6 July Deer ScoutingA long time deer hunter has offered us a member/hunter perspective about traveling to deer scout within MAHA.
Ag NewsIn the category of just in case any one missed it, there will be a lot of corn this year.
Iowa Poised to Produce Record Corn Crop, Rod Swoboda, July 3, 2007, Wallaces Farmer: "Iowa's corn growers are on their way to harvesting the biggest acreage ever, according to the June 29 USDA Planted Acreage Report."
Kansas Farmer, 06/28/2007, By Joe Poncer: "Planted corn acreage in 2007 is estimated at 90.585 million acres [nationwide],... and sharply higher than the 78.327 million planted in 2006."
Not only will there be much standing corn this year due to increased planting acreage and second plantings caused by the April freeze (locally), it likely will stand longer in the fall waiting for availability of harvest equipment, storage capacity and rail transportation.
The last time we ran this topic as an update the feedback was split between the deer hunters who preferred and did not prefer to hunt standing crop fields and that of upland hunters that for the most part seek to avoid standing crops altogether. Upland bird and deer hunters did both agree that winter into spring best waste grain wildlife food is corn and from this perspective winter over survival should be enhanced.
Further Ag NewsThe cyclic trend we observed starting between 5 to 12 years ago of suburban hunters buying country acreage that drove $200/acre north Missouri woodlots to $800-1,000/acres continues with a recent jump seemingly motivated by the rush of recent news accounts of high dollar amounts being paid for land and hunting leases. This has all been much to the benefit of newspapers and real-estate agents.
We have been through this type of trend or hysteria before of media accounts touting "get it now or there will not be any later". Typically in our area, a wealthy individual or sports star purchases a prized piece of land for a cost the previous landowner simply could not refuse. That makes local news and spreads into all land is worth that inflated value. Give it three years and prices will settle as they have before leaving those that paid the premium amounts wondering why they rushed to judgment. The earlier Montana-Hollywood movie star ranch buying fad seems to show the road we will follow to a lesser degree in Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. For those that have not kept up with the Montana-Hollywood fad, it has has worn off and ranches are for sale again looking for buyers.
From the MAHA hunter stand point the effect is that some landowners of questionable habitat acreage seek well in excess of what we or anyone with the least amount of sense would pay for. Overall, we stand strong as ever though making the entire state available to our leasing effort. See also December 2006 for an example of Iowa land cost increases.
Deer TagsIt is to everyone's benefit to inform Shaun who has which Iowa zone or Kansas unit tag(s) by type (bow, modern gun, muzzleloader) as that information in the past and possibly the immediate future has and may sway leasing decisions. Those that have already informed us need not repeat that effort. Thanks.
3 July Land RunPictures taken by Jon Nee while looking over some ground.
2007 Upland Bird ForecastWith the completion of the May-June ground nesting bird prime nesting and brooding period we have one more checkpoint of observation of environmental indictors that indicate enhanced or degraded pheasant and quail reproduction as a forecast of where the better during season hunts will occur. The May and June 2007 rainfall data forecasting the highest nest and chick survival rate includes:
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