| ou're like me, you grew up on saving for shells, | | | | hatching brood. |
| license fees and gas to get you to your favorite | | | | Habitat Cashflow - South Dakota dominates the |
| pheasant hunting "spot". That "spot" may have | | | | commercial fee hunting business and than means |
| been a road ditch, public ground, railroad track, | | | | farmers can afford to "leave a little" for the |
| bridge overpass or any other place that you | | | | pheasants. Heck, they can afford to leave a lot! |
| might think a pheasant would hide. If you were | | | | Habitat is everything. |
| lucky you might have met and developed a | | | | CRP acres - Any state that has high CRP acres is |
| relationship with a farmer and he was nice enough | | | | where you will find the birds plain and simple. |
| to let you hunt on his private land. | | | | South Dakota has them. North Dakota has them |
| Once you've done that for 20 years and you go | | | | too and that is no surprise why North Dakota is a |
| through a few years when the pheasant shooting | | | | sister state to South Dakota when it comes to |
| ain't real good it doesn't take the mind long to | | | | being the king of pheasant destinations. |
| start to wonder if there are any better places to | | | | Land prices, rents and dirty farming - Thank God |
| hunt pheasants than your usual local haunts. | | | | that some land in South Dakota just ain't real |
| UGUIDE receives many calls and guests from the | | | | good for farming. When farm ground is not as |
| Midwest. States like Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, | | | | productive and rents are lower then of course |
| Michigan, Minnesota and Indiana are probably the | | | | land prices are lower and the farmers aren't as |
| most common origination points for a South | | | | bent on farming up to the fence lines or trying to |
| Dakota pheasant hunting vacation. I suspect that | | | | plow under wetlands and slough or weedy areas |
| the sad but true driver to the reason behind that | | | | to get them to pay. |
| growth is that what one day used to be great | | | | South Dakotan's have long enjoyed to tourism |
| pheasant hunting has dwindled to a below average | | | | business associated with their remote destination. |
| pheasant hunting experience in those states. The | | | | For the most part they really enjoy pheasant |
| price of farmland has gone up dramatically in | | | | hunters and pheasant hunting but the majority of |
| those states in recent years and one can only | | | | resident farmers are not avid pheasant hunters. |
| speculate that farmers who were once able to | | | | Now deer hunting, that is a whole different story. |
| "leave a little for the pheasants", now can no | | | | I think it makes a big difference that pheasant |
| longer afford to do that. Seems that there is a | | | | hunting and the business of hunting pheasants has |
| relationship between skyrocketing land prices and | | | | been in the culture of the state for so many |
| farmland cash rents - the result: plummeting | | | | years. |
| pheasant populations. | | | | Bottom line is that if you love to pheasant hunt, |
| I'm not sure what the magic is behind South | | | | and that look in your dogs eye is making you feel |
| Dakota's seasonally high pheasant populations but | | | | guilty about not getting him on more real wild |
| a few factors separate this state from the rest: | | | | birds, then you should look into making your next |
| Soil types - South Dakota's soil has high lime | | | | wild pheasant hunting vacation destination... South |
| content which is supposedly good for nesting and | | | | Dakota. |