I'm going to attempt to provide some boots on the ground objective information for those wondering.
Our annual four man group recently returned from a hunt in the area being discussed, give or take an hour in any direction on a given day. We've hunted there for years, have seasoned dogs (5-6 years old each that hunt pheasant / quail multiple times a year), and hunted 80-90% private ground. We're all in our 30's and cover quite a bit of ground, push cattail sloughs (to our dismay every year!) and feel like we give it a solid effort...we are typically hunting at 10, eat lunch/snacks between fields, and are feeding dogs by the trucks at dusk (unless we limit earlier in the day).
We did not do as well this year in terms of sheer numbers, our groups consensus was birds were roughly 50% or so down this year. We were only able to produce a 4 man limit 1 day of the trip and the last bird went down right at legal shooting. We brought 38 birds home total, last year 60 (our 4 man possession limit). Roosters bagged were largely either older or really young which aligns to a lot of comments regarding the drought impacts to this year's hatch.
All that to say, we hunted for pheasant in SD, bagged roosters, made good memories, spent time with old friends, saw great dog work, learned a few more things about upland hunting, and we weren't working...I consider it a 100% successful trip. We are heading back to SD in a couple weeks because for all those same reasons.
Good luck through the remainder of the season!!!