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calamari

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I played golf yesterday on a course west of Nicolaus. It's located right next to the Lower Feather River just before it dumps into the Sac. After the game my friend and I drove down the river road to the mouth and then back across the farm land to Lincoln. The river was so low there were exposed sand bars that went almost all the way across the river in places. You could wade the river like you can in July.
The good news is that there are sq. miles of fallow farm land full of high green weeds with no crops planted. It should be great pheasant nesting habitat if it has enough water to get the chicks through the summer. The bad news is there are apparently no pheasants left to build nests. Didn't see or hear a single bird crowing where they should have been calling everywhere.
 
I've hacked my way around just about all the courses within 100 miles of Auburn. I like Dark Horse a lot. I also like Coyote Run, the course on Beale AFB. They have an SR-71 and the unmanned supersonic drone they used to fly over China on display across the street from the pro shop. I played there one day when an officer was retiring and they had a cruise missile in its open shipping container on the ground in front of the bar. Nothing like a SAC base if you want to see the best toys.:D
 
You mean those farmers up that way can stand to keep a plow out of their fallow ground? I hope there are at least a few birds around to take advantage of that cover.
 
Just in the triangle formed by the Feather River, Hwy 99, and the East side Drain there's over 60 square miles of farm land with more than 2/3s of it fallow.That density of fallowed land is relatively uniform South of the Buttes that I've seen. The weeds are dense, shoulder high and still very green and damp underneath. I doubt that they'll waste the fuel to plow it since there won't be any water available for irrigation. With no birds to nest however it won't make any difference and there wasn't a single bird on the roads or a rooster calling that I could hear. There was one big young orchard going in with a fortune in drip irrigation being installed so maybe the area will go to vineyards, olive and walnut trees.
The wildlife areas will be truly dismal this year.
 
One more thing for the golfers in the crowd. Coyote Run is the only golf course I've ever played that had a par 5 reduced to a par 4 because they found unexploded ordinance in the fairway. It's cordoned off and you drive around it but before they did that I've driven over where the bomb or shell is located many times.
During WWII they had training on the adjacent land that is now Spenceville State Wildlife Area. They built a town there to practice what we now call urban warfare and there are still concrete machine gun bunkers you can see from the interior road. Occasionally artillery shells would get away from them and land far to the East in what is now Penn Valley, what is now a residential area.
If you drive on Hwy 20 there's a chance you may see Chuck Yeager as he lives in the area and goes to Beale all the time. He almost T-boned me one day when I was going fishing and he pulled onto the highway. He drives like he flew. :eek::)
 
We were out in the Sutter Basin last weekend chasing squirrels and lots of the fields that are normally flooded for rice were fallow. There seemed to be quite a bit more cover around the ditches as well and most of those ditches still had a decent amount of water in them. Jumped several ducks walking around.
 
I drove up north (clear lake) last week. I saw quite a few combines out cutting weeds in fallow fields. Looked like very poor quality hay to me, I'd be interested to know if they plan to bail it.
 
Sometimes you just can't tell why they cut stuff. Sometimes it's a fear that an endangered or sensitive plant will get established that will impact future years operations. Sometimes they don't want their operation to look "rank" and untidy. Sometimes it's to prevent weeds developing seeds that will require more chemicals when it's planted in a crop the next time they get water. You just can't tell.
The fallow fields I saw seemed to be mostly thistle and mustard which I don't think makes any kind of forage so there's something else as the reason. You should have stopped and asked if they were near to the road and standing around. I've never met a farmer who wouldn't talk a little about what they're doing especially if you start off with an "ain't it bad about the drought" preamble.
 
I didn't have time to stop, there was bass fishing to be done.:thumbsup: The stuff I saw them cutting looked like it was mostly rye/ oats with a little fiddle neck and mustard but I was at freeway speeds so I didn't get a good look. The cover from Stockton to Sac along I5 looked great as usual. That stuff looks like a quail hunters dream and I bet there are a few roosters out there for good measure.
 
If it was between Stockton and Sacramento, there are a number of fairly large dairy operations in that stretch and East of Hwy 99 that go though a lot of feed. The stuff you describe sounds like it would work for them. North of Sac. I didn't see anything but volunteer weeds and such.
Did you go up to watch the B.A.S.S. tournament? I bet those guys loved the long runs they had to make to get where the big fish live.
This may be the year for you to pound the reservoirs. There'll be a lot less water to strain in the fall.
 
