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Jarhead

I raise about 100 birds every year for release, never had any problems with them flying well. If raised right with high flight pens they do well. Never had the loose ones flock up. They are not as tough
as wild birds but I love watching my lab work. If its not for you then so be it but its a lot of fun with my son and dog.
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I run into them all the time when trapping, usually they just run away instead of flying. But I'm not a dog.

There were predators when we had high populations of pheasants here. The difference is the farming practices. In the 80's we had lots of CRP, lots of small trees in ditches, fence rows, there was even grass growing the corn and when it was picked there was still cover in the fields. Now all ditches and water ways are mowed short, most fences removed, basically zero crops spilled in the fields or missed by the combines. Stalks are chopped and bailed. When we have 6" of snow its nearly a barren landscape. The little bit of cover left make them easy pickings for any predators. Add to that all the chemicals sprayed to kill bugs and weeds that have to have an effect on their food sources as well as their own health. If you don't think farming practices have a huge impact on them you're kidding yourself.

Well, in my area it's not uncommon to have standing corn all winter. I just passed some this morning. Plenty of cover around here otherwise. Dense creek bottoms, overgrown fields that haven't been mowed in years overgrown fence rows, patches of wild raspberry bushes border every field regardless and when the corn is all mowed, there is plenty missed on the ground with about 8" stocks leftover. Seems like the perfect habitat to me. If I was a pheasant, I'd have a condo. Still..... no birds

Are those farmers using herbicides and pesticides at all?

Sure but there are plenty of bugs left over, if that's where your going. Unless the pesticides are hurting the eggs, bugs for food are not a problem.

How many times does it have to be said that what you claim to be the reason for no birds is not the case in a lot of places that still have no birds? Every single thing you mention is the exact opposite here, yet no birds.
As is normal, people just make things up to support what they want to believe. What ever happened to using common sense and facts to develop a theory? The facts are that the birds get decimated in the late 70s and they've simply never rebounded. Before that, there was a good balance of predator and prey. But predatory birds were on the increase since they were protected in '72. The bird population plummeted at the same time predatory birds and coyotes were on the increase. It would likely take releasing millions of birds at once to get enough out there to build the population back up, but no one has been able to do it yet.

Just wondering, I'm of the belief that many factors contribute. DDT was common when I was a kid and it worked but somebody figured out that it killed raptor eggs. My cousin killed all his chickens once by treating his yard for ticks. The herbicides affect weed seeds and nesting cover that might help the birds.
We never had pheasants, but a huge factor with bobwhite loss here is Fescue grass grown for permanent pasture and hay, It looks like grass, but it grows as turf that leaves no place the chicks can walk and no clumps that the hen can nest in. Most people driving through the Ozarks see the forest as habitat, but when you walk through it looking for food items that will support wildlife, it is a barren wasteland for anything but deer.
So, I see it as a possibility that what you see as habitat is missing some key element of mawdy man's three legs. My forest can support all kinds of wildlife several months of each year, but then the animals must move to some better food producing area for winter, that works for migratory species, not so much for things like pheasants and quail.
If I understand correctly, you say there is some waste corn on the ground but the stubble is only 8" tall? That isn't much cover from overhead and might not be a choice place to hide.

I was fortunate enough to go to South Dakota to hunt Pheasants on a 50,000 acre farm. This family has been in the business for over 50 years. They release thousands of birds a year, maybe 10% make it to 2 year old. I asked him why? He said Farming......... poising the bugs.

Makes sense, he should know.

You ain't just making that up to support what you want to believe? So, studies that show a link between rising raptor populations and decline of invasive species?

I suspect the DDT ban was more important to raptors than the treaty act.

great post,reminded me to take out the 3 i kept for later out.them things is mmm-mmmm good.

Question, has there been a decline all across the Pheasant home range? I think some State release K of pheasant a year to bring in hunter to help the economy. I talked to a hunter that went to Iowa for many years and he said the population has drop 25% in the last ten years. He no longer goes out west. Real good thread!

[quote=mawdy man]ime gonna weight in hear....thou I have never set foot on American soil I would like to think I know pheasants and pheasant rearing and management

before I made my living trapping moles and foxes I spent all my early working life with pheasants, native partridges and deer.. in number that beggar belief. we would rear 100,000 pheasants a year and 10,000 red partridge and a couple thousand greys, with 8 thousand ducks for good measure.

putting to wood 20,000 pheasants and all the ducks and partridge, getting %50 plus on pheasants and upto 90 on ducks and all the as well as this ive done a lot of very old school rearing and re-establishing of wild birds using the broody hen and old ways.

the basics of all game birds is the 3 legged stool...you need each leg to make it work if not it will fail

habitat.......if you don't have the habitat they wont be their

food....if you don't have the food for them at all times of the year they wont stay their

vermin....call them what you will but if you got vermin you aint gonna have birds! vermin must not be tolerated in any guise.



I will forever kick myself of not taking the job on a English style shoot in the rockies.but i would wager a bet that me and 2 other keepers (gamekeepers,i have a couplelads in mind) would turn,given a few years and enough ££ would turn pretty much any favourable bit of ground in to some of the best pheasant shooting in the country.


I agree with the 3 legged stool theory. If you have those 3 and released them in that area I can't imagine why they wouldn't take off and thrive. IMO

20 years ago a guy could walk a field and kick up a wave of birds here and then another wave would get up and on and on. Several factors are needed to support the large numbers of birds take away 1 or 2 of them and it has a negative outcome. Even when we have people getting paid to leave the CRP alone then some emergency comes about and they are allowed to cut it so the program becomes useless if this happens a few years in a row.

tjm, If you have time research the DDT study that got it banned. It’s my understanding that one Lib professor wrote a paper and politicians ran with it. Same thing with lead shot and migratory birds. From what I’ve learned the only thing that banning DDT did was kill millions world wide from malaria.

Maybe different in SD, but here it can only be hayed after nesting season. I’ll double check if that applies in emergency years. I do know that you loose your CRP payment if you hay; emergency or not

I may be wrong (always a chance for a first ) But I believe many of the third world countries never banned DDT. In fact, I believe it is still in use today.

I think every thing USA ever banned is still in use in the countries where our jobs and industries moved to. We buy food from countries using chemicals not allowed here.
However they may not have raptors or Chinese birds either.

I lived through all this. You may be a farmer taking it personally or whatever but the facts are just as I mentioned. There will NEVER be the numbers of birds here that we had in the past unless the farming practices are greatly changed. Its their land to do with whatever they want. I hate to see it but if it were my livelihood I may do it just the same.

How do pheasants live here?




The only places around here with any decent pheasant population these days are the private grounds owned by rich guys who groom it for pheasants and release birds to boost populations. In 1988 I could drive 5 miles and see 25-30 birds or more easily almost any day of the year. This area was a prime destination for out of state pheasant hunters, now if you shoot 3 in a day you had to work your butt off to do it.

There are some factors like birds of prey and other predators that effect them but NOTHING compares to the effect of the farming practices around here!

Great habitat, I can see trees too, so you may have turkeys as well.