more today than in 2007. These counties didn't have much at that time, I am pretty sure, but this is a great thing, no matter how small the increase. CREP may have had a factor in these increases. Anyway, you see BIG decreases in NE, N, and NW SD. Pheasants are not migratory, it doesn't really matter what is happening in other parts of the state...a few motivated landowners can change things in their backyard markedly, which is why I see value in what UGUIDE is doing...and I like the geographic diversity of his camps. But speaking of CRP, we know that LOTS of it was hayed and grazed this summer, all over the state. The rancher I spoke to yesterday was cutting CRP just a few miles from my land, and he lives about 20 miles away, and his home place was REALLY dry for most of the summer...I am glad he had that CRP to cut...he is trying to absorb a second family into his operation (son, daughter in law, a few young kids)...it is tough...input costs are still high, crop prices are down, cattle prices are down...health insurance costs are sky high for individual purchasers...again, times are tough for farmers/ranchers. So this is a GREAT year to get out there....go listen to them...care about what they have to say...bring some gifts like smoked salmon, walleye that you may have caught and put in the freezer, a bottle of something...some coffee from where you come from...again, they know what the gfp report says...go be different...make some friends. The cycle will come back around, and you will be glad you went there in 2017.
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benelli-banger said:
UGUIDE said:
:) Our weekly pheasant harvest survey will tell a different story as the weeks of the season roll out.

what does that mean? you are expecting a robust harvest of pheasants, evidently? I hope so. Do you dispute the report by GFP? Chris, there is no doubt that there are pheasants in SD...but there is no doubt that the heat and drought made chick survival very difficult...they can't regulate their own body temps for the first 14 days, and temps above 95 result in a fairly high rate of mortality. Where I hunt, the temps were in the mid to upper 90's roughly the second week of june...the period with the highest chick hatch. Now, I recall at that time or shortly thereafter, you postulated that perhaps hens know that the heat/drought does result in poor survival, and perhaps they abandon their clutches and renest, on the basis that better conditions await them 30-60 days down the road. I hope and pray and perform voodoo exercises in hopes that that is true...really, I do...but I don't think so. But my voodoo exercises were fun. You are in the pheasant hunting business; I get that. If I read the various threads that have been circulating on this board over the past month or two, I would question your credibility...just saying. Not trying to be a jerk...I just want you to know that your positions/responses are highly curious, to put it mildly. Like I have said, I talk to lots of farmers and ranchers in a 25 square mile radius, as recently as yesterday, and I am getting surprisingly decent reports...and these folks host hunters every fall...and they are hunters themselves. We know there were 16 routes out of 110 that had increases this year vs. last year...there will be some decent hunting. But to suggest that much of SD, ND and MT weren't severely hurt by the drought is folly, and you risk damaging your credibility. I also know that many/most of the farmers in my general area who host hunters for a fee also supplement the wild bird population with released birds...in some cases LOTS of released birds. So hunters will come to SD and shoot roosters...

one very interesting map that was the very last page of the GFP brood count survey shows the state breakdown by county, comparing changes in CRP acreage from 2007 to 2016...there are about a dozen counties in S/SE SD that have more today than in 2007. These counties didn't have much at that time, I am pretty sure, but this is a great thing, no matter how small the increase. CREP may have had a factor in these increases. Anyway, you see BIG decreases in NE, N, and NW SD. Pheasants are not migratory, it doesn't really matter what is happening in other parts of the state...a few motivated landowners can change things in their backyard markedly, which is why I see value in what UGUIDE is doing...and I like the geographic diversity of his camps. But speaking of CRP, we know that LOTS of it was hayed and grazed this summer, all over the state. The rancher I spoke to yesterday was cutting CRP just a few miles from my land, and he lives about 20 miles away, and his home place was REALLY dry for most of the summer...I am glad he had that CRP to cut...he is trying to absorb a second family into his operation (son, daughter in law, a few young kids)...it is tough...input costs are still high, crop prices are down, cattle prices are down...health insurance costs are sky high for individual purchasers...again, times are tough for farmers/ranchers. So this is a GREAT year to get out there....go listen to them...care about what they have to say...bring some gifts like smoked salmon, walleye that you may have caught and put in the freezer, a bottle of something...some coffee from where you come from...again, they know what the gfp report says...go be different...make some friends. The cycle will come back around, and you will be glad you went there in 2017.
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Well said, I work at keeping birds here. I am in the bulls eye of where the drought was at the critical time. I am seeing young chicks but not large broods. Since it started raining we now have so much cover it will be rare to see birds for awhile. Seed that I planted into dry dirt and laid there for a month is now six feet tall. I believe the report as there just is not the habitat needed, especially in difficult times. Section after section of corn and beans make for poor nesting. Places that work at it will be better than places that are just farmed and maybe a random bird. Last year every group rebooked, we will see if that happens again.
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UGUIDE has 8 camps spread around SD...knows exactly what is going on. Probably knows as much as anyone other than folks who work for GFP....it is his prerogative not to be more informative if he chooses not to. The 7 camps that he has partner landowners with should be treasure troves of intel about conditions...
 
UGUIDE said:
Big hint.......Roosters about the same as last year but hens down 35%. Why? Explain what this could indicate.....?
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much of N and NW SD had a tough winter...roosters survive that better.

or, could it mean that the hens are sitting on their nests, and weren't counted, because they knew to abandon their clutches in June, as they inherently knew that better conditions were coming later in the summer?


OR, MAYBE THAT THERE ARE OVER A MILLION ROOSTERS RELEASED IN THE FALL BY LANDOWNERS WHO CHARGE TO HUNT AND WANT TO BE ABLE TO FARM MORE OF THEIR LAND VS LEAVE IT IN THE AMOUNT OF HABITAT THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO SUPPORT A HUNTABLE POPULATION??? Did UGUIDE always play these games? Or, did someone tie him up and hijack his computer? I don't recall this approach by him in the past...

OR, the "fake liberal left news media" teamed up with the Russians (collusion), and hacked the GFP website...and have lied to us...in an attempt to increase tourism to the mother country!!!
 
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Russia's aside it doesn't make sense to me that roosters are the same as last year but everything else is down big. We will see in a few months
 
Have see birde recently

benelli-banger said:
much of N and NW SD had a tough winter...roosters survive that better.

or, could it mean that the hens are sitting on their nests, and weren't counted, because they knew to abandon their clutches in June, as they inherently knew that better conditions were coming later in the summer?


OR, MAYBE THAT THERE ARE OVER A MILLION ROOSTERS RELEASED IN THE FALL BY LANDOWNERS WHO CHARGE TO HUNT AND WANT TO BE ABLE TO FARM MORE OF THEIR LAND VS LEAVE IT IN THE AMOUNT OF HABITAT THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO SUPPORT A HUNTABLE POPULATION??? Did UGUIDE always play these games? Or, did someone tie him up and hijack his computer? I don't recall this approach by him in the past...

OR, the "fake liberal left news media" teamed up with the Russians (collusion), and hacked the GFP website...and have lied to us...in an attempt to increase tourism to the mother country!!!
Click to expand...
I have been seeing broods and carryover birds recently, even some in Minnesota, areas that were not as severely affected by the drought. The broods I have seen were early hatch. June had the least dew I have seen EVER, but the creeks and low ground had water into July a bit.
 
benelli-banger said:
much of N and NW SD had a tough winter...roosters survive that better.

or, could it mean that the hens are sitting on their nests, and weren't counted, because they knew to abandon their clutches in June, as they inherently knew that better conditions were coming later in the summer?


OR, MAYBE THAT THERE ARE OVER A MILLION ROOSTERS RELEASED IN THE FALL BY LANDOWNERS WHO CHARGE TO HUNT AND WANT TO BE ABLE TO FARM MORE OF THEIR LAND VS LEAVE IT IN THE AMOUNT OF HABITAT THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO SUPPORT A HUNTABLE POPULATION??? Did UGUIDE always play these games? Or, did someone tie him up and hijack his computer? I don't recall this approach by him in the past...

OR, the "fake liberal left news media" teamed up with the Russians (collusion), and hacked the GFP website...and have lied to us...in an attempt to increase tourism to the mother country!!!
Click to expand...

BINGO!!!! (on the hens sitting on nests for whatever reason during route counts). Also BINGO on collusion with GFP and probably Russia but other factions as well.

Basically GFP's report says....."PHEASANT HUNTING SUCKS, DO NOT COME TO STATE! " (This is good for residents though because they will "have IT all to themselves"). Problem is tourism pays for residents state income tax. They will have to get more Sturgis bikers.

They have a big problem in that there are 700,000 released birds unaccounted for that make it into the harvest reports each year since they are technically "wild" after release.

On a cool note Charles Mix County is up 3,000 CRP acres over last year. Way to go CMC!

PS. I know many outfitters that established long before I did and really don't care about any of this stuff because they have birds and 100% repeat and turn hunters away all the time.
 
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Susan Lucci has to have some involvement in this conundrum/conspiracy...yes, she is the beautiful 60-something year old soap opera actress who does the Geico commercials as of late...using up all the cellular data...and other transgressions...UGUIDE, I have it on pretty good authority that you were seen dining with her at Chef Louies in Mitchell recently...and you had an e-collar around your neck, and she was lighting you up...and you liked it. Please explain...and she was speaking Russian...
 
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