SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- Far fewer pheasants are expected this hunting season in South Dakota, so hunters will just have to try harder.
"We have a few less birds in the landscape, but that just means people are going to have to work a little bit harder. It's hunting and you gotta get out there with your boots on the ground," says State Game Official Josh Delger on KELO Radio's It's Your Business Show with Bill Zortman. Pheasants could be down some 45 percent from last season.
Delger hopes that the new Farm Bill will include expanded incentives for farmers to leave cropland available for habitat.
"We look to the Farm Bill to get more conservation acres in the coming years. That tends to be our buffers to have more habitat out there even on these bad years when we have droughts." says Delger. One of the big reasons for the much lower pheasant count this season is the preceding months of drought.
South Dakota U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R), for one, is pushing for expanded CRP acres in the next Farm Bill.
South Dakota's resident-only pheasant season is this coming weekend. The big opener that draws hunters from all over the world is Saturday, October 21.