Stan, I didn't like stepping on Raimey's take on the Alabama dove rules, but I think I understand the "new" regulations on dove baitin' to open the door the practically any manipulation of a crop in the field so long as nothing is removed from the field in which it is grown. I understand his position that he has seen some enforcement on a local level which was of of bounds to the law.
One thing I have noticed the last couple of years under the new regs is that those who have purposely manipulated crops for doves have hit on the strategy of "strip planting" herbicide ready corn and sunflowers, then killing off the weeds with roundup or other herbicides. The herbicide leaves the crops weed free; the crops look like they're growing out of concrete. No snakes and birds easy to find. As the season comes on the corn is cut a few rows at a time with a silage cutter and blown into the ripe but unharvested sunflowers. The ground is bare but the sunflowers are left standing for cover.
This is the best set up for dove I have ever seen.* Are you doing this?...Geo
PS: *Actually this is the best strategy I have seen short of spin spreading three-way scratch into a pine clearcut. Possibly the regs have become a little too lax for the good of the resource...Geo
Last edited by Geo. Newbern; 09/07/12 10:44 PM. Reason: added PS in the interest of honesty
