Call It What You Want

[Sam Ortmann]

Corn didnt used to get grown that far north. With all the new hybrids now it does. Previously it was small grains.

So you’re saying plowed, bare, brown dirt patches with a little left over waste corn are keeping ducks from migrating south?

 

[Disgruntled]

So you’re saying plowed, bare, brown dirt patches with a little left over waste corn are keeping ducks from migrating south?

No till farming bro. They sure arent plowing them under like they used to. In fact cover crops are now a big deal. Not uncommon to see an unplowed corn field that had wheat, rye, or turnips flown onto it before harvest. Nice lush green carpet if they dont feel like corn they can eat wheat.

 

[Ramblingman]

No till farming bro. They sure arent plowing them under like they used to. In fact cover crops are now a big deal. Not uncommon to see an unplowed corn field that had wheat, rye, or turnips flown onto it before harvest. Nice lush green carpet if they dont feel like corn they can eat wheat.

My neighbor is big no till operation. He just bought a giant roller with teeth for his cover crops on Monday.

 

[Sam Ortmann]

No till farming bro. They sure arent plowing them under like they used to.

It’s still seems to be pretty common around here. I guess I just assumed it was the same elsewhere.

In fact cover crops are now a big deal. Not uncommon to see an unplowed corn field that had wheat, rye, or turnips flown onto it before harvest. Nice lush green carpet if they dont feel like corn they can eat wheat.

You’re kinda proving the weather point though. Why do think they’re able to feed on green cover crops in the fields during the dead of winter? Winter wheat, rye grass, and other cool season cereal grains should go dormant over winter and turnips and other brassicas for harvest should either be harvested before the depths of winter or planted about a month before the last frost and harvested in spring. None of it should be green and growing much after Thanksgiving in Missouri, much less the Dakotas.

 

[Disgruntled]

Winter wheat will remain with some green through the winter and has as long as I can remember. Its what I grew up hunting as it was mostly wheat and milo when I was growing up. The turnips arent for harvest. They let them rot in the ground. They help with soil compaction.

 

[Ramblingman]

Winter wheat will remain with some green through the winter and has as long as I can remember. Its what I grew up hunting as it was mostly wheat and milo when I was growing up. The turnips arent for harvest. They let them rot in the ground. They help with soil compaction.

Now winter wheat no-tilled over corn is the cats meow

 

[Jordan Vizinat]

Lake Sak has been there since the 50’s. There has been grain in those same fields since before the 50’s. What has man changed in the last 30 years thats prevented ducks from flying south? Cause 30 years ago you could shoot limits of mallards in south Louisiana. You can’t now.

Mojos

 

[WuChang]

Our club is across a creek from a 4400 plus acre state WMA……high duck count during the season was 8500……

7 years ago it was 50,000 plus

This spring……we will be covered up and I will be photographing them

I have given up trying to figure it out since all we can do is set the table and cross our fingers they show up

In any event……it beats sitting on the couch

 

[riverrat47]

Something I've noticed during the past 30+ years I've been making frequent 110-mile drives along I-80, as the windbreaks have disappeared, the bigger the expanses of open fields after snows. In the `90s, the fields would be completely snow covered, Nowadays, unless it's a heavy, wet snow, with no wind, snow cover on most fields will be rather sparse, leaving hundreds of thousands of acres of picked corn or bean fields for birds to feed in. If they don't like the leftover corn or beans there's the cover crop.

 

[WuChang]

Something I've noticed during the past 30+ years I've been making frequent 110-mile drives along I-80, as the windbreaks have disappeared, the bigger the expanses of open fields after snows. In the `90s, the fields would be completely snow covered, Nowadays, unless it's a heavy, wet snow, with no wind, snow cover on most fields will be rather sparse, leaving hundreds of thousands of acres of picked corn or bean fields for birds to feed in. If they don't like the leftover corn or beans there's the cover crop.

Killed more than a few geese in a winter wheat field after a light snow back when dinosaurs roamed the world