February 2010 Updates page 12
22 February
I am sending you some pictures of my hunt. They are of two of the four dogs that made the trip. The black and white is my LM Ace and the other is my GSP Lucy. The one of the birds was my last day to hunt and what a day. I got my limit in quail and pheasants in about 3 hours but what I will remember for a while was the double with one being a quail and one a pheasant. I had a great time and can not wait till next year. Thanks for everything.
Dog hunters will instantly recognize dogs that can work low cover in pheasant country.
Thank you Crockett, It is good to hear from you. Your having a good hunt this year with all the disadvantages of our having terrible weather means you have more good hunts to look forward to.
For the rest of us Crockett is a first year Association hunter that had the willingness to walk, shooting ability and from well liked dog pictures the dog power most want to have.
Not all first year Association upland bird hunters did this well this year. Weather and first wild pheasant or quail hunt dogs seemed to be the trend for those with bad hunts.
Crockett should motivate all of us to keep on hunting. Or, at the least take some off season personal action with the snippets below.
Iowa Pheasant
"The number of pheasants in Iowa could grow if a bill that won unanimous approval in the Iowa House becomes law. The state’s game bird population has declined for a number of reasons, including recent weather conditions. The bill would let landowners get baby pheasants from a hatchery, raise the pheasants in a pen until they’re mature, then release them into nearby fields."
House bill attempts to increase pheasant population by O. Kay Henderson on Feb 19, 2010, Radio Iowa
The Other Side
"Their [HSUS] 2008 tax forms reveal they collected over $86 million in contributions, but after salaries (41 of their employees made over $100,000 in 2008 and their CEO earned over $250,000), paying for TV ads, other fundraisers and operating expenses, and lobbying, they actually spent only 1/2 of 1 percent of their $86 million (a little over $450,000) to provide any care for cats and dogs. They paid $4.2 million to the organization they hired to count and process the money coming in!"
Beware HSUS, Staff reports Constitution -Tribune, Fri Feb 19, 2010Send that quote back to Yellow Tail Wines, http://www.yellowtailwine.com
Crops/CRP/USDA
In one snapshot of national news once again we find that PF/QF/QU/DU are not even in the money centric debate.
Average bushells of corn per acre is 160. Predicted 2010 value of a bushell of corn $3.50 to $4.00. Value per acre corn equals $560 to $640.
Farm Progress Kansas Farmer, Experts Not Sure Where Extra Acres Will Go"With higher expected net returns for both corn and soybeans compared to last year at this time and lower winter wheat area, combined planted area for corn and soybeans is expected to expand for a fourth straight year to a record 166 million acres...Much of the land that came out of CRP due to expiring contracts was in the Great Plains and mostly suitable for wheat."
Agricultural Outlook Forum 2010 Released: Friday, February 19, 2010 GRAINS AND OILSEEDS OUTLOOK FOR 2010/11 Prepared by Members of the Wheat, Feed Grains, Rice, and Oilseeds Interagency Commodity Estimates Committees U.S. Department of Agriculture" CHINA GROVE — The town was awarded a $1.8 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for renovation/expansion plans for the police and fire stations on North Main Street."
Salisbury Post, February 20, 2010, spotts@salisburypost.com."The Secretary of Agriculture has designated $100 million of USDA’s community facilities funds for public libraries. Missouri has been given a directive to utilize $2.2 million of those funds for library projects with municipalities, counties, special-purpose districts, non-profit corporations and tribal governments."
The issue with the libraries being built in declining rural population areas include the increased local tax burden on fewer people to pay for building maintenance, staffing, utilities and such long after the initial grant money runs out.
Sait Joesph News Net, By Marshall White, February 20, 2010
“It’s not an economically obvious time to be tearing this ground [CRP] out and putting it back into farming,” noted John Deering, an agriculture and business management specialist with Colorado State University at Akron, who farms with his brother and uncle near Yuma. Most of the land that was idled in exchange for government rental payments came out of wheat production and other dryland crops. If a solid carbon market was in place, farmers with expiring CRP contracts could leave the land in grass and sell carbon credits. “That’s not a viable option right now,” Deering said. The reduction in CRP acreage raises several concerns. An increase in production generally brings down crop prices. An analysis done by CSU Ag Economist James Pritchett predicts a resulting 30 percent increase in Colorado wheat acreage, a 7 percent increase in rangeland and pasture and 6 ½ percent increase in corn acreage. Resulting price drops expected to be most significant are a 6 percent reduction for hay and 3-4 percent reduction for sunflowers; in total, a 47 percent decrease in CRP payments and a 24 percent decline in farm income for Colorado."
Colorado Farm Bureau Ag Journal Posted Feb 19, 2010"Following a national trend that troubles hunters and conservation officials alike, the landowner has decided to put the land in western Kansas back into production now that his CRP contract has expired."
Brent Frazee, The Kansas City Star, Feb. 21, 2010
