South Dakota Pheasant Propaganda

In Aberdeen/Redfield area we hunt we see 3-4x the number of birds it takes for us to fill out when bird numbers are up. We would often fill out in an hour or two and head back in. In years like this (2013 was similar numbers) we may see 1-2x so we still get the same number of birds. In the late 80s and early 90s we had a few years where we hunted hard right down to the last minutes to finally fill out. So for us a down year still means birds and we are coming no matter what. YMMV on bird numbers so I understand those hunters who see far fewer birds who work far harder than we do to get them would have a whole nother perspective on the drought.

Me, I'm tired of circling the same old ground we've been working for the last 3-4 years. I hope it's all been mowed off and forces us to scout and hunt again. I'm happy for the challenge to find new spots and go back and check old haunts to see what came back. The highlight of my trip last year was a drive out to Mobridge and Gettysburg for the first time and got some gully peacocks instead the same old ditch parrots.
 
We raised 250 birds this year. It was our first time raising since the 1980s. We had the feeling the hatch was going to be challenging and we wanted to see if we could help the numbers around the home place. About 190 made it and were released in July. The two miles around the home place has pretty good habitat and we see and hear birds daily. Darn hawks moved in in August and did diminish numbers some. Our neighbor releases about 100 hens every year so he also helps the pheasant population. But when you drive around the rest of the area you don't see or hear many pheasants at all. I am sure a bunch of the birds we raised and the wild ones in the area have moved 3 miles to the public shooting area, due to most of the CRP being baled up. So the hunters hitting that area should have some success early on. I doubt any hunter this fall will be able to tell which birds were raised and which were hatched wild. The one indication of a raised bird may be that they are a little bigger since our hatch was in late May, and I was still seeing some hatches happening in late July. The numbers are down due to the drought and tough hatching conditions this year. Plus with lots of CRP being baled, hunters will not have some of the same sloughs or honey holes available. I am sure there will be small areas of habitat that will explode with birds early on in the season. In portions of NE South Dakota over the past 10 days some areas have received up to 9 inches of rain, everything has greened up, most stock dams are full and there is even some standing water in the low areas. These conditions will confuse the out of state hunter when they expect super dry drought conditions then sees things green but short.
So what is South Dakota doing about habitat. Well at the coffee tables there is a lot of talk of farmers wanting to put more land into CRP, if those acres are available. With 2.70 corn and 8.40 soybeans it's tough to make a profit, with a lot of production costs at risk. I would expect to see a slight increase in alfalfa and wheat next year. Other incentives to help increase habitat are few at this time. CERP sounds great but some farmers that have families are hesitant to sign up due to having to share the hunting with others. Plus almost every land owner already has a relationship with a group of out of state hunters that have their traditions.
I know we will continue to plant bushes in the low ground, plant food plots, hope to increase pollinator areas, and plan to set up facilities to raise a couple hundred pheasants.

SDviking
 
Good to hear that the farmers are once again looking at putting land back into CRP. Hopefully the farm program will have the funds to do that. Seems farmers are quite "short sighted" at times. When grain prices started to spike about 10 years ago there was a rush to take those acres out of CRP. Did they really think $8 cord and $16 beans would last for the long haul?? I'm sure some farmers would have been better off over the last 10 years had they left those acres in CPR. But it is what it is. Hopefully the CRP acres will increase and of course with that the pheasant number will also increase.
 
I don't want to generalize, but it seems to me that farmers want to farm. I know of a lot of farm families that had lots of CRP, but are now trying to provide for a 2nd, or even 3rd generation, so they have turned it back into farm ground...grandpa may have put the crp in 20-30 years ago...
 
The most successful bird release programs I have seen takes a little more finesse and footwork but it is much more effective at long term population increase. I believe that the first year mortality rate of pen raised birds is very near 99%. Those that don't get shot, end up as a feeding program for predators like SDViking had with the hawks. Rather then raise to full size, releasers should be watching for wild nesting to start and then order/incubate their eggs accordingly. Timed correctly you can release raised chicks into wild nests with wild broods and they will get adopted by the mother hen. They then learn food sources and evasion techniques as chicks that essentially make wild pheasants at full size. Many more make it through the winter and provide for natural breeding with less investment in feed and facility as you are using the same hatching equipment as chickens and not much more. But the effort to monitor nesting cycles and find wild broods is much tougher and you can get as many birds that way on the ground in a short time.
 
A pleasant surprise tonight. While out checking soybean dry down progress, i watched 16 roosters fly out of the soybeans and into football sized area of canary grass next to a shelter belt. The time and effort to raise some birds paid off with the 20 minutes of watching pheasants in some nice habitat. Love South Dakota... SDviking
 
When you are from Wisconsin and the only place to have a chance to see a wild rooster is at Cabela's, hunting in SD is like going to heaven. The hunting and experience has never disappointed me, or my dog.
Even in the down years, it will produce.
 
Plan to start harvesting soybeans later today, weather in NE South Dakota is fantastic 61 degrees, light winds and full sun today. We have corn on two sides of the soybeans and a food plot/canary grass/shelter belt on the other two sides, will be interesting to see if we see many birds. I am sure there are some out there. The one thing that concerns me is that you don't see many birds along the road ways. And I have yet to see a dead bird along the road that has been hit by a vehicle. Time will tell. SDviking
 
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