Pheasant Industry in SD

I really want to try nebraska someday. Seems like great bird country and doesn't get hammered like SD, MN, and IA.

KS I have no interest at current moment. I think you need good private there for chance at good success.
 
matto said:
One summer I spent some time researching commercial hunting operations in SD. My dad, in his late 70s at the time, wanted to treat me, my BIL, and our kids to a hunt. My job was to pick the spot. As we all know, consistent success on truly wild birds on pubic land takes time to develop. So we were looking for something private/commercial. I talked to a lot of places. The websites frequently promised wild birds. That was their first answer when you talked to them on the phone--"yes wild birds." Press them a little and they admitted to releasing birds. I suppose in the lodge owner's head "wild" can be a description of their behavior or their current living circumstances, not the circumstances of their hatching. And in that sense, to the operator at least, it's not a lie.

We ended up with a native guide on Rosebud that year. I'm sure they were wild birds, but the experience was not what we were after. The next year we were with UGuide. I'm pretty confident that was wild birds, at least as far as UGuide knew. That experience was better, but still not exactly what we were after.

A couple years after that I started going up with some friends, DIY on public. 4 years into that now, and we're having more fun than ever. Far more fun than those two years we spent in the commercial space.

Anyway, I'd guess that SPUR's numbers are on the low side. There are pheasant ranches in Kansas that ship birds to SD.
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I have talked to a couple places/lodges that claim all wild birds, I told them great I am sold. But then I hit them with a question that always seems to make them backtrack. I ask them that if all their birds are wild, I shouldn't have to worry about shooting a bird with flared nostrils, right? They say absolutely, then I asked them that if I did indeed shoot or see birds with flared nostrils would I get my money back because you're claiming all wild birds and that's false advertising? They all scoff and say, well we can't do that. Not one of these places that claims all wild birds is willing to put their money where their mouth is and back the claim of all wild birds because they know it's 100% false! No lodge or commercial operation can support groups of hunters 7 days a week for a entire season and almost guarantee limits. Not possible unless you've got thousands upon thousands of acres of prime habitat.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
So what exactly are those reports showing? Birds sold in SD & released in SD? Or birds sold in SD & released anywhere in the world?

Where are these out of state pheasant farms located? I'd guess that most of the time, the lowest price is going to come from one of the suppliers close to you.

I suppose, though, the top tier preserves may buy birds that act extra wild, which would obviously cost more. Unless they buy regular dumb ones & train them once they arrive at the preserve.😆
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I think I saw something where they actually tried to train them to be afraid of predators...lol. It's a very complicated deal to raise these pheasants.
 
waterdog09 said:
I have talked to a couple places/lodges that claim all wild birds, I told them great I am sold. But then I hit them with a question that always seems to make them backtrack. I ask them that if all their birds are wild, I shouldn't have to worry about shooting a bird with flared nostrils, right? They say absolutely, then I asked them that if I did indeed shoot or see birds with flared nostrils would I get my money back because you're claiming all wild birds and that's false advertising? They all scoff and say, well we can't do that. Not one of these places that claims all wild birds is willing to put their money where their mouth is and back the claim of all wild birds because they know it's 100% false! No lodge or commercial operation can support groups of hunters 7 days a week for a entire season and almost guarantee limits. Not possible unless you've got thousands upon thousands of acres of prime habitat.
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I hunted it one of those places 20 years ago, it was really easy, there was no limit, they took you out in a big huge bus. Even though there was only two of us. We hunted in late March.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
So what exactly are those reports showing? Birds sold in SD & released in SD? Or birds sold in SD & released anywhere in the world?

Where are these out of state pheasant farms located? I'd guess that most of the time, the lowest price is going to come from one of the suppliers close to you.

I suppose, though, the top tier preserves may buy birds that act extra wild, which would obviously cost more. Unless they buy regular dumb ones & train them once they arrive at the preserve.😆
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The reports are birds sold. I'm assuming, but don't know 100%, that 95%+ of the birds raised in SD are released in SD. If they were exporting a pile, there wouldn't be farms in NE, IA, MN, and WI who's biggest clients were in SD. (Those are the states that farms were located in that I was able to glean info from). And you did touch on an important note - the way birds are raised reflects the price. High netting large run non blindered birds that have better flight ability, better tails, and overall more "wild" upbringing cost 1.5-2x more than short tail blinder birds that never got more than 6 feet off the ground before release. My co-worker buys non blinder birds for their farm at $26-$32/bird. They have zero preserve acres, and run 8 groups of hunters per season. two groups of 8 or 9, and 6 groups of 4.
 
