Got the weekend recap from the relatives in the Marshall area. Short version is this: Complete bust. Hardly a shot fired.
Almost 100% of the corn and about 50% of the beans are still standing. Given the low corn prices, everybody is waiting to let the corn dry naturally rather than have to incur the costs of gas drying it. So even when the beans are done, the corn may still be left there for a while.
Most of the heavily hit public areas are surrounded by standing crops and that made it almost impossible to get any action.
Lots of frustrated hunters doing a lot of road hunting hoping for the chance get lucky on a few birds sighted on the roads.
Bird numbers are down in MN to be sure, but what the relatives tell me is that there won’t be enough crop down and fields turned black to really concentrate the birds in the CRP and grass until at least the last weekend in October and more likely 1-2 weeks in November.
According to an uncle who farms 1500 acres by Marshall, most of the farmers near him agree they’ll be happy to be done with harvest and tillage by Thanksgiving. In a normal year, they’re wrapping it up around Halloween. Given that most hunters lose interest after October, I’m thinking the hunting pressure may be very light this year.
Grouse
).
