The issue with the haying is that like Dakotazeb stated its not going to be where it needed by June and the large amount of cover especially cattails is going to affect the over winter success of the birds. I get the haying of CRP but it doesn't make sense to allow so much state land to be hayed. These areas are supposed to be for wildlife not a hay bank for farmers. This coming from a person who farms. Hopefully we continue to get more CRP enrollment and good weather. Pheasants are resilient but they like anything else have their limits.
REAL South Dakota 2021 review.
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I can only speak to the practices around here regarding the haying of state land. From what I’ve seen the DNR will hay solid stands of native grasses, spray round-up the next year and plant Round-up soybeans for two years, killing everything. Then they will plant their pollinator mix, mow for two or three years and then have the mixed stand they want. They try other methods but that seems to be a common plan around here.
Around here the DNR is going back and converting all their solid grass stands to the forb/grass mix. The DNR, in Iowa at least, thinks long term. A few years of no habitat means little to them.
And know that if a decision between pheasants and butterflies comes up, you better enjoy butterflies. Fortunately what benefits native species also benefits pheasants.
That‘s only my take on what I’ve seen over the last few years around here.
Around here the DNR is going back and converting all their solid grass stands to the forb/grass mix. The DNR, in Iowa at least, thinks long term. A few years of no habitat means little to them.
And know that if a decision between pheasants and butterflies comes up, you better enjoy butterflies. Fortunately what benefits native species also benefits pheasants.
That‘s only my take on what I’ve seen over the last few years around here.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
We saw the same thing on our trip but my perspective was a little different. By that I mean, I'd never hunted the areas we tried before, never been there in my life. So a few times we would drive by a WPA and 90% of it was mowed like a suburban front lawn. We would say, "jeez, who is gonna hunt here, and for what?" I can see how it would be even more jarring if we'd been there in previous years and had seen the spots when they were prime upland habitat.
jackrabbit
Active member
Spent 3 days in SD, mix of public and private. I am generally an optimistic person so I wasn't reading too much into the negative reviews and forecasts on here. I'd say overall it was better than the doom and gloom forecasts, but worse than my positive optimistic expectations.
Pheasants: They are obviously still around and better than you can find almost anywhere in the US, but I think the very wide and broad south central region that I focused on was certainly down in numbers compared to my previous years in this area.
Land: On public land I noticed some hayed, but not enough to make me really worry... must really vary based on where you are at in the state. On the private land I hunted, there was a lot less cover than the previous 8 years I've got to hunt this land. Lots of little sloughs and waterways that had always held birds were now gone, planted in crops this year or plowed under. Some of them I was amazed, one slough that I hunt each year always had 1-2' of water in it and full of birds, about 200 yards x 200 yards. This year it was beans and you'd have never guessed it used to hold water in that location.
Overall: If you expect a few man limit by lunchtime, cancel your trip. If you want to have the opportunity to get a few man limit with good dog work and good shooting, then come on out.
Pheasants: They are obviously still around and better than you can find almost anywhere in the US, but I think the very wide and broad south central region that I focused on was certainly down in numbers compared to my previous years in this area.
Land: On public land I noticed some hayed, but not enough to make me really worry... must really vary based on where you are at in the state. On the private land I hunted, there was a lot less cover than the previous 8 years I've got to hunt this land. Lots of little sloughs and waterways that had always held birds were now gone, planted in crops this year or plowed under. Some of them I was amazed, one slough that I hunt each year always had 1-2' of water in it and full of birds, about 200 yards x 200 yards. This year it was beans and you'd have never guessed it used to hold water in that location.
Overall: If you expect a few man limit by lunchtime, cancel your trip. If you want to have the opportunity to get a few man limit with good dog work and good shooting, then come on out.
ArmchairBiologist
New member
That's a common management practice when the stand of vegetation is so poor it's just easier to start over. Once you get a solid seed bank of smooth brome you're pretty much screwed, no matter what you do. If you farm it for a couple years, the last year being beans, it destroys the seed bank. Bean stubble makes for a very nice flat seed bank you can drill seed a new native seed mix into.
They've found that a mix heavy in forbs helps prevent excessive Canada thistle problems. Also, in old CRP mixes they would over spray thistle and that would also kill the forbs. A more diverse stand including forbs benefits everything, including pheasants. You have a much higher biodiversity for insects which improves chick forage. Plus, once that good native mix of cool season grasses, warm season grasses, and forbs is established it outcompetes the invasive species like Brome and Reed Canary.
I hate it when I pull up to a new area and it's all smooth brome in the uplands and reed canary in the lowlands. Talk about a pheasant desert. I'll take the few years of no habitat for a better stand of vegetation on public land. That new stand, if done right, will produce way more birds.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
I learned a lot from this post!
Golden Hour
Well-known member
That will depend a lot on the spring. In addition to pheasant hunting, I do a fair amount of asparagus hunting in the spring. I’ve even come across a couple nests while foraging. Good moisture over the winter and a warm April/May will often have the grass tall and thick by Memorial Day. This year, not so much. I pray things are different going forward with timely rains.
