I never thought I'd have poachers on my dove fields. I posted them more from habit than any reason. Good thing I did according to the game warden. Hunting on posted land here, without permission, is very much frowned upon. Not knowing my name told the game warden that they were not there with my permission so he just started writing tickets to each of them as a parting gift.
This is the first year I have made a real effort to manage fields for dove where I now live. When I lived back East I had several fields every year. It is a lot easier when it is your own land. My startup expense were large this year. I had to buy a used tractor and implements, a small trailer to move it and rent a shed to store it all in. Next year my expenses will be 10-20% of this years and three plots have been rented for next year and paid for already. The last is still up in the air.
I talked to land owners who were trying to lease land for deer hunters. Explained I was not interested in deer but dove instead and explained I needed small areas, in a place not too close to houses or the road. As it was an experiment I offered to rent areas or fields which were of very little value as a test. Every farm has an area which almost never produces a decent crop in a wet or dry year. It was those I was after. One hill side which had been left fallow for several years I suspect because it almost always burned up. A low area which in a wet Springs you never get into because its too wet to work.
I also explained deer could benefit from my crops so it should be a win for the hunters who are interested in deer. And all my hunting would be done by the end of September so I would not conflict with deer hinters. A feed plot, is a feed plot and I had a lot of sunflowers which had the heads eaten off of them by deer.
Each "field" was two to five acres in size. I was looking to have a place for just a few people not a big crew like I use to plan for. A third was planted in spring wheat. Then four rows of corn was planted for cover and the rest was planted in sunflowers later. As we had too much rain the sunflowers were very late and not that good. The wheat was what drew and kept most of the Dove in the fields. Heck if I was smart, which my wife will tell you that I'm not often, I'd just plant all wheat and a little corn and be done with all the work. Bush hog starting a month before the season one or two widths of the tractor and repeat every week. That would give me a good recovery zone for dead birds and keep them coming back until the season started.
One of the farmers who tended the rest of one of the farm has several places he said I could rent from him. After all I am renting land he does not want to fool with and I did drop off a dozen and a half Dove already cleaned and wrapped in bacon for the grill. A farmers heart is through his stomach.
