UGUIDE
Active member
Verdict herbicide and no less than 50 LBS of N per acre. 18 OZ of Verdict is the max rate.
That is what I am using next year.
Pheasant Report Update
- Thread starter sdviking
- Start date
Verdict herbicide and no less than 50 LBS of N per acre. 18 OZ of Verdict is the max rate.
That is what I am using next year.
Made about 80 mile loop this morning on gravel section roads. Stopped at 4 public hunting areas. (2 WPA, 1 GPA, 1 WIHA). Cover looked pretty good on all of them. Ran dog about 20-30 minutes on 3 areas, and about 45 minutes on one WPA. Only got up one hen all morning. Did not see any on roads, but dry windy with no dew this morning. Also rode by a few CREP lands that looked decent. Some corn is being cut now and beans are getting close. Still hoping it's not as bad as we think, and after more crops are in maybe we will start seeing a few more birds. Gotta stay hopeful!
Dakotazeb
Well-known member
What area were you in?
good question...I want to be sure to avoid it!
I been hunting almost 40 years and this has to be the fewest birds that I have seen or heard in SD. Don?t get me wrong there are still some honey holes that we go to where even on the worst year the only reason you don?t limit out is because you are a terrible shot (of course it has never happened to me
). Out my back door is literally a thousand acres of corn and beans and I use to sit out on the deck at sunset and listen to the roosters crackling back and forth at each other. Lately its been pretty quiet. A lot of the problem in my area is the farmers are farming every square inch and it doesn?t leave much nesting area for the birds. Like others have said to me it?s the bonding with the guys and watching the dogs work if I shoot a bird that is just icing on the cake!
). Out my back door is literally a thousand acres of corn and beans and I use to sit out on the deck at sunset and listen to the roosters crackling back and forth at each other. Lately its been pretty quiet. A lot of the problem in my area is the farmers are farming every square inch and it doesn?t leave much nesting area for the birds. Like others have said to me it?s the bonding with the guys and watching the dogs work if I shoot a bird that is just icing on the cake!
Dakotazeb
Well-known member
I moved to SD in 1978. The limit that year was 2 roosters. Est. pre-season pheasant population was 2.1M. In 1986 the pop. was again 2.1M. Throughout the 80's and 90's the population of pheasants ranged from 2.1M to 5.0M. Unlike 2007 when the estimated population was almost 12M and the harvest was 2.1M. But even back in the 80's and 90's I had very good luck on mostly public land. The difference being that there were only 13,000 non-resident hunters in 1978 compared to an average of nearly 100k the past 6-7 years. There was a lot less competition in the field 20-30 years ago.
Spink and Beadle counties. Went south from Redfield down to Hitchcock, Broadland, Huron & back up to Doland, then west to Redfield. Today I just walked out the front door and hit a little grass area and slough between corn fields about 400 yards from the house. Dog found 1 rooster and 2 hens in first 30 minutes. Guess I need to quit riding around and just hunt the field across from the house!
carptom1
Well-known member
That coincides with the declines everywhere else. I know common belief says hunting has little effect on bird numbers but I think that relates to average pressure. Some of the things I have witnessed on public lands in Kansas and SD has to make me wonder. I was in a traditionally good area in Kansas a couple of years ago. Numbers were way down and I only have a couple of sections of private land to hunt. Me and the boy's thought we would hit a little public. In three or four hours of hunting, we saw a couple hundred hunters. Granted this was opening weekend, but still it was extreme. Last year in SD we went up third weekend to Pierre. There was hardly a hotel room to be had. Caravans of guy's pounding the same cover over and over. We hunted public on friday and saw three cocks and no hens all day. The only two cocks shot were road hunting. I just have to believe that constant pounding has to effect the birds negatively. I remember 2007 in SD, it was phenomenal. 2009 was a good one too late. Crops were late getting out and we harvested a bunch of birds. Pheasant hunting everywhere is better when it's good in several states. First it was Iowa and eastern Nebraska. Now Kansas is tough. All those guy's are going to go somewhere.
Bird numbers
It will be interesting to see if subsequent years of relatively poor hunting will start to have a negative impact on license sales. Here in Wisconsin license sales for hunting have declined 16 percent in just the past few years. The old folks are dying off and the youngsters are just not getting into it for a variety of reasons, lack of a place to hunt being one of them.
It will be interesting to see if subsequent years of relatively poor hunting will start to have a negative impact on license sales. Here in Wisconsin license sales for hunting have declined 16 percent in just the past few years. The old folks are dying off and the youngsters are just not getting into it for a variety of reasons, lack of a place to hunt being one of them.
sdviking
Active member
What we do
The food plots are in very sandy soil so the height is all about the amount of moisture. I do have to cut back on the amount of seed rate but darn pony press doesn't seem to adjust with the lever.
We spray with 2-4D about 3 weeks after planting. More to keep the rag weed/stink weed from taking over, Never seem to have a proble with just normal praire grass.
I wish we could afford to fertilize because I know it would help!
Viking
The food plots are in very sandy soil so the height is all about the amount of moisture. I do have to cut back on the amount of seed rate but darn pony press doesn't seem to adjust with the lever.
We spray with 2-4D about 3 weeks after planting. More to keep the rag weed/stink weed from taking over, Never seem to have a proble with just normal praire grass.
I wish we could afford to fertilize because I know it would help!
Viking
UGUIDE
Active member
Soybean dust, corn husks, semi's and combines are all flying all over the place.
carpfisher
New member
What effect of the massive snow storm that killed all the cow on the birds?
Anything alive will have suffered. Deer, antelope, grouse, pheasants will all be in trouble. It was too early and too big.
Dakotazeb
Well-known member
The snow was in the western 1/3 of the state. While I'm sure all wildlife suffered in that area it also is not prime pheasant territory. Thus it had virtually no impact on the main pheasant hunting areas of the state.