17 August Land RunsRenewing current and reviewing potential lease land is the all day long consuming part of your MAHA staff's job this time of year between spring planting and fall harvest. Here are some snapshots from this past week along the boundary of central and western Kansas.
Late beans planted into wheat stubble. Not all late beans have done well due to the scattered summer rain pattern. These young beans (young relative to spring planted beans) had the tips all grazed off along the edges.
Same lease as the picture before showing the brush and grass cover quality of the waterway. This farm happens to be in the region of good overlapping pheasant and quail populations that had good winter carry over and spring rains.
A short distance away from the two pictures above this second farm has more than average wooded cover compared to most within this agricultural region of good soil conditions that promote grain crop farming over that of pasture. Hard to see in this picture between the weed field in foreground and the bean field at the picture mid point on each side of the waterway the landowner, for wildlife, ran the corn planter through the weeds for one pass. The far ground on the left side of the picture is an adjoining corn field along a nicely wooded wet creek bottom. The lease extends back for a mile from the road at 1/2 mile wide has wood patches for more than a couple of tree stands and miles of edge cover to make more than a two hour hunt even for the best ground covering brace. We will be looking at this one over the winter and spring as a potential turkey spot due to the water, grain fields, isolation from any farm yard along a low maintenance country road that to this point has gravel enough to insure wet weather access.
While the two farms shown above this picture will suit the deer, quail and potentially turkey hunters very well we have also picked up additional tall grass CRP leases this year adding to the acreage from last year and done so in the very best pheasant region of good last winter carry over and spring rains. While this picture just shows grass without grass quality indicators the overall assessment of tall grass at this point is better than last year. And, as is the normal condition, there are areas of better summer rains that produced taller and thicker stands while some other fields suffered poor rains across the range of land we cover. Overall, with the good spring season within a large portion of Kansas and having started the summer dry period with a surplus of deep soil moisture the pheasant outlook is on the better side.
With peak summer foliage the ability to see any wildlife to include deer is tough. We interpret the chance to get pictures of pheasant and quail in the open a good sign.
Small, fast and never ready for their appearance a rare picture to capture in even a fuzzy picture of these guys.
Member FeedbackWe have been receiving a good bit of feedback from members on their summer time scouting, land maps, motel changes, land referrals and sponsored memberships.
Maps. Notification of lease map changes are the dates on the opening page of the map website index. Sending out email or update page postings of map changes is one step too many for the available hours in a day. The index dates compared to the last time hunting or scouting dates are a sure indicator of needing to print a new map.
Local lodging. The online listing is behind in its updating as we have been busy and are currently in process of updating telephone number changes listing closed and newly open lodging and other listed services. For the most part it is 90% accurate in its current state with at most a few changes on several listings down to no changes for several counties.
Scouting reported by members is much on the favorable side for the summer time heat and foliage. It appears a good many deer hunters have seen enough to insure maximum vacation day hunts. Thanks to all that sent in pictures and reported for sale signs and bull dozer activity.
Sponsored memberships did peak earlier this year much to the better for the Association hunters. We have always tried to avoid the traditional end of summer just before the season rush and this year's spike in sponsored memberships occurred over the late spring and early summer.
The Other SideIncase someone missed it in spite of its wide coverage: PETA Picks Fight With Hamas, Thursday, August 16, 2007, By Brit Hume. "Hard Feelings, The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is upset with the Palestinian faction Hamas, but not for anything it has done to Palestinian rivals or to Israel. No, PETA is unhappy with a segment on the Hamas television channel showing a man in a bee costume swinging and kicking a cat and throwing stones at a caged lion. The segment was aimed at showing unacceptable behavior toward animals. But a PETA spokesman calls it "shocking and sickening" and says animal abuse can't be ignored, even in places where violence against humans is common."
Ag NewsA beastly kind of cruelty, Drive-by shooters, often youths, are killing farm animals in a growing wave of violence. The culprits may face only vandalism charges. By John M. Glionna, August 17, 2007, Los Angels Times. :...Authorities are searching for a drive-by shooter who guns down cows as they calmly munch grass in the rolling pastureland 50 miles north of San Francisco. Since February, five cows have been found dead in two counties, shot with small-caliber bullets designed to inflict prolonged pain and suffering.
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