My brother went to watch the weigh ins Saturday and Sunday but I didn't go. I can't believe They made those guys launch out of Sac, that's crazy. River to sea had a 150 boat tournament that weekend too.
 
I went fishing in the Fresno slough today just north of Mendota WA. I heard at least two, possibly more, roosters crowing which was surprising. There must be a few around up there if there are still some around Mendota.
 
I've hunted wild pheasants in California for 40 years. Sad to see what has happened to the wild pheasant population. Wild pheasants were almost everywhere in the valley. Hunted for years west of stockton in the asparagus and sugar beet fields. The pheasants have mostly disappeared. There are still some wild pheasants in my area bordering the duck clubs. I go hunting on the state refuges for them now.
 
I went to Fort Bragg for a couple of days to beat the heat and found that there is a huge amount of fallowed land West of Colusa. It looks like great habitat for pheasants but unfortunately they don't just hatch out of the ground and I think that although there may be good cover for them their numbers are so low that it won't be utilized.
I don't understand what the farmers were doing either. It's after row crop planting season but they were out there on fallowed row crop fields scraping what little vegetation there was off and putting in rows for plants that won't grow till next year. When it rains even a little the field will again be full of "weeds" next planting season and will have to be worked all over again. I don't get it unless it's what I've been told by a number of farmers in the past which is they don't want their operation to look untidy. It's either that or something to do with crop insurance/subsidies. Weird business.
 
Cal, I know a lot of farmers (all great people) and I think they do things like that just for the sake of running their tractors.
 
calamari said:
I went to Fort Bragg for a couple of days to beat the heat and found that there is a huge amount of fallowed land West of Colusa. It looks like great habitat for pheasants but unfortunately they don't just hatch out of the ground and I think that although there may be good cover for them their numbers are so low that it won't be utilized.
I don't understand what the farmers were doing either. It's after row crop planting season but they were out there on fallowed row crop fields scraping what little vegetation there was off and putting in rows for plants that won't grow till next year. When it rains even a little the field will again be full of "weeds" next planting season and will have to be worked all over again. I don't get it unless it's what I've been told by a number of farmers in the past which is they don't want their operation to look untidy. It's either that or something to do with crop insurance/subsidies. Weird business.
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The way land is prepared depends on what the plan is for growing the following season. Many of the growers here get the beds ready the fall before all the rains start. Any weeds that sprout up during winter and spring are burned down with herbicides than the ground is lightly tilled.
 
NewmanCA said:
Many of the growers here get the beds ready the fall before all the rains start. Any weeds that sprout up during winter and spring are burned down with herbicides than the ground is lightly tilled.
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I've seen them prepare fields for the next years planting and then plant Bermuda grass to hold the soil using Round Up in the spring and genetically engineered seed that' is resistant to Round Up when they plant. This is something beyond that and just seemed excessive as far as manipulating the soil. Just an observation since it's their fields that they are stewards of.
 
calamari said:
I've seen them prepare fields for the next years planting and then plant Bermuda grass to hold the soil using Round Up in the spring and genetically engineered seed that' is resistant to Round Up when they plant. This is something beyond that and just seemed excessive as far as manipulating the soil. Just an observation since it's their fields that they are stewards of.
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Bermuda grass. That's interesting. Never heard of that. Alot of growers here grow winter oats that we hope gets adequate rain during the winter.
 
NewmanCA said:
Bermuda grass. That's interesting. Never heard of that. Alot of growers here grow winter oats that we hope gets adequate rain during the winter.
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It was a common technique a couple of years ago but crops have changed and with the drought they had been just letting it go to weeds. This year they're doing the odd, to me anyway, soil prep.
When they planted Bermuda Grass they'd let it get about 4-5 inches high and then kill it with RoundUp. There'd be thousands of acres in the Sutter Basin of this dead bright yellow grass that was as uniform and thick as a golf course's fairway. Looked a lot like somebody had an excess of school bus yellow paint and sprayed a bunch of Astro Turf. Zero wildlife values but dang it sure looked massaged.
 
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