2012 South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Season Outlook Forecast Report - Mid 2012 Season and 2013 Outlook

December 12, 2012 by Chris Hitzeman - UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

After viewing countless forum posts from hunters that have given feedback on their trips to South Dakota as well as feedback given from 2012 UGUIDE hunters at our private land pheasant camps, I have a report to update you on that may or may not leave you encouraged about the future of pheasants in South Dakota.

The format I will use for this info will be in short, blocky, chunky segments.  You will have to put it all together and draw your own conclusions.

My last report showed SD GF&P reported an 18% statewide increase in pheasant numbers over last year.  Based on hunter feedback, that doesn't mean pheasants are up EVERYWHERE in the state 18%.  You have to drill down in the details of their report to draw different conclusions. Certainly the Yankton and Chamberlain routes were below last year's counts as well as the 10 year average.

Portions of South Dakota have seen one of the droughtiest summers on record not to mention high temps to boot.  This drought affected crops, whitetails, insects and pheasants.  To what extent we are not sure.  I know I have one camp that did not decrease in birds last year when everyone else did and this year their birds were down 50%.  Largely due to drought as the main factor.  This climate factor is one in which no type of habitat has an effect on.  In our county 75% of the whitetail died off from the EHD disease which is heightened by drought.

The drought mentioned above created a tremendous pressure to hay and graze any and all available resources out there including road ditches, CRP (50% emergency hay/grazing allowed), and haying and grazing other resources such as walk-ins and other public lands.  My guess is this was a public hunting disaster in South Dakota this season like no other.  There just was not a lot for the public to hunt.

This year also created an opportunity for farmers to harvest their crops earlier than almost ever before.  ALL crops were out well before opening day.  When this happens, I notice early season hunters (weeks 1-6) do very well and late season hunters (weeks 7-12) struggle because there has been so much pressure put on the pheasants due to being forced out of crop lands into remaining cover.  They become much more accessible by hunters than in a normal year where a very low percentage of the corn crop is out at opener and normally corn harvest ends sometime around Thanksgiving.

There's a lot of CRP that has come out, but also a lot of CRP still exists.  There is still about 1 million acres in CRP in SD.  There were periods in the 50's and 70's when there were ZERO set aside or land retirement acres in the state.

For the last 10-15 years in South Dakota the hunters harvest average was around 10 birds per person per season +/- 1 bird.  That's a pretty decent average if you ask me.

Another factor to consider is crop types planted.  We are seeing more corn and soybeans planted east river and less winter wheat.  Winter wheat and spring wheat are pheasant and duck friendly as those crops provide undisturbed nesting cover during the prime nesting periods in early summer.  Areas that planted more corn and soybeans and less winter wheat will see less pheasants.

What does 2013 bring?  Who knows.  After the last 3 years I am convinced that climate plays the largest role in the pheasant numbers game. Prior to this last year's drought we had 2 years of high moisture in precip.  I'll take the drought over high precip but both were years of extremes.  Given an average climate year in SD we could see the best hatch in over 4 years.  We also would hope to not see the level of haying and grazing of ditches and CRP.  All CRP should remain intact as it would take another record drought for them to allow haying on CRP lands again.  If the market for hay remains high, we will probably see more stuff get hayed.  If the market is strong for corn and soybeans, expect more of those to be planted.

Some areas of the state certainly had excellent bird numbers though and if we see good hatch conditions next year, you can expect an increase in pheasant numbers next year.  If the climate goes extreme again to the detriment of pheasants, that could change.  SD GF&P brood counts should give us better insight into the brood success of 2013.

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