Don't discount those cotton fields too much when pheasant hunting in the Texas panhandle, especially if there was some grain nearby.
I hunted one year at Hale Center, which was pretty far south back then for pheasant in Texas. Nobody had any dogs, we were just walking and blocking with a small party of hunters, doing the best we could. One of the places we hunted was a stripped cotton field that wasn't too far as the crow (or in this case pheasant) flies from a quarter circle of pearl millet. There were a ton of birds in those cotton stalks, and when we cleaned the birds they were full of millet seeds. Unfortunately, I was still recovering from a surgery I'd had about a month before then and I couldn't shoot to save my life that day. I think I killed two roosters all day and should've limited out by 10:00 am.
Funny thing happened on this hunt. We were all sitting on the turn row taking a breather, just talking and resting our legs. We looked up, and a pheasant hen came walking out of the cotton about 4 rows over from our group. We all saw her come out, and when she saw us she just froze and stood there. It was neat to sit there and just watch her. If you took your eyes off her and then looked back to that spot, it would take you a while to make her out again standing there. It just goes to show you how well they blend into their surroundings, especially a buff colored hen in brown cotton stalks. I've always told people who haven't hunted pheasants that a rooster could hide in the yellow stripe on a highway and you wouldn't know he was there until you nearly stepped on him and he flew off!