# brood counts



## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

Did my first private brood survey on my usual route this week. Grim at best. CRP is pretty much gone in our area and it is back to the early 1980's.


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## shaug (Mar 28, 2011)

indsport said:


> Did my first private brood survey on my usual route this week. Grim at best. CRP is pretty much gone in our area and it is back to the early 1980's.


Hello Tom, I saw one covey the other day that was large. For the most part we are seeing hens with one or two chicks because we had hail move through our area. Some of the small grains were zero'd out. Sunflowers beat to snot but battling back. The alfalfa was already harvested but no second cutting.

Alfalfa is the best nursury for pheasant chicks. Apihds, worms and dew in the mornings. CRP is a dead zone. The first couple of years it has weeds etc.. But after a stand is established with grasses, thick as hair on a dogs back, it is a poor nursery. Dry, no dew, no aphids, no way for little chicks to get through it. Not like alfalfa with run ways underneath and a canopy over head.

Alfalfa is a great rotation but like CRP it has been rotated out. Economics 101.

Tom, just things I've observed on the farm. Office jocks and pencil pushers can't get that from a fed/gov desk job lets say working for the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown.


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

On the route I drive (that I have done for 25 years), there is but one alfalfa field. Yep, CRP is about gone and so are the pheasants. As to your observation about alfalfa for pheasants, that is called anecdotal evidence (even though it is partially true). You have no data. Just one of the things I have observed having been born and raised on a farm and still live surrounded by farms. But having been on both sides (both in science as well as a farmer), it is useful. Too many think what they see are facts when they are either anecdotal or true only in their area and therefore either not backed up by data or not true elsewhere geographically. Just like hail may have affected your fields, there is no hail damage on my route.


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

I've seen this coming for years and you said it best...Reminds me of the 80's all over again. Unless, switch grass takes the place of corn...it's only going to get worse. And, just wait till' the lack of crp starts really effecting the ducks...and it will...I have a feeling I'll be doing a LOT more fall fishing in the future. Very sad.


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## fieldgeneral (Feb 12, 2013)

Very sad! But there is a lot more pasture land out there than one thinks that is unable to be turned over and row cropped. Lots of birds nest up in those types of areas and those spots will never go under the plow. I miss the days 10 years ago when you could drive around the countryside and see those rolling tracts of CRP blowing in the wind left and right. They'll be back, someday....


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## shaug (Mar 28, 2011)

H. Thomas wrote,



> You have no data.


I purchased some land that was in CRP. It was put in back in 1998. The first five years it was full of weeds, alfalfa and volunteer sweetclover. Pheasants everywhere. The last five years the grasses took over. No alfalfa, no sweetclover, no pheasants.

The grasses that the government was promoting back in 1998 was intermediant wheat grass and green needle. Native. It made for poor forage. In 2005 we had a freak snowstorm around October 4th. The dogs dug dead pheasants out buried under three feet of snow. The CRP was flattened. The grasses simply went down. I plowed it all under in 2009 when the contract expired.

There are still a good number of pheasants around. This year I planted some of it back to alfalfa. We'll see if the population gets a boost.

All the "data" in the world stored at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Center (USGS) can't make mother nature do its thing on schedule.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

fieldgeneral said:


> Very sad! But there is a lot more pasture land out there than one thinks that is unable to be turned over and row cropped. Lots of birds nest up in those types of areas and those spots will never go under the plow. I miss the days 10 years ago when you could drive around the countryside and see those rolling tracts of CRP blowing in the wind left and right. They'll be back, someday....


CRP will never be as big as it was. Mainly do to better farming techniques like minimal till and no-till. More hay crops like alfalfa, and some grasses and clovers that companies have been improving to grow in saline area's that people have utilize for their cattle will put a dent in CRP too. What I think you will see more of though, is smaller chunks of CRP around sloughs in saline area's. Gone are the sections of CRP, but the are acreage of CRP are here.


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## kgpcr (Sep 2, 2006)

As long as there is Ethanol there will NEVER be CRP or for that matter any idle land.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

When the left was pushing for more corn production for ethanol, they kept talking about these "idle acres". What do you suppose those acres where?


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

North Dakota's roadside pheasant survey conducted in late July and August indicates total birds, number of broods and average brood size are all down statewide from 2012.

Stan Kohn, upland game management supervisor for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said the survey shows total pheasants are down 30 percent from last year. In addition, brood observations were down 29 percent, and the average brood size was down 10 percent. The final summary is based on 253 survey runs made along 101 brood routes across North Dakota.

"Poor production this spring resulted in fewer young birds added to the population and a lower fall population in all areas of the state," Kohn said.

Noteworthy factors cited for the decrease in brood numbers, according to Kohn, were continued land use changes in the prime pheasant range, including removal of Conservation Reserve Program acres, grasslands converted to croplands and small grain fields converted to row crops; and continuous wet spring weather.

"Earlier this summer we thought it was possible that nesting season was delayed enough to avoid an influence from the cold, wet spring," Kohn said, "but it now appears that wasn't the case."

Kohn said even though statistics reveal bird numbers are down statewide, there will still be local areas with good pheasant populations.

Statistics from southwestern North Dakota indicate the number of birds observed was down 25 percent from 2012, and the number of broods was down 22 percent. Observers counted 15 broods and 126 birds per 100 survey miles. The average brood size was 5.8.

Results from the southeast show birds are down 43 percent from last year, and the number of broods down 42 percent. Observers counted five broods and 49 birds per 100 miles. The average brood size was 5.9.

Statistics from the northwest indicated pheasants are down 39 percent from last year, with broods down 32 percent. Observers recorded six broods and 48 birds per 100 miles. Average brood size was 5.5.

The northeast district, generally containing secondary pheasant habitat with much of it lacking good winter cover, showed one brood and seven birds per 100 miles. Average brood size was 4.7. Number of birds observed was down 35 percent, and the number of broods recorded was down 33 percent.


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## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

Anybody know how the numbers compare with 1998 after the blizzards of 97 wiped out the birds? That was my first year hunting North Dakota and the numbers where I hunt where pretty bad, but I still had a good time. Of course this was after great snow goose hunting up north and sharptail numbers were decent. That goes along way to making for a great trip.


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

shaug said:


> CRP is a dead zone.


shaug, guys like you and gst I think sometimes just put ridiculous statements out there to try to seem smarter than everyone. This one certainly qualifies. I get what you're saying, CRP doesn't necessarily provide great winter cover, but you gotta have nesting cover to make winter survival relevant. You need nesting cover, food, and winter cover and while CRP doesn't always provide all 3 of those it does provide part of it and without any of the three you will not have pheasants. No one can argue that the more CRP there is, the more pheasants there are. Alfalfa's good too, but there's not a whole lot of it out there and it certainly doesn't provide any winter cover.



fieldgeneral said:


> there is a lot more pasture land out there than one thinks that is unable to be turned over and row cropped.


I wouldn't be so sure...


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## southdakbearfan (Oct 11, 2004)

We are seeing the same things down here in SD.

The combo of very dry fall, sloughs & crp being plowed up, tough winter and poor nesting weather in spring have really hit the birds.

With the way farming is going I see this as a look at things to come until something changes like cellulosic ethanol or a huge drop in crop prices combined with an improved crp payment.

Until something changes you sure can't blame people for doing the most with what they have when it comes to farming.

On a side note probably my biggest concern we are letting the drain tilers run wild down here with absolutely no oversight. Between that and all the ditches they have dug I would imagine the next time it gets wet it is going to make for some very difficult flooding and interesting lawsuits, but I fear it will be the end of a lot of duck production as the potholes are going to be gone.


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