DuckSouth.com

I appreciate it wingman and the job you do.

I posted in the other thread but I will post here as well.

Question based on this hypothetical:

You have a 400 acre field that has 50 acres of standing corn left unharvested in a corner. The combine cuts a strip right though the middle of the remaining standing corn. You place a blind on the strip (a harvested strip) and place decoys in the strip. You flood all of the remaining standing corn. You hunt in the blind and kill ducks?

Are you hunting illegally or does not equate to normal agricultural practices?

Thanks

Deltamud77 wrote:I appreciate it wingman and the job you do.

I posted in the other thread but I will post here as well.

Question based on this hypothetical:

You have a 400 acre field that has 50 acres of standing corn left unharvested in a corner. The combine cuts a strip right though the middle of the remaining standing corn. You place a blind on the strip (a harvested strip) and place decoys in the strip. You flood all of the remaining standing corn. You hunt in the blind and kill ducks?

Are you hunting illegally or does not equate to normal agricultural practices?

Thanks

I believe that would fall under the following, as the strips are harvested vs just being knocked down. But I could just as easily be wrong.

(i) Standing crops or flooded standing crops (including aquatics); standing, flooded, or manipulated natural vegetation; flooded harvested croplands; or lands or areas where seeds or grains have been scattered solely as the result of a normal agricultural planting, harvesting, post-harvest manipulation or normal soil stabilization practice;

maverick21 wrote:

Deltamud77 wrote:I appreciate it wingman and the job you do.

I posted in the other thread but I will post here as well.

Question based on this hypothetical:

You have a 400 acre field that has 50 acres of standing corn left unharvested in a corner. The combine cuts a strip right though the middle of the remaining standing corn. You place a blind on the strip (a harvested strip) and place decoys in the strip. You flood all of the remaining standing corn. You hunt in the blind and kill ducks?

Are you hunting illegally or does not equate to normal agricultural practices?

Thanks

I believe that would fall under the following, as the strips are harvested vs just being knocked down. But I could just as easily be wrong.

(i) Standing crops or flooded standing crops (including aquatics); standing, flooded, or manipulated natural vegetation; flooded harvested croplands; or lands or areas where seeds or grains have been scattered solely as the result of a normal agricultural planting, harvesting, post-harvest manipulation or normal soil stabilization practice;

Being wrong here could be quite expensive too...

the way the link reads that would be legal. As long as the grain is harvested on that strip the farmer or you can choose not to harvest whatever he wants to leave.

I have a better one...

Lets say January rolls around and the ducks are hitting the corn 100 yards from your blind. Can you get the farmer to crank the combine up an harvest you "a hole in the corn"? Unless the date matters I don't see why not...

bulldog ducker wrote:the way the link reads that would be legal. As long as the grain is harvested on that strip the farmer or you can choose not to harvest whatever he wants to leave.

I have a better one...

Lets say January rolls around and the ducks are hitting the corn 100 yards from your blind. Can you get the farmer to crank the combine up an harvest you "a hole in the corn"? Unless the date matters I don't see why not...

falls under "ab-normal ag practice" so not legal.

Its 85 degress in the middle of December. Not sure what counts as abnormal, but I bet there are several stands of grain that could still be harvested. Yields may be low, but I'm sure with the right $$ it could be argued

I had a game warden at catahoula lake tell me that legally he could give me a ticket for walking through wild millet and knocking the seeds off. I told him to go ahead and write it so i can make him look like an idiot in court. he didn't do it.

There is standing corn everywhere in IA right now; and its def. a normal agricultural practice to leave standing sometimes. The farmers may have run out of room for the grain or waiting on price or got to wet to cut!!

Funny part, Game wardens go by what the ASCS office "says" is normal. Not what is really normal.

So just because its normal, doesn't mean its normal.

BAY KINGFISHER wrote:There is standing corn everywhere in IA right now; and its def. a normal agricultural practice to leave standing sometimes. The farmers may have run out of room for the grain or waiting on price or got to wet to cut!!

In Iowa, yes, I agree that it could be normal ag practice.
My interpretation of Jimbo's example was standing corn (in a flooded field), just because we don't normally hunt dry fields around here. I just don't see a farmer firing up a combine ind harvesting corn from a flooded field as normal ag practice.
This is just another example of the vague law.

If we are being honest, it is not normal to leave 50 to 100 acres of corn uncut or to harvest a strip through the middle of standing corn in an ag field. There is nothing normal about it. That is the basis of my question and I still don't have an answer from the OP. I would like to know though...not to flame but just to make sure I am legal.

A lot of these questions seem to be answered by the link Wingman provided above. It uses the word "normal" 38 times in a lot of different circumstances explaining things.

"Normal" doesn't have anything to do with leaving unharvested grain as it is perfectly legal to leave and hunt non-harvested grain.

As far as the strip through 50 acres of corn - not normal would be to run a combine and just disburse and not collect the grain; thus, one strip that is cut and grain collected is perfectly "normal".

Of course, I saw something recently where a farmer/hunter up north left some corn late into the season and it was deemed to not be "normal" because 98% or so of the farmed corn had already been harvested.

So yes, the interpretation of "normal" is not always, well, normal.

Deltamud77 wrote:If we are being honest, it is not normal to leave 50 to 100 acres of corn uncut or to harvest a strip through the middle of standing corn in an ag field. There is nothing normal about it. That is the basis of my question and I still don't have an answer from the OP. I would like to know though...not to flame but just to make sure I am legal.

DM - I know you want an answer from Rob, but my take on your scenario is that you are legal to hunt & kill ducks as long as you or your dog do not trample the standing corn on the way to retrieve a downed duck. Leaving standing corn for hunters has actually become "normal" these days.

I would like to know if my thought process aligns with Rob's answer.

Deltamud77 wrote:If we are being honest, it is not normal to leave 50 to 100 acres of corn uncut or to harvest a strip through the middle of standing corn in an ag field. There is nothing normal about it. That is the basis of my question and I still don't have an answer from the OP. I would like to know though...not to flame but just to make sure I am legal.

DM - I know you want an answer from Rob, but my take on your scenario is that you are legal to hunt & kill ducks as long as you or your dog do not trample the standing corn on the way to retrieve a downed duck. Leaving standing corn for hunters has actually become "normal" these days.

I would like to know if my thought process aligns with Rob's answer.