Goosemaster
Well-known member
I hunted for 90 minutes on Friday. 5 hens. 1 rooster. Then I went fishing. 20 minutes and a limit. Saturdays limit took 15 minutes..
I respect that.Good call.
reddog
Well-known member
I pretty much agree with almost everything youre saying, with the exception of any warm season grass and forb planting that is able to withstand invasion of brome and reeds canary if its damp. Without some kind of suppression in place, whether thats fire, or a early or late application of glyphosate, Smooth Brome wins. Its takes time for brome to take over, but once it gets a foothold in, it will indeed take over eventually without intervention. I also have not found any forb /grass mixture that will suppress or outcompete canada thistle unless it is a Milestone resistant forb. Im no expert, by any means, but I am almost 25 years into managing my own land and helping with other parcels along the way. I have seen the gnarliest stand of switch/Indian/Big blue that was so thick, you could hardly walk thru it turn into your "pheasant desert"" full of brome..
remy3424
Well-known member
In just a few years we have brome from terraces encroaching 30 yards into the native grass seeding. I think my father might be right when he said the entire quarter would be brome by the time the contract expired (15 years). The stuff is tough and hard to stop....Canadian thistles are controlled easier.
Long time lurker first time author. One week ago, today I returned from SD – east river, north of 90. Was very up to date on as many posts as possible on this site, up to and during our trip. 6 guys – 2 previous SD hunters and 4 novices to the area. All 6 hunted the 8th thru the 11th. M-Th. 2 GSPs and a Lab, all solid gun dogs. Hunted only public areas. Left one day early due to blizzard arrival. I must say the SD we experienced was much different than what I had read on this blog. 3 arrived a day early and hunted/ scouted Sunday.
Sunday Hunt / Scout. Looked at about 9 different walk in /public hunting areas. Spotted a couple which really looked good – based on what I had read here. They were very much out of the way, thick cover large areas with several sloughs- cattail heavy brush areas. Spent more time driving and scouting than hunting – only one dog. Only 3 miles of walking. Flushed 5 hens – 1 cock within shooting range. No kills. Weather in the 60s. Birds did not want to hold except the one cock found in cattails.
Monday Hunt. Went to what we thought was prime spot from earlier day. Walked and hunted a 100 yard area of cattails boarding water. 40 yards from end 12 – 15 Cocks flushed – no shots. This was the only time we experienced anything like what was previously written, which generally was – “cocks bunched up, low bird counts, and not many hens. You have to work for them by covering many miles.” We would not see 15 cocks the rest of our trip. We walked about 6 miles that day. No kills another 5-10 hens flushed.
Tues and Wed hunts very similar. Lots of tough walking through some very tough cover. Dogs would come on point hold and no bird. Clearly the bird was sitting near, and then running and then all of a sudden 30—60 yards flushing. And almost always hens. We saw about 30 birds on Tues and Wed. Maybe 5 Cocks. Wed was a rainy day but we went anyway, but traveled about 30 miles more north. We noticed far more fields which still had corn in it, if that’s what they call corn. Nothing like the Illinois Harvest. I assume the drought had huge affect on this meager crop. Locals in after hour locations mentioned that many farmers will not harvest their corn as they can’t break even to pay for fuel. 2 kills each day. Averaged about 4 -5 miles a day, but it was tough thick cover, and wet on Wed.
Thurs a little different story. The blizzard started in with 30 to 50 mile winds and we braved it. About 30 degrees but tough hunting with the wind. The wind probably muffled out the noise of the footsteps and the birds held much better. Probably saw 50 birds that day, but again maybe 10 cocks. 2 kills.
Friday morning, we all bailed due to the horrific weather. First 150 miles thru Sioux Falls took almost 4 hours.
So, I have really no advice nor can I explain why we saw a totally different SD. Our guess was that a lot of the birds – cocks(????) were all in the corn and not out in the fields, but I/we are certainly no experts. But if Hens are a concern, relative to next years brood, we certainly saw no indication of that on our 4-5 days. Also should add that we must have found some of the really out of the way walk in areas because we only say 2 other hunters our entre trip. And these were some very large walk in areas.
Sunday Hunt / Scout. Looked at about 9 different walk in /public hunting areas. Spotted a couple which really looked good – based on what I had read here. They were very much out of the way, thick cover large areas with several sloughs- cattail heavy brush areas. Spent more time driving and scouting than hunting – only one dog. Only 3 miles of walking. Flushed 5 hens – 1 cock within shooting range. No kills. Weather in the 60s. Birds did not want to hold except the one cock found in cattails.
Monday Hunt. Went to what we thought was prime spot from earlier day. Walked and hunted a 100 yard area of cattails boarding water. 40 yards from end 12 – 15 Cocks flushed – no shots. This was the only time we experienced anything like what was previously written, which generally was – “cocks bunched up, low bird counts, and not many hens. You have to work for them by covering many miles.” We would not see 15 cocks the rest of our trip. We walked about 6 miles that day. No kills another 5-10 hens flushed.
