Emergency haying.
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I get it, but let's just take a breath, drop the sarcasm, grab a beer and realize everyone is different. As a business owner, I've gone broke twice, lived out of my car twice and sucked a lot of shit in my day. People are different and that's ok. It's how we deal with it is the important point. I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with you. I do think it's important we keep politics out of this forum because even "science" has become "political science" these days. So, do I trust "the science"... I don't give a flying F. I do my own homework. Everyone can believe what they want, I want to talk pheasant hunting on this forum and if we skew too far into politics (even 2nd amendment shit), it gets too far political. Peace, prosperity and freedom... I wish we could all agree on those points, but that's a pipe dream.
I've started watching a lot of Youtube channels of midwest farmers to augment the edumacation I get during pheasant season. Watching Sonne Frames in Mt. Vernon (near Mitchell along I-90), they had carry over hay from last year. Conditions were so wet last year they put up excess hay/alfalfa in one of their best years. They sold some but kept a lot of it. The moisture left over in the ground from a wet last year and few rains they did get in the drought allowed them to get 60% of a normal bales harvest and they are set for winter feeding without needing to take emergency hay measures.
So you can't just assume the worst and bail out or you could be missing a great hunting year. I just dropped my little girl off at her first day of middle school this morning and told her that it might be different and a little tougher this year but keep your head up, expect the best and have some fun no matter what. I didn't think a bunch of manly men needed that pep talk but there it is. That's all I got to say about that.
They also just restarted their local coop station outside of Letcher called Storla Station after it was shut down by Cenex. It's an hour drive from us but I'm going to make my best effort to stop in and buy a soda to support the cause. Cole Sonne does talk about seeing the broods and pheasants he kicks up while haying so they must have a decent population. Maybe if I show up at the station in one of their T-shirts I could get them interested in a pay hunt. That would make for an interesting trip.
So you can't just assume the worst and bail out or you could be missing a great hunting year. I just dropped my little girl off at her first day of middle school this morning and told her that it might be different and a little tougher this year but keep your head up, expect the best and have some fun no matter what. I didn't think a bunch of manly men needed that pep talk but there it is. That's all I got to say about that.
They also just restarted their local coop station outside of Letcher called Storla Station after it was shut down by Cenex. It's an hour drive from us but I'm going to make my best effort to stop in and buy a soda to support the cause. Cole Sonne does talk about seeing the broods and pheasants he kicks up while haying so they must have a decent population. Maybe if I show up at the station in one of their T-shirts I could get them interested in a pay hunt. That would make for an interesting trip.
waterdog09
Active member
Was out 2 weeks ago doing some scouting for the upcoming season and as my buddy and I both thought, most if not all the crep land we hunt had been hayed, most fields were atleast 50% if not more. Some fields were both hayed and being grazed at the same time. Birds will be concentrated this year, when you find cover you'll find birds. On a bright note we did see plenty of birds on our morning drives and a few on the evening ones, should be a decent season comparable to last year.
sdviking
Active member
Guys a lot of CRP was baled this Fall, and a lot of the big farmers are baling or burning sloughs that are dry, with hopes they can plant that ground next year. It's a bad situation for Habitat... So Please do your recon and find out if your favorite ground was effected, so you have time to find other places to hunt. Another factor to take into consideration is many counties in South Dakota now have large scale dairy operations being built. These dairy's require a large amount of silage and alfalfa. So this year in my County there is a lot more corn that was cut for silage than what was cut before. Silage cut fields leave nothing for wildlife. So the habitat environment in some of South Dakota has changed dramatically this year with the drought, emergency release of CRP for haying, and a lot more silage being cut.
CREP is 10-15 year contracts so you would think those are immune to market and weather ups and downs and will get re-enrolled. Some are available to haying per contract terms at all times so it should be the same as any dry year for how they are managed.
A lot of corn taken for silage is due to lack of maturity or hail/wind damage this year. Lots of corn on the ground will stay there due to crop insurance payouts for non-cattle farmers. Lots of grain and bean crops also either on the ground from hail, too low for easy harvest or not yielding enough to make it worth it and will end up left over winter. Should be a bounty year for winter carry over from a food source perspective. Don't know if a tangle of corn stalks is effective winter cover or not.
Anyone ever hunted a blown over corn field? Assume it would be harder to get them out of cover but easier to see them flush.
A lot of corn taken for silage is due to lack of maturity or hail/wind damage this year. Lots of corn on the ground will stay there due to crop insurance payouts for non-cattle farmers. Lots of grain and bean crops also either on the ground from hail, too low for easy harvest or not yielding enough to make it worth it and will end up left over winter. Should be a bounty year for winter carry over from a food source perspective. Don't know if a tangle of corn stalks is effective winter cover or not.
Anyone ever hunted a blown over corn field? Assume it would be harder to get them out of cover but easier to see them flush.
Counties in NW Iowa are in the green area and our contracts are not eligible for haying and grazing. It depends a lot on the program it’s in. I know of none in Clay county that have been allowed to hay.
The DNR and county conservation land has had some haying and grazing done however.
Golden Hour
Well-known member
No, there will be a fair amount of variability, a number of pockets that received moisture and, to be honest, we've been as wet as we could hope since the first week in July. Some places are going to be much worse than others. If I were travelling to SD, ND, MT to hunt and had an area I planned to focus my hunt, I would call the local GFP office and get a feel for baling/silage in the area.
Matt D
Well-known member
I talked to one of the farmers we hunt on this morning. He said things have really greened up from the recent rains. Not much CRP cut around him but lots of sloughs getting cattails cut and bailed. 
Seeing OK number of birds in his area. Said 10-15 miles away and things look different so very area specific is my guess.
Seeing OK number of birds in his area. Said 10-15 miles away and things look different so very area specific is my guess.Just to play devils advocate. Some of those cattails getting cut, bailed, or burned can have a positive effect in the long run. Not saying all but some are so overgrown and blown down that there is no way pheasants even use them. It'll be wet again some year down the road and the sloughs will re-emerge with new and better cover.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Cutting/burning/etc. can have great effects on a planting. But I have to say, in the winter I've never seen cattails so thick/overgrown/etc that a pheasant wouldn't use them. Usually the gnarlier, the better. Many times the real thick sloughs will hold snow up off the ground so pheasants can get underneath, especially if cattails are all bent over. Whereas thin sloughs tend to get more socked in with snow & be unusable. Exceptions to every rule, but this has been my experience.
treedaddy
Member
You're right. It happened that way in 2012 and new growth and edges were created.
Cattails are the premier winter shelter and the best factor for survival for any harsh winters. If the cattails are mature and tight, the birds are about the largest animal that can fit through. The snow lays on top like a teepee structure and insulates it. It can be nearly 40 degrees inside this nest even in below-zero windy conditions. This is a far bigger disaster for pheasant numbers than drought or CRP haying in my opinion if we have a hard winter.
Any cattails being cut right now have about zero feed value but can be a bedding substitute to save more straw/hay bales for feed. More than likely this is the first time in many years that low spots are dry enough to be worked and the temptation of high grass and corn prices has them cutting and prepping for production next year.
If you read detailed accounts of the ag conditions in the 40s and 50s you can see that the rapid increase in bird numbers started just after there was an excessive flooding year. There was no manpower to work it and drain off the water for years after that due to the war. Cattail sloughs sprouted everywhere and matured year after year. Both pheasant and duck numbers spiked and stayed high. Long after the fact these numbers were attributed to government Soil Bank programs and used to sell the next iteration as CRP.
Any cattails being cut right now have about zero feed value but can be a bedding substitute to save more straw/hay bales for feed. More than likely this is the first time in many years that low spots are dry enough to be worked and the temptation of high grass and corn prices has them cutting and prepping for production next year.
If you read detailed accounts of the ag conditions in the 40s and 50s you can see that the rapid increase in bird numbers started just after there was an excessive flooding year. There was no manpower to work it and drain off the water for years after that due to the war. Cattail sloughs sprouted everywhere and matured year after year. Both pheasant and duck numbers spiked and stayed high. Long after the fact these numbers were attributed to government Soil Bank programs and used to sell the next iteration as CRP.