2012 South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Season Outlook Forecast Report - June Hatch

July 02, 2012 by Chris Hitzeman - UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

Every year in South Dakota is cause for optimism. Why? Because they are so different. Here are some numbers to put to the rhetoric.  Just last week across the South Dakota Pheasant Hunting region, corn height was measured at an average of 28 inches tall. Last year at this time it was 12" and the 5-year average is 16" tall. What if one applied that advancement to the pheasant hatch and pheasant population growth?

That probably would not be good science but some parallels could be drawn.  One such coincidence could be that the corn crop was planted early due to a mild winter, low snowfall, and early dry spring.  Good for pheasants too?  U BET!

Another similarity in crops and birds is heat.  Heating or growing degree days is what is used as a measure by USDA to measure the amount of heat needed to grow crops and get them to maturity.  Same applies to pheasants?  U BET!  Pen raised pheasant chicks require temps of at least 90 degrees for the first week of life.  This June has been much drier and warmer than the last two years by a long shot.

Yes the 2012 South Dakota pheasant hatch looks promising but don't take my word for it.  Here are some posts made in a forum by South Dakota landowners and farmers that are out in the fields on a regular basis:

Winner, SD, June 29th: "The pheasants are doing very well so far though. Chicks are in many stages, from pretty small to flying. It should be a very good fall. If this pace continues the crops will be out for the opener. "

Aberdeen, SD, June 19th: " It looks like it will be a better year than last year."

Winner, SD, June 21st:  "i'm from winner which is south central, this year seeing good numbers, been putting up our hay a little later than usual and even stopping the hydroswings to avoid mowing off the chicks".

....June 24th:  "We just cut our second cutting alfalfa last night, was very happy with the amount of chicks we saw".

........June 5th:  "out in our native grass two days ago, seen a couple different hatches, by their size i'm guessing one group hatched around the 15th of may, and other ten or so days ago, getting some good size, at least they have a good chance of getting away from the hydroswings around the 15th of june".

Personally, I am very encouraged by what we are seeing at our farm, in which the birds were down quite a bit last year.  My philosophy is to stay out of fields as much as possible during nesting time but some maintenance has to be done.  While mowing tree strips, I saw a very young brood the last week of May.  Recently I was doing some weed clipping very close to our buildings and saw several broods and some with ability to fly.

I suspect that many hunters who stayed away from the state due to Game and Fish Brood Count Reports being down last year will also look to those reports this year before making a decision to take a pheasant hunting trip to the state of South Dakota.

I will agree that the states brood count survey, taken during the middle of August, is one of the most quantitative methods of determining actual bird numbers in the state.  I'm looking forward to it this year and think we will be pleasantly surprised.

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