View attachment 7442
At the end of the Pheasant Brood Survey Report 2017 on the SDGFP site is the graph above. Overall the acres of hay, small grains and CRP are on a downward line from 13mil to 7mil since 1960 while the pheasant population has varied but in a mostly upward trend since the late 70s. There is no correlation here for the 2002-2008 spike in the amount of habitat.
I've been told that the majority of pheasant hatching and rearing takes place in unmowed ditches and requires rain at the right time. Once those are in place, the rest is secondary.
This graph makes me wonder if habitat for winter cover and year round predator evasion has that big of an overall effect in the bigger picture. Makes me think that weather and predatory management/ditch mowing care could be a bigger deal than they get press for, especially what we are seeing this year with the weather impact.
At the end of the Pheasant Brood Survey Report 2017 on the SDGFP site is the graph above. Overall the acres of hay, small grains and CRP are on a downward line from 13mil to 7mil since 1960 while the pheasant population has varied but in a mostly upward trend since the late 70s. There is no correlation here for the 2002-2008 spike in the amount of habitat.
I've been told that the majority of pheasant hatching and rearing takes place in unmowed ditches and requires rain at the right time. Once those are in place, the rest is secondary.
This graph makes me wonder if habitat for winter cover and year round predator evasion has that big of an overall effect in the bigger picture. Makes me think that weather and predatory management/ditch mowing care could be a bigger deal than they get press for, especially what we are seeing this year with the weather impact.