Organic Producers - The saviour of pheasant in SD?

UGUIDE

UGUIDE

Active member
Just got off the phone with a organic producer who owns 3000 acres in South Dakota. As he was describing how tall the foxtail gets in his corn I was thinking "This is my kinda farmer".

Is weedy corn any good for pheasants? I just about had forgot how good it is with all the clean corn fields in the countryside.

Organic producers could certainly use a $ bump from pheasants as additional incentive to sustainably farm that way (certified).

Seems like a really good fit.

We'll see. this would be my first offical "Organic" UGUIDE Pheasant Camp
 
My father (74) talks about how in the 1960's all the cut corn fields had weeds and grass in the rows that held large number of birds. That was all before the use of herbicides that are used today. That would be great if we could get more organic growers in SD.
 
Have hunted corn fields after harvest that had foxtail escape the herbicide program and it was GREAT hunting, corn food plots are a lot better with foxtail in them also !!!!
 
I love hunting weeds. In my DNA from hunting Bob's in the weeds with my dad back in the 70's. It makes great loafing cover (with food) for the birds and can also be a good bare ground/insect producing/brood rearing cover .

Like anything though if you don't have enough good nesting cover and enough good winter cover nearby then the birds won't be there to use the weeds anyway.

Organic grains, range fed beef, locally grown produce etc. etc. if all those things became a real market force then better bio-diversity would be the result and thus probably more birds. (Will we as a consumer ever be willing to pay the higher price for food?)

Not holding my breath. Public policy is pushing the momentum way faster in the direction of squeaky clean, put every possible acre into production, load up on the inputs, mono-culture farming practices.
 
The public demand for organics is up and evident at the growing sections of organic foods at Walmarts and Targets and other grocers.

It will be interesting to see how the economics differ between this organic producer and the average non-organic producer.
 
Yep, back in the 50's before herbicides came into general use, weedy cornfields were "normal", especially on the low ground. The roosters often would hold in the grass between the rows rather than just run to the end, so we got good shooting throughout the field, especially in the drown out areas where the corn wasn't so tall, even we kids could get a shot there. As mentioned, your operator will have to have some undisturbed grass for nesting, maybe some buffer strips, odd corners, hilltops etc could be put in grass, if he doesn't have these already.
 
I guess we'll have to wait. he opted out. He like many other landowners gets first 2 weeks filled with hunters and then is stuck and wants me to send him hunters for rest of season.

What is ends up being is a lose-lose situation.

They usually come around over time.
 
There is no better Fall and Winter habitat for pheasants then a weedy corn field.

There's is a organic dairy near me, talk about weeds:eek:He had a Navy bean field so weedy You couldn't see the beans at harvest time. Cutting and swathing the beans proved to be impossible. End of experiment.:(

There's a place for organic produce and growing popularity. The yields and expense of production will limit it's growth.
 
Hockeybob said:
My father (74) talks about how in the 1960's all the cut corn fields had weeds and grass in the rows that held large number of birds. That was all before the use of herbicides that are used today. That would be great if we could get more organic growers in SD.
Click to expand...
Yes sir. That's the way it was in the '50s and '60s.
 
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