2016 South Dakota Spring Pheasant Brood Outlook Report Forecast

May 18, 2016 by UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

My recent annual food plot seed delivery route covers the towns of Lake Andes, Geddes, Platte, Pierre, Selby, Mobridge, Timberlake and Meadow to name a few; about 1500 miles in all.  I can tell you that I saw birds in good numbers the whole route over the 2 days of driving.

There was quite a bit of standing water in the fields from recent rains.  This is normal and much needed.  Temps have been cooler but are looking to get up to those 80 degree days and 60 degree nights needed for good vegetation growth (cover) and insect production for the newly hatched broods.  The peak hatch date in South Dakota is June 10th.

The carryover from last year had to be tremendous once again and if we stay warmer and drier from here on out, we should have another very good hatch.  All the major heavy snows we got we around Thanksgiving last year were melted within days.  We did not have a major storm the rest of the year.

The state has been very dry since the drought of 2012 and it is nice to see water filling up the sloughs like it normally does each spring.  It is better to have these low lying areas filled up earlier.  This keeps the hens out of areas prone to flooding and will force them into higher ground not prone to flooding, hence increasing nest success.  Most of these sloughs are called "seasonal wetlands" and it is not uncommon for them to be full to the brim in spring and bone dry come fall.

More water means more ducks too.  We expect duck nesting to be up as well.

State CRP enrollment is adequate at close to a million acres.  The state would have more from the recent general CRP signup but the nation is running up against the current low 24 million acres farm bill enrollment cap.

Low grain prices are sending farmers looking for better income sources and CRP is one of them.  There are just not enough acres to go around based on the farm bill cap.

While many avid hunters will wait with bated breath for the GFP state road count survey to come out around Labor Day, as though it were the gospel of bird numbers in South Dakota, it could do some a great injustice.  These road counts are statistically accurate because they have driven the same routes and counted in the same fashion for years, but the pheasant belt is shifting and will continue to shift like it has through all the great pheasants states over 7-9 decades.   The road counts do not account for this shift.

That's why UGUIDE started tracking our own pheasant harvest data 2 years ago.  It has proven to tell a great success story and be a valuable management tool as well.  It proves for certain that while state GFP might show bird numbers to be down, our UGUIDE camps can have bird number increases.  It proves that where there is good habitat, there will be good bird numbers.

I know counties that have had thousands and thousands of new CRP acres installed over that last 5 years and yet GFP survey numbers for pheasant remains "unchanged" in those counties.  It does the public a tremendous disservice in my opinion, not to mention making their report invalid and unreliable.

One thing is for certain.....South Dakota remains to be the finest pheasant hunting destination in the nation.

We still have several great pheasant hunts remaining for the 2016 season at properties that manage habitat for pheasants very well.

You can find more info on unguided South Dakota pheasant hunting availability here.