2012 South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Season Outlook Forecast Report - July Drought

August 01, 2012 by Chris Hitzeman - UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

The mid-summer drought is the news of the Upper Midwest.  What toll it will take on pheasant numbers across the South Dakota Pheasant Hunting region is undetermined.

The whole Upper Midwest is suffering from the worst drought since the early 1900's.  I think it is safe to say that farmers will take the worst hit compared to any wildlife species.

As far as pheasant numbers go in the state of South Dakota, I feel the drought was very beneficial during the hatch to some extent but may have gone the other direction now as conditions for newly hatched broods could be more harsh than they can tolerate and result in a high mortality rate.

The drought varies across the state as well.  You could divide the state into 3 zones from north to south with the southern most zone being hardest hit by the drought.  The current drought monitor lists this section as a "D3" which is "severe".  http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_highplains.htm

The middle section of state would be D2 and the top section as D1.

I think the bird reports in the top two thirds of the state will remain promising as the hatch was excellent across the state.  It is unknown as to how the brood mortality rate will be affected by high sustained heat, low dew mornings and the drying up of standing water potholes and sloughs across the hardest hit areas.

I personally am looking forward to Game and Fish's brood count survey due out here the end of August.

With the increase in standing crop acreage and extreme conditions, it makes it very hard to determine what bird numbers are like based on sightings this time of year.

Another factor to keep in mind is that overall cover growth whether from crops of grass or whatever will be significantly reduced this year due to lack of moisture.  Many farmers will begin chopping their corn for silage as that is the only thing they can get out of it.  Corn height overall will be much lower this year if there remains any crops in the fields at all by season opener.

Check Availability of UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Camps Here

Run Cost Scenarios of your groups pheasant hunting package here with our Trip Cost Calculator