Nothing really got done in the rain for the week before non-resident opener. I covered most of east central from 212 north to Aberdeen over the opener for 4 days and I would say beans were at 1/3 of fields harvested but combines were running every day on more beans. Corn was up everywhere but for a few fields in pasture areas to the west. There was water everywhere in fields and stock dams so you couldn't really focus hunts on areas with available water as you couldn't tell how long it had held water to concentrate bird numbers. Birds were exclusively in the corn. There was isolated, long term drought areas so the shorter the corn, the less birds hatched in that area. Made for long stretches of passing up bean fields and short corn.
SD crop report 7/22
- Thread starter Hockeybob
- Start date
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
If there was cover near the picked beans, then the birds weren't exclusively in the corn, at least not all the time. Beans laying around on the ground are a LOT easier to eat than anything else in that situation. So at some point during the day, the birds will use the cover adjacent to picked beans. Don't overlook it. Once the corn gets picked, then they switch if possible. They usually choose corn over beans, especially once we get further into winter.
There was so much short beans that they provided little cover so maybe more healthy bean fields with cover. But 100% of cleaned birds showed corn in their crops so that was the preferred feed right now where I hunted. Also got a lot of birds out of thick sloughs. Often on Sat I found young dummies perched in the trees to keep out of the water. Never saw so many birds drop out of the branches of bushes and plum trees. Funny to see but they also spook the rest of the slough into taking off. That only lasted one day.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Hm. Interesting. What do you mean by "short beans"? Ones that had been stunted due to standing water? Your previous post (passing by beans) & comment that 25/25 birds had corn in their crops rather than beans lead me to think you may not have hunted near PICKED beans much. My experience has been that if picked beans are the easiest food around, that's usually what they'll eat. And if the corn hasn't been picked, then it's not easier than picked beans. But yes, after loading up on beans, they might head into a corn field & stay there until after shooting hours.
I meant drought hit fields where the beans were ankle high. There's no cover for them and they are exposed to hawks so I dont think they prefer it when corn cover is available. Bean combining was going on all around and we tried to time it for the last pass on a couple fields but nothing ever came out or was found in cover around them. It was colder at night than usual opener and the get more energy off corn.