Nebraska Pheasant Season "report"

[adamsredlines]

These last few years have been terrible. We hunt several farmers just south of Albion and have access to tens of thousands of acres of land...but between the weather and the farmers pushing down fence rows, ridding themselves of CRP and farming closer and closer to the road...things just arent the same. I'm in my mid 30's and can remember going up for Pheasant season as a teenager and everybody (dad, uncle, grandpa and myself) limiting out by lunch....maybe mid afternoon on a "bad" day. The last several years we will be lucky to get two birds (one a piece...just my dad and I now) opening week. During the summer we had to go to the meat locker in town to get birds to eat as we didnt have room in the freezer at the house. Its just crazy how much its changed in 15 or so years.

 

[adamsredlines]

@ElkStalkR if you have land and wouldnt mind visitors one morning, I'm sure my dad and I would love to walk some land near Omaha (he was born there) next year. I dont know if he's going back again this year or not. I was thinking about a Thanksgiving trip but not after a total bust of opening week.

 

[cjjtulsa]

I wonder what the deal is? I'm from NE/NC Kansas, and my family owns land there we hunt. When I was a kid (70s-80s) the pheasants were thick, and there was an enormous amount of quail. Now, we're lucky to see a hen, and the quail have been hit and miss. This seems to have started quite some time ago. As you said, plenty of deer, but even the rabbits have evaporated. Farming practices? Don't know, but it's depressing.

 

[adamsredlines]

Few things happened at once:
1) HARSH winter
2) Ethanol prices went way up

When the Ethanol prices went way up, farmers started pushing out what use to be great cover to plant their crops in less desirable places. They even built an ethanol plant in town a few miles from where we hunt. A bunch of corporations bought up land that used to be CRP and is now just corn field from road to road...no fence lines, no ravines, no low spot cover..nothing. Old homsteads got pushed in and farmed over, etc etc etc. When all that was going on, they had a terrible winter followed by drought..and the pheasants just havent been able to recover. And now, what little cover IS left, leaves the birds easy pickins for the Coyotes. It was just a perfect storm of crap to happen.
I dont BLAME the farmers...its their job to grow crop...but they certainly helped the situation.
I hear out west its getting better every year...but its certainly not made its way to where we are.

 

[ElkStalkR]

Yep most people that don't live in corn country don't realize just how hard ethanol truly is to the environment/habitat and species that live in the prairies. Not just game species either. All sorts of prairie species thrived in those small parcels and crp plots. As you said. Now it's farmed fence to fence and hang the planter over the edge of the creek to get every last row in. Who needs a filter strip next to that watershed anyway? Disgusting. You can't imagine the amount of 50 year old timber I've seen pushed up and burned the last 15 years. It makes me so mad when people start talking about how good ethanol is for the environment. They have no f'ing clue.

Adams..
Sorry don't own any land in this state. Everything I hunt here is public or I have to get permission on myself. Believe it or not the public spots in the southern part of the state hold decent quail numbers. If you can get on any decent private ground guaranteed you will find quail. Again we are only one winter away from that being gone but until that happens.......

 

[cjjtulsa]

Good point on the cover, and it's something Ive griped to my family about, too. In our part of the world, it's soybeans. There are fields we hunted as kids that have been completely plowed under, and those God-forsaken soybeans planted as far as the eye can see. Lots of trees bulldozed up and burned, and beans planted there, too. There is some cover left, but much, much less than 30 years ago. And as you said, the coyotes have likely laid waste to nests and young broods, and is probably why the rabbit population is way down there, too.

 

[adamsredlines]

One of the guys we hunt is a Nebraska State Senator...I've thought about trying to plant the bug in his ear about maybe trying to encourage more people to do CRP or to up the CRP program but I'm sure he has bigger fish to fry than me wanting more birds

 

[ElkStalkR]

I will say since the price of corn has fallen the last 2-3 years I have seen more crp fields pop up. But really the damage is already done.

 

[adamsredlines]

Hopefully that trend continues.

There's another old homestead we used to hunt that had corn and pasture around it. Was good to walk the shelter belt then out into the pasture. Last year it was just corn...and when we went by this year there was equipment by the homestead and shelter belt like they were going to bulldoze it in. I'll bet the whole thing will be nothing but corn next year