Tues and Wed hunts very similar. Lots of tough walking through some very tough cover. Dogs would come on point hold and no bird. Clearly the bird was sitting near, and then running and then all of a sudden 30—60 yards flushing. And almost always hens. We saw about 30 birds on Tues and Wed. Maybe 5 Cocks. Wed was a rainy day but we went anyway, but traveled about 30 miles more north. We noticed far more fields which still had corn in it, if that’s what they call corn. Nothing like the Illinois Harvest. I assume the drought had huge affect on this meager crop. Locals in after hour locations mentioned that many farmers will not harvest their corn as they can’t break even to pay for fuel. 2 kills each day. Averaged about 4 -5 miles a day, but it was tough thick cover, and wet on Wed.
Thurs a little different story. The blizzard started in with 30 to 50 mile winds and we braved it. About 30 degrees but tough hunting with the wind. The wind probably muffled out the noise of the footsteps and the birds held much better. Probably saw 50 birds that day, but again maybe 10 cocks. 2 kills.
Friday morning, we all bailed due to the horrific weather. First 150 miles thru Sioux Falls took almost 4 hours.
So, I have really no advice nor can I explain why we saw a totally different SD. Our guess was that a lot of the birds – cocks(????) were all in the corn and not out in the fields, but I/we are certainly no experts. But if Hens are a concern, relative to next years brood, we certainly saw no indication of that on our 4-5 days. Also should add that we must have found some of the really out of the way walk in areas because we only say 2 other hunters our entre trip. And these were some very large walk in areas.
benelli-banger
Well-known member
Interesting report, thanks. Did you hunt mostly in the same geography? Bird #’s vary a good bit if you get 20-40 miles away at times.
Matt D
Well-known member
Was going to do a super long detailed report like last year but decided to just add on to this one. Got back a week ago from 10 days of hunting in SD. Covered 3400 miles total on the trip. We only hunted private ground on this trip. walked a couple ditches but not more than 2-3 hours total on the whole trip I would say. Started way east than I ever thought we would likely hunt but was happy with the total number of birds we saw just that most were hens which is great to see for the future. This was with a friend and property he has access to but will gladly go back there in the future as it has potential for sure. Left from there to another new area for us and spent a couple days there and very happy with what we saw for bird numbers over all. 5 of the next 6 days were spent in our usual area we hunt with one day back to this new area. Felt like most of the areas we have history on bird numbers were very close to slightly better than last year. Last day of the trip was west of the river(first 9 days were east of river) and only our second time to this area but bird numbers here were way down from last year on this same farm. Chased some grouse there also but no luck there either and that was the 40 MPH wind day so that didn't help.
Overall I was happy with the bird numbers we saw compared to what I was expecting based on how hot and dry it was all summer there. Found one general area that seemed to be down pretty good but also had some more standing corn around so maybe that was part of it? Most days had our chance at our limit and if we didn't get it that was our fault. First half of the trip was warm weather and we took some middle of the days off to not burn up the dogs so that was a factor also. We killed 80-85% this years birds. All had good color but saw the smallest spurs I have ever seen which to me seemed to indicate there was a very late hatch in some areas. Concerning if they have a bad winter with all the cattails we saw that had been mowed. Way more ditches than normal mowed. Saw some CRP baled but not as much as I expected to see. That isn't as concerning as the cattails to me. Luckily not too much of that happened on land we hunt but saw some public ground for sure that was the case on. We saw very few other hunters in all areas we were in.
Here are some pictures from the trip.
Overall I was happy with the bird numbers we saw compared to what I was expecting based on how hot and dry it was all summer there. Found one general area that seemed to be down pretty good but also had some more standing corn around so maybe that was part of it? Most days had our chance at our limit and if we didn't get it that was our fault. First half of the trip was warm weather and we took some middle of the days off to not burn up the dogs so that was a factor also. We killed 80-85% this years birds. All had good color but saw the smallest spurs I have ever seen which to me seemed to indicate there was a very late hatch in some areas. Concerning if they have a bad winter with all the cattails we saw that had been mowed. Way more ditches than normal mowed. Saw some CRP baled but not as much as I expected to see. That isn't as concerning as the cattails to me. Luckily not too much of that happened on land we hunt but saw some public ground for sure that was the case on. We saw very few other hunters in all areas we were in.
Here are some pictures from the trip.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Great report & pictures! Thanks!
Golden Hour
Well-known member
Incredible photos!! Thanks for sharing.
sjohn
Active member
Good report Matt D, thanks. Photos are awesome. Love your dogs. I have always owned labs, but thinking about getting a different breed this time. Looking for more leg than what my labs give me. Springers are high on my list. We hunt dove, woodcock, and pheasant. Wondering how a Springer would do on the dove field or woodcock bottoms???