Written By: Hannah Riggs
Many things have changed in the world over the years, one thing, in particular, is duck hunting. Over the past 30 years, many hunters have seen not only an overall change in hunting practices but also a decrease of ducks they see in the field. Troy Ruiz, professional outdoor videography, shares his insight on why he believes this change to have occurred.
“I went to the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada, what they call the Duck Factory since that’s where all the ducks hatch and grow up. We filmed an episode on what all it takes for a hen mallard to raise a group of ducklings. It is amazing what it takes for a duck to make it to a year old. The biggest thing I saw while I was there was a loss of habitat,” Ruiz said.
One of the largest factors into this loss of habitat is the change in farming practices over the years. “Since grain prices have gone up, farms have gotten big. Farmland is just taking over everything the ducks have had up there for habitat. When you go from a guy who was farming 50-200 acres to make a living 30 years ago, to now he’s farming 2,500-5,000 acres, that’s gotta eliminate something,” Ruiz said.
Fast spreading farmland destroyed a once thriving area of potholes. It created smaller areas of marsh. It became difficult for the ducks to thrive. The way farmers have begun harvesting their crops today has also changed, which continues to affect the duck populations.
“When I was growing up when farmers harvested crops, all of the stubble stayed in the field. Soybean stubble, corn stubble, and rice stubble all remained into the winter months. Most years some crops never even made it out of the field. So, it was food everywhere for the ducks that came down the flyaway. Our fields were not zero percent grade like they are today. You always had beans in the field all the time,” Ruiz said.
These practices are much different today, even as far south as the Mississippi Delta region. “I can drive around in the Delta in the fall when our farmers harvest their crops in late September and early October, and it’s completely different. Now when they get done harvesting, they bush hog the stubble, they disk everything under, put out herbicide and pesticide on it to keep it clean from weeds(duck food), and then its mud until next spring. So when ducks and geese get down here, there’s nothing here,” Ruiz said.
This combination of farming practices has hurt the overall duck population and hunters see the effects of it today. Because of these factors, conservation efforts enacted by groups such as Ducks Unlimited or Delta Waterfowl, are even more critical to protecting the habitats of ducks.
“They are ducks. They still fly, they still swim, but farming practices have changed the amount of waterfowl we used to see in the Ms and Central flyaways. Because of all these, conservation and education on the issue are even more important,” Ruiz said.
