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
