Not lookin all that good...

[prairiefirepointers]

I spend most of yesterday (and will be all weekend) swathing CRP patches to be baled for hay... Alot of people (landowners) are going into the ACS office to get permission to swath half their CRP, in this drought. People need hay BAD and there hardly is any.

I swathed about 75 acres yesterday and all I seen was 6 quail.... Its not lookin good, folks.

[Sharon]

That is hard work. Up here it's hard to understand how dry it can be down there.

[Onk]

The hot weather has not been good for grass or birds! Sounds like we are a little luckier here Prairie, nobody has had to touch their CRP as of yet and most have plenty of hay. Heard a guy last night say his brother in South Missouri is already feeding hay it's so burned up down there!

[topher40]

Birds ought to be average this year around NE kansas parts anyways. We are just North of the drought conditions and have almost adequate rainfall. Broam is in short supply up here though as I have rented more pasture this year, which I havent ever had to do. We dont have much CRP up round here anyways, all row crop.

[Hattrick]

Im glad they are letting you use the resource.good luck hope you all get sum rain

[jarbo03]

I spend most of yesterday (and will be all weekend) swathing CRP patches to be baled for hay... Alot of people (landowners) are going into the ACS office to get permission to swath half their CRP, in this drought. People need hay BAD and there hardly is any.

I swathed about 75 acres yesterday and all I seen was 6 quail.... Its not lookin good, folks.

Definitely not looking good, can't remember the last time I saw corn being cut in July.

[prairiefirepointers]

I spend most of yesterday (and will be all weekend) swathing CRP patches to be baled for hay... Alot of people (landowners) are going into the ACS office to get permission to swath half their CRP, in this drought. People need hay BAD and there hardly is any.

I swathed about 75 acres yesterday and all I seen was 6 quail.... Its not lookin good, folks.

Definitely not looking good, can't remember the last time I saw corn being cut in July.

The field we picked up the swather in that my brother had finished the day before was a corn crop. It was swathed down for bales....

We got about an inch here last night. Wasn't able to swath or bale today, but we'll be hard at it come Monday. We have a few hundred acres of CRP to swath before the August 15th deadline. Then it all has to be baled and picked up by Sept 15th.
There is a little "Finger" of Southcentral Kansas that is extremely bad. I may be opting to travel out west instead of hunting my ground around home. Probably a waste of time, unless I am pleasantly suprised, or wrong. Both of which I have been before.

[brad27]

Not to brag, but it's looking like it's going to be one of the best seasons here in southern California in a long time. I run across 3 to 5 coveys of 15-20 quail every weekend when I go out to a hunt club to help a local pro. That's just driving the roads. A few weeks ago I rode my mountain bike around a local lake and I saw somewhere between 400-500 quail. I'm hearing good things about the chukar numbers in the desert also. I can't wait for the season to start.

[prairiefirepointers]

Hope it turns out to be a good year for you then!

We might have to work at it this year.... Usually we have a couple fields where we show up, sit in the pickup and drink coffee while we watch the pheasants fly from the feed to the CRP and / or walk around in front of or behind the truck.
When we think we've seen enough, we get out.

I haven't been out to my private ground stompin around much (too hot) so, we'll see what things look like in mid september. Most of my ground has natural springs and or spring fed ponds on it somewhere. They're showing chances of rain and temps in the low 90's for the bulk of next week. Perhaps we'll get some moisture and things will look a little better. Idunno... It ain't over till its over.

[tommyboy72]

We have had 3 or 4 days in a row of really good rain here but we also had some hail last night and 70 mile an hour straight winds. Looked like a hurricane outside. The hail and high winds only lasted about 20-30 minutes but the rain was heavy for awhile turning into a slow soaker overnight. I don't think the late rain is going to make up for the drought and heat all summer and the hail and wind probably wasn't good either so I am not looking for good numbers here. I wanted to travel north about 40-50 miles up into Kansas in Morton county but a buddy told me that 50,000 acres of public grassland burned up in a fire so I am not looking for things to be too good there either. I might try and make a trip over around Packsaddle around Arnette and see how things are this year. Definitely a year to travel rather than hunt around home.

[prairiefirepointers]

We have had 3 or 4 days in a row of really good rain here but we also had some hail last night and 70 mile an hour straight winds. Looked like a hurricane outside. The hail and high winds only lasted about 20-30 minutes but the rain was heavy for awhile turning into a slow soaker overnight. I don't think the late rain is going to make up for the drought and heat all summer and the hail and wind probably wasn't good either so I am not looking for good numbers here. I wanted to travel north about 40-50 miles up into Kansas in Morton county but a buddy told me that 50,000 acres of public grassland burned up in a fire so I am not looking for things to be too good there either. I might try and make a trip over around Packsaddle around Arnette and see how things are this year. Definitely a year to travel rather than hunt around home.

Yeah I hear ya... Some think that rain is a cure-all.. Consequently, the damage has been done. It doesn't really matter a great deal how much moisture we get now. Although, it will help some. It ain't gona turn this pumpkin into a carriage.

[markj]

Yeah, we have had to do that before in drought times. Not very often some say it helps concentrate the wild game. It will get better, wish I could ship ya a few milllion gallons of this river.