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Not sure the best way to phrase this, but what are everyone's thoughts / plans / etc regarding flooding fields? Extremely dry........take a lot of diesel to run pumps to flood fields.....not much rain in sight... warm weather.....what you gonna do?

Flood moist soil. Invertebrates will explode.

stitch wrote:Not sure the best way to phrase this, but what are everyone's thoughts / plans / etc regarding flooding fields? Extremely dry........take a lot of diesel to run pumps to flood fields.....not much rain in sight... warm weather.....what you gonna do?

Pray for rain. Probably will go from hunting public land 50% of to the time to 100% until late December.

Deer hunt indefinitely

Wingman wrote:Flood moist soil. Invertebrates will explode.

This I don't understand why people flood a dirt field. What a waste of money. Pay the farmer to leave stubble and kill ducks all season.

Ducks, Deer? Its 80 degrees in October/November. I'm headed south until further notice because the specks and reds are on FIRE!

hntrpat1 wrote:

Wingman wrote:Flood moist soil. Invertebrates will explode.

This I don't understand why people flood a dirt field. What a waste of money. Pay the farmer to leave stubble and kill ducks all season.

What is the going rate for that with your farmer?
The reason I ask is that we battle this every year & from my experience, if it's dry enough after harvest, our farmer is going to disk & row leaving us rowed up dirt to flood. Just wondering what a fair price for him not to do this would be. I'm thinking we couldn't touch it but would like to hear from someone that knows what they are talking about on the subject.
Thanks!

I have never hunted fields but have a friend that has a couple fields to hunt this year, so I am trying to learn. My question is what does stubble leave for ducks that is more attractive than a dirt field?

Esjay I don't know the cost to leave stubble but for the farmer to leave his beans this year it was $600 an acre.

ScottBrown wrote:I have never hunted fields but have a friend that has a couple fields to hunt this year, so I am trying to learn. My question is what does stubble leave for ducks that is more attractive than a dirt field?

Esjay I don't know the cost to leave stubble but for the farmer to leave his beans this year it was $600 an acre.

Stubble will have left over grain. I would assume most combