South Dakota Pheasant Outlook

After spending the last 4 days bouncing around central SD, I gotta say this is going to be one of the best falls in a while. It’s proof positive, if you give the pheasants cover, they will flourish. It has been an unseasonably wet year out there. The grass is chest high and the country looks amazing!! I saw 3 different hatch classes of pheasants. The last batch might have to hustle to make it this winter.

If you are headed for central SD this fall, I suspect you won’t be disappointed. Good luck to you all!!

Goes to show, if you plant them, they will come..

That report sounds really good . We are heading out on the 17th to the Plankington area.Can’t wait!

My report from a month ago was only reinforced after last weekend. I saw pheasants EVERYWHERE from Aberdeen to Huron to Highmore. Unbelievable how many birds are around this year.

Good to hear. We typically hunt over the Halloween week, but will be going a week later this year. We hope more corn will be picked by then than in years past.

By Nov 1 I suspect the harvest will be about 80% done. The combines are running like mad in the northeastern part of the state. Both beans and corn. My dad’s neighbor started combining corn two weeks ago, it was at a 16% moisture already. If you hunt north of a line from Brookings to Huron, I suspect the shooting will be fantastic by Nov 1. South and east of there, they got a lot more moisture and the crops are a bit greener.

There’s been 5 straight days of warm, sunny weather since Kooty last posted about crop condistions in SD. Anyone see the fields this weekend? Can anyone give an update on the corn/bean status around Brookings by chance?!

I’ll see what I can find out about that area specifically. But I can tell you the combines are going in full force pretty much everywhere from what I’m told.

A coworker flew that areas last Friday. He said the corn is just getting started in that area. He said the bean harvest is in full swing.

With this warm dry weather this week, hopefully they will be successful in getting more corn out for opener this weekend!!

Good luck!!

Hey Kooty…any corn updates around the Brookings area this morning?!

I know I’ll see it with my own eyes in about 12 hours…but I’m going a little nuts here at the office thinking about it!

Thank you, and good luck out there!

Well, the good news is I’m sure there is less corn now than there was a few days ago.

One thing about SD, even on the worst years, the pheasant hunting is better than anywhere else in the US.

Thanks Kooty! Just counting down the hours (3 left) until I can stand up from my desk and head west to SD!

I’m not “worried” about there being corn in the fields, I’m just making sure I factor it into the plans when I am leaning over a map of the farm and a Jack n’ water tonight and talking strategy!!!