waterdog09 said:
I have talked to a couple places/lodges that claim all wild birds, I told them great I am sold. But then I hit them with a question that always seems to make them backtrack. I ask them that if all their birds are wild, I shouldn't have to worry about shooting a bird with flared nostrils, right? They say absolutely, then I asked them that if I did indeed shoot or see birds with flared nostrils would I get my money back because you're claiming all wild birds and that's false advertising? They all scoff and say, well we can't do that. Not one of these places that claims all wild birds is willing to put their money where their mouth is and back the claim of all wild birds because they know it's 100% false! No lodge or commercial operation can support groups of hunters 7 days a week for a entire season and almost guarantee limits. Not possible unless you've got thousands upon thousands of acres of prime habitat.
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That's why many farms have moved to raising non-blindered birds. They can charge more money for a more wild appearing bird.
 
Goose is right. No way in this world you can hunt wild birds seven days a week. They will leave. Most people don’t even know the difference. I do been doing it for 55 years Goose maybe longer. But good for the hunting operations. Makes the farmers some money I guess.
 
Dixieman said:
Goose is right. No way in this world you can hunt wild birds seven days a week. They will leave. Most people don’t even know the difference. I do been doing it for 55 years Goose maybe longer. But good for the hunting operations. Makes the farmers some money I guess.
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One thing I noticed 20 years ago when I hunted that preserve, was that those birds don't really have a flee instinct, so they hold until the dog gets on them. When they do fly, they are not real strong flyers, and they will fly right at you sometimes.
 
There is a pheasant-rearing operation not far from my parents house in central MN. They raise thousands of birds each year.

I have spoken to the owner more than once and the majority of his birds end up in South Dakota every season on preserves. He told me that when the population of wild birds is down there, he sells a lot more. When it's up, he sells less.

He also sells to anyone that wants to buy a few to train a dog too.
 
Chestle said:
By law if they don’t flare the nares they have to cut off a toe. It’s one or the other.
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That law only applies to birds released on licensed shooting preserve acres. but since commercial pheasant producers may not know where their birds will be released, most mark all their birds by 6 weeks to meet the preserve marking requirement. There are some producers that have non marked production though as well.
 
Bob, unfortunately Nebraska is not what it was once. I have hunted there for 50 years. Their even used to be tons of Pheasant in the southeast not any more but the last couple years they have started to come back a little I primarily go there for quail hunting because when it is right it is as good as it gets. Last year I picked up 6 roosters which was a pleasant surprise. Going back out there right after the first of the year.
 
Tomahawker said:
You can only hunt and shoot a property so much before a noticeable drop in numbers occurs. Particularly with large party groups of hunters. Have 5-12 hunters out on weekends and you will need to replace birds. Your average once a year bird hunter doesn’t care to know much except “how many birds we get?”.
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Not if you have enough land and the habitat is correct… so back in 2010 or so I would hunt a property out around Murdo that was owned and run by three brothers. That area is the extreme west side of what would be considered pheasant range in SD at least the south side. I would hunt the second week in October and the first week in December. I know that they did not supplement and it was an access only deal. For what he was charging there was no money to buy birds. What he did do was plant probably 100 acres in multiple food plots. There were several tree belts and cattail swamps. He ran 5-8 hunters every week and would rest a few days in between. We would shoot limits everyday… sometimes fast sometimes not. About 2015 I saw the largest flush I had ever seen of probably 1200-1500 birds. Literally lasted several minutes. He documented all birds harvested on his farm. That year he was north of 650 on his property. A couple years later he scaled back the food plots and took some cover out. Two years later we struggled to find birds and I moved on.
 
we've done raise and released bird on our quarter section of wetland bank property here in SE MN since 2019. things we've done and have now implemented. (we are surrounded by black fields) no other large pieces of grassland within 3-4 miles of us.

1) we do 2 batches of 250 straight run birds. 1st batch we raise to 7 weeks old then release them all onto our property. this year our 1st batch was only 150 of the original 250 (had some rain issues) we see a fairly high survival rate into the hunting season. This year we are estimating close to 50%.

2) 2nd batch we release the hens at 7 weeks old and keep the roosters. we then will supplement through out the season if necessary. This year with the hatch on our property and or survival of the 1st batch we have yet to release any of the birds. (100+) waiting patiently for freedom. We do a large hunt on Thanksgiving weekend and will release the majority of them then.

3) food plots. the birds are in them every time and we typically hunt 5 out of the 7 days a week.


with the variability of the hatch each year this ensures we can have successful hunts.

we blinder the birds at 4 weeks old. typically 75% of these have fallen off by week 12-14. (getting caught in the net etc) The birds will at times pick on one and kill it but this year they've behaved themselves.

our biggest predator is owls. usually when they are younger. ie 4-12 wks old. and a mink back in 2020 that slaughtered 25 of them Thanksgiving day. man what a blood bath.

We all know that in order to keep up with demand these guys will always need pen raised birds.

I know what our input costs are per bird if we raise them to "maturity". maybe $7/bird. feed for the 1st 12 weeks is the biggest cost. Then we switch to corn. and when harvest starts we get permission from local farmers to pick up dropped corn, most offer to just fill the bed of our truck for free with shelled corn but we pass.

so when preserves are paying $30/bird for nonblindered from these raisers that's an insane price.
 
carptom1 said:
Not if you have enough land and the habitat is correct… so back in 2010 or so I would hunt a property out around Murdo that was owned and run by three brothers. That area is the extreme west side of what would be considered pheasant range in SD at least the south side. I would hunt the second week in October and the first week in December. I know that they did not supplement and it was an access only deal. For what he was charging there was no money to buy birds. What he did do was plant probably 100 acres in multiple food plots. There were several tree belts and cattail swamps. He ran 5-8 hunters every week and would rest a few days in between. We would shoot limits everyday… sometimes fast sometimes not. About 2015 I saw the largest flush I had ever seen of probably 1200-1500 birds. Literally lasted several minutes. He documented all birds harvested on his farm. That year he was north of 650 on his property. A couple years later he scaled back the food plots and took some cover out. Two years later we struggled to find birds and I moved on.
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Your average once a year bird hunter, is a stooge. I just watched a group of about 12 guys on YouTube hunting a field, and those guys were all stooges. None of them were experienced hunters, or decent shots.
 
randywatson said:
we've done raise and released bird on our quarter section of wetland bank property here in SE MN since 2019. things we've done and have now implemented. (we are surrounded by black fields) no other large pieces of grassland within 3-4 miles of us.

1) we do 2 batches of 250 straight run birds. 1st batch we raise to 7 weeks old then release them all onto our property. this year our 1st batch was only 150 of the original 250 (had some rain issues) we see a fairly high survival rate into the hunting season. This year we are estimating close to 50%.

2) 2nd batch we release the hens at 7 weeks old and keep the roosters. we then will supplement through out the season if necessary. This year with the hatch on our property and or survival of the 1st batch we have yet to release any of the birds. (100+) waiting patiently for freedom. We do a large hunt on Thanksgiving weekend and will release the majority of them then.

3) food plots. the birds are in them every time and we typically hunt 5 out of the 7 days a week.


with the variability of the hatch each year this ensures we can have successful hunts.

we blinder the birds at 4 weeks old. typically 75% of these have fallen off by week 12-14. (getting caught in the net etc) The birds will at times pick on one and kill it but this year they've behaved themselves.

our biggest predator is owls. usually when they are younger. ie 4-12 wks old. and a mink back in 2020 that slaughtered 25 of them Thanksgiving day. man what a blood bath.

We all know that in order to keep up with demand these guys will always need pen raised birds.

I know what our input costs are per bird if we raise them to "maturity". maybe $7/bird. feed for the 1st 12 weeks is the biggest cost. Then we switch to corn. and when harvest starts we get permission from local farmers to pick up dropped corn, most offer to just fill the bed of our truck for free with shelled corn but we pass.

so when preserves are paying $30/bird for nonblindered from these raisers that's an insane price.
Click to expand...
👎👎
 
Dixieman said:
Bob, unfortunately Nebraska is not what it was once. I have hunted there for 50 years. Their even used to be tons of Pheasant in the southeast not any more but the last couple years they have started to come back a little I primarily go there for quail hunting because when it is right it is as good as it gets. Last year I picked up 6 roosters which was a pleasant surprise. Going back out there right after the first of the year.
Click to expand...
When I was in high school my dad and I hunted near Ord, NE. We hunted near Comstock too. Lots of pheasants in the late 70's. We had a farmer sit us in a field one morning and shoot pheasants as they flew in from the roost and the cedars on the hills.
 
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