Anyone going to PF banquet Watertown?

It is an early one. Let us know how it was attended if you go. Guessing those are quite popular in SD. The three local ones to me are well attended, Woodbury, Plymouth and Cherokee Iowa chapters, Ida is somewhat close and they have one of the better memberships in the country.
 
Maybe 150 people , sat for 320 so looks bad.This one is rather sad as far as raffle items. 25 Guns and only 1 I would buy.
No silent auctions. 40 auctions items which are bringing decent money. Problem is even with quick auctioneers that takes a bit.
 
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That turn-out seems surprisingly light, considering the nice weather today. The local banquets here seem to run until close to 10:00, plenty of items to throw some money at.
 
As a Watertown resident, I had heard nothing about it. I listen to the radio every day, see the local Watertown Facebook pages. I had planned to go and even reached out to them last year as they had their banquet on opening day of pheasant season to encourage them to choose a better date.

The biggest drawback to the new PF chapter is that the Pro Pheasants group is big and established. They've got an average attendance of 500+ at their banquet and are involved in food plot and tree planting cost sharing.
 
Golden Hour said:
As a Watertown resident, I had heard nothing about it. I listen to the radio every day, see the local Watertown Facebook pages. I had planned to go and even reached out to them last year as they had their banquet on opening day of pheasant season to encourage them to choose a better date.

The biggest drawback to the new PF chapter is that the Pro Pheasants group is big and established. They've got an average attendance of 500+ at their banquet and are involved in food plot and tree planting cost sharing.
Click to expand...
What is the Pro Pheasants group? Is it a South Dakota thing or national?
 
Weim & GH, it sounds like maybe you two would be good additions to the newer chapter's board members. Seems like they need some guidance with some of the basic things to get that chapter cranked-up. I am sure a couple of pheasant fanatics would be welcomes!!!

The contact I have at our local chapter is wanting to back-off from some of his duties and I have been throwing around the idea to help them out on the board....no board members in my part of the county. It doesn't sound like it is too much of a time commitment until this time of the year, preparing and pulling-off the banquet.
 
Thanks, I could see people being more supportive of a local group like that where they know the funds raised will be used 100% locally.
 
guf54 said:
Thanks, I could see people being more supportive of a local group like that where they know the funds raised will be used 100% locally.
Click to expand...
PF banquet funds are all used locally with the exception of the annual membership $$ that go to national to support them. Chapter buy PF logo merchandise from PF And PF makes a margin on that merchandise but chapter keeps the profit to spend locally
Probably not enough support locally to fund both orgznizations
 
Pro pheasants stocks birds. PF doesn't.

Talked with a older gentleman and he was telling me that years ago pf was bigger there. Then pro pheasants started and pf died out. A guy with pf rallied the troops a few years ago and they got pf going again.

Same guy also told me that the pro pheasants is 400 to 450. Have very low cost in their banquet so it is a very good fund raiser.
 
Our local Pro Pheasants organization subsidies Hens and pheasant chicks purchased in the spring, they also provide reimbursement for food plots planted and left throughout the winter. They also sell live traps that are built at the local high school shop class. They fund hunter safety and youth pheasant hunt mentorship. Its a good organization.
 
So it sounds like Pro Pheasant is catering to the pheasant farmers (game ranches, hunting clubs/preserves), maybe not habitat which is what Pheasants Forever concentrates much of their efforts on. The 2 biggest factors that influence pheasant populations....the weather and habitat, and you can only control one of those. Curious, what are they trapping with the live traps? Pheasants??? Not sure why you would live trap predators. A low cost fund raiser, that is interesting, I am assuming it is just a local thing so they can keep the door receipts/memberships of whatever they charge to get in and no meal...at a Pheasants Forever, the membership ($35) goes to the corporate for administrative costs, lobbying, etc. They usually have a nice meal too, likely $20 for that. They purchase a package of PF items from the national, get donated items and purchase other items for the raffles/auctions. Guessing pretty similar at both events. The local PF chapters here will provide members with the seed for food plots...those are always a good thing, the Cherokee will cost share on trees/shrubs for shelter belts too. Plymouth county will add an additional one-time incentives to CRP enrollments. Sounds like they both try to get the kids involved, which they are smart enough to know that must happen.

I guess PP just has a different way to do things, see below, what I found a PP google search...you will not see PF doing this. They must think these pen raised birds will live long enough to raise a brood or what is the purpose of it? Maybe these will be easy meals for the predators and the wild birds will have better survival rates. Would be interesting if they could somehow track the survival or brooding rates of those hens.

1,700 hen pheasants released into area fields​

https://www.thepublicopinion.com › local › 2020/04/20


Apr 20, 2020 — About 1700 hen pheasants were released south of Watertown Saturday through a program sponsored by the Codington County Pro Pheasants ...
 
remy3424 said:
So it sounds like Pro Pheasant is catering to the pheasant farmers (game ranches, hunting clubs/preserves), maybe not habitat which is what Pheasants Forever concentrates much of their efforts on. The 2 biggest factors that influence pheasant populations....the weather and habitat, and you can only control one of those. Curious, what are they trapping with the live traps? Pheasants??? Not sure why you would live trap predators. A low cost fund raiser, that is interesting, I am assuming it is just a local thing so they can keep the door receipts/memberships of whatever they charge to get in and no meal...at a Pheasants Forever, the membership ($35) goes to the corporate for administrative costs, lobbying, etc. They usually have a nice meal too, likely $20 for that. They purchase a package of PF items from the national, get donated items and purchase other items for the raffles/auctions. Guessing pretty similar at both events. The local PF chapters here will provide members with the seed for food plots...those are always a good thing, the Cherokee will cost share on trees/shrubs for shelter belts too. Plymouth county will add an additional one-time incentives to CRP enrollments. Sounds like they both try to get the kids involved, which they are smart enough to know that must happen.

I guess PP just has a different way to do things, see below, what I found a PP google search...you will not see PF doing this. They must think these pen raised birds will live long enough to raise a brood or what is the purpose of it? Maybe these will be easy meals for the predators and the wild birds will have better survival rates. Would be interesting if they could somehow track the survival or brooding rates of those hens.

1,700 hen pheasants released into area fields​

https://www.thepublicopinion.com › local › 2020/04/20


Apr 20, 2020 — About 1700 hen pheasants were released south of Watertown Saturday through a program sponsored by the Codington County Pro Pheasants ...
Click to expand...
Well I am a member of both organizations. Pro Pheasants supports the local folks and tailors their support toward local pheasant population. I raise chicks and sometimes purchase and release hens and have seen a positive impact on our numbers. I know we loose a lot of these birds to hawks, owls and raccoons. But since we have nice CRP land next to nice tree protection and sloughs I believe they do make a difference. I also appreciate the reimbursement for leaving food plots through out the year from Pro Pheasants, We don't come close to breaking even but its a nice gesture. As for the live traps, it helps the high school shop class, and lots of kids and feed lot guys use them to trap the raccoons for the South Dakota Bounty program. I know this program upsets a lot of people, but pheasant numbers have increased with the removal of the varmints. As for the hunting clubs, and outfitters, The few that I do know contribute to Pro Pheasants but to my knowledge they buy mostly full grown roosters at hunting time and don't expend the energy to raise and release. Pheasants Forever is really quiet here at the local level. But they do help with salient ground being planted to native grasses and they help promote CREP enrollment. Also Pheasants Forever plants a lot of wetland easement area for land owners or Game fish and parks. In South Dakota we have many options for cover crop, food plot seeds other than Pheasants Forever. However I do like a few of the Pheasant Forever blends. We currently have really good pheasant numbers surviving the poor winter conditions we have had in NE South Dakota. Drove by a soybean field surrounded by slough and CRP today. There must have been over 300 birds in that 80 acres. Never seen a piece of ground with that many birds on it.
 
Creating habitat will almost never be the the financially best thing to do, but it is the best thing you can do to increase the birds chances of survival and increase their populations.

Never heard about the bounty program. https://gfp.sd.gov/bounty-program. There must be a real issue with predators to allow this off-season trapping. The $10 bounty is more than the furs were worth last year and this year I would think. Is this program still active?
 
remy3424 said:
So it sounds like Pro Pheasant is catering to the pheasant farmers (game ranches, hunting clubs/preserves), maybe not habitat which is what Pheasants Forever concentrates much of their efforts on. The 2 biggest factors that influence pheasant populations....the weather and habitat, and you can only control one of those. Curious, what are they trapping with the live traps? Pheasants??? Not sure why you would live trap predators. A low cost fund raiser, that is interesting, I am assuming it is just a local thing so they can keep the door receipts/memberships of whatever they charge to get in and no meal...at a Pheasants Forever, the membership ($35) goes to the corporate for administrative costs, lobbying, etc. They usually have a nice meal too, likely $20 for that. They purchase a package of PF items from the national, get donated items and purchase other items for the raffles/auctions. Guessing pretty similar at both events. The local PF chapters here will provide members with the seed for food plots...those are always a good thing, the Cherokee will cost share on trees/shrubs for shelter belts too. Plymouth county will add an additional one-time incentives to CRP enrollments. Sounds like they both try to get the kids involved, which they are smart enough to know that must happen.

I guess PP just has a different way to do things, see below, what I found a PP google search...you will not see PF doing this. They must think these pen raised birds will live long enough to raise a brood or what is the purpose of it? Maybe these will be easy meals for the predators and the wild birds will have better survival rates. Would be interesting if they could somehow track the survival or brooding rates of those hens.

1,700 hen pheasants released into area fields​

https://www.thepublicopinion.com › local › 2020/04/20


Apr 20, 2020 — About 1700 hen pheasants were released south of Watertown Saturday through a program sponsored by the Codington County Pro Pheasants ...
Click to expand...

I am surprised anyone would be opposed to helping out an organization dedicated to pheasants. ;)
 
remy3424 said:
Would be interesting if they could somehow track the survival or brooding rates of those hens.
Click to expand...
Unless it was a publicity stunt, that they'd bother releasing hens is pretty surprising to me. My guess would be that both rates are pretty close to zero. For either to be at ALL above zero, they'd need luck w/ the weather & some fabulous habitat. And for reproduction....a few roosters (presumably they were banking on wild ones to do the deed). And if you've got the habitat & a few roosters, why bother? Because that means there are almost undoubtedly at LEAST that many wild hens around. They'd find the habitat & have a MUCH better shot at surviving & reproducing. I don't get it, but maybe there's something I'm overlooking.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Unless it was a publicity stunt, that they'd bother releasing hens is pretty surprising to me. My guess would be that both rates are pretty close to zero. For either to be at ALL above zero, they'd need luck w/ the weather & some fabulous habitat. And for reproduction....a few roosters (presumably they were banking on wild ones to do the deed). And if you've got the habitat & a few roosters, why bother? Because that means there are almost undoubtedly at LEAST that many wild hens around. They'd find the habitat & have a MUCH better shot at surviving & reproducing. I don't get it, but maybe there's something I'm overlooking.
Click to expand...
I wish I could tell you the success or failure rate of releasing hens. We don't do it often but 3-4 years back the pheasant numbers were so low in our area that we felt we had to try something. As for raising chicks and releasing, we put zip ties loosely around the legs of the roosters and then during pheasant season we would check to see if we had shot a raised or wild rooster. Results were about 50%. But.... we released the birds in an area that had CRP, cover crop, corn, soybeans, couple year old new tree belt and pasture. All on 160 acre piece Unfortunately closes water source was a half mile away. And the neighbors weed patch where he winters his cattle made a lot of birds head that way. They hunted that area hard and I don't know how many raised birds they harvest.
 
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