doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Dove Field Chronicles (Pic heavy)

Stan,

Thanks for the great thread and pictures. When I read it, it made me think of an article I read from Outdoor Life that's about a guy who designed a dove field with just one acre - from April of 2011. I kept the article and would be interested in your or anyone else's thoughts about it. It's posted below - hopefully good enough for all to read, but here are the basic desciption of the article:

In the fall he plants a few rows of winter wheat. In Mid April, he plants a field of sunflowers and keeps it weed free all summer. 2 weeks before Dove season, he mows the winter wheat and lets the heads fall to feed the Doves. 10 days before the season, he mows the sunflower field, but leaves some rows in the middle standing for the hunters to hide in. Then he tills some of the ground between the wheat and the mowed sunflowers - giving the doves some bare earth to loaf on. He hunts only between 4 and 6 pm - just the fringe of what uses the field in the day, so the birds don't avoid the field when their going out in te morning or coming back in the evening.

Toughts?

I had to read the article carefully and think about it awhile to really digest it all. My thoughts are: (1) This has been thought it out very carefully. What he is doing is providing a food source for the doves almost year round. The wheat is there for them to eat from the time it matures, about early June, until the sunflowers mature in August. We provide the birds wheat during the same period, until the sunflowers get mature and dried down. This keeps the birds there during the summer and assures that a maximum number will be present in early Sept. when the season opens. (2) This could be done easily by anyone with access to a small tractor for tilling and planting operations. Soil sampling is key. Samples should be taken and sent to the state extension service's lab for analysis in October. If the soil's ph is under about 6.0 dolomitic lime should be broadcast at the rate specified and tilled into the soil to bring the ph up to around the 6.5 level. This assures maximum usage of the fertilizer, and promotes strong plant growth. Good fertilization is very important for maximum yields, which would be even more important on such a small acreage. (3) In an area not containing a good number of doves already it may take a year or two before the doves get imprinted on this small a plot and good shooting could take place. In an area with plentiful doves already, you might be able to get good shooting the first year. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, planting the same place year after year assures that it only gets better and better. (4) Downside? I think the number of 800-1000 bagged on one acre is optimistic. Very optimistic. Not impossible, in an area with lots of doves, but unlikely. Assuming they killed half the doves present, that little acre is supporting 2000 doves? That seems highly unlikely to me. That many doves would eat everything that could be grown on an acre in short order, IMO. We take 1200-1500 a year off our field (24 acres). Now, I understand that putting one man on each corner of a one acre plot ensures there is no spot on the field that is not "covered", and that it is much more efficient than us having 16-18 (at best) on 24 acres, but that is still a mighty lot of shooting for such a small place. I would love to see someone try it in an area, with little agriculture, that attracts doves, just to see.

Very interesting indeed. Thanks for posting, Patrick.

SRH

4 hunters harvesting 500 doves from this field would be roughly ten limits each (assuming a 12 bird limit) - I would think that would be considered a pretty successful season, and enough to justify the exercise. That would be 25% of the birds, using Stan's numbers, which would ensure that the birds kept coming back.

Interesting article.

I think it would be an interesting project to try Stan. The information provided is a good start. We don't have all the planting equipment, but have been kicking around the idea of purchasing a plow for some other projects my brother, sister and I have been talking about. We do have a John Deere tractor and a D4 cat and a disk. Of course we do have an old "foot burner" that I used to plow up (pulled behind the John Deere with me on the handles of the plow) about a 1/2 acre piece to plant the grapes and almond trees in, but I'm not sure I'm up to anything much more than an acre using that plow.

I think it would be "discovered" by doves and if it doesn't get too cold too early, one may be able to have a decent shoot or two before they head south. The big question is, without fencing it would it get hammered too badly by the wildlife in the area, particularly the elk! I'm not sure if they would be frightened off by scarecrows.

Well, I got them planted this morning. After subsoiling and bedding the field last week we got some more rain over the weekend, which settled the beds and charged them with good moisture for planting. Here my helper is loading the planter with two bags of seed. They are really small sunflower seed, running over 5000/lb., so a couple bags will plant nearly 30 acres.





This is how it looked out the front window of the JD 7810 carrying the 8-row JD planter. I plant everything in 38" rows, because that width works best for cotton and peanut rows. I try to keep it as simple as possible.



And out the back window as the planter puts down the seed.



Depth of seed placement is critical for all crops, sunflower included. I set the planter to put the seed 10 1/2" apart in the row, and about 1 1/4" deep, like this. The reason these are purple is that they are coated with fungicides to protect the seed from diseases that may be present that would attack the little germinating seed and seedling, and weaken it at best, or kill it at worst.



That little feller and all his 350,000 counterparts have a big job to do, now. They must germinate within the next 24 hours, and push their way through the soil above them and into the sunlight above, so that photosynthesis can begin. For a few days they are living off the energy stored within the seed itself. It's a delicate little organism that is about to be exposed to a world that is brutally harsh at times.

We'll watch as it germinates and emerges, then grows to maturity in the weeks ahead.

SRH

Great pictures Stan, thanks for posting....this whole thread is great......

Best,

This thread is great Stan. How about a pic showing the entire planting rig tractor and all?

Already cut those planters loose, for a few days, Joel. I'll get you a pic of the cotton planting rig running tomorrow.

Thanks for the comments. SRH

Any new updates on the Dove Field Chronicles Stan? Have the sunflowers started popping out of the ground yet?

Great post, very informative, and please keep up with the progress in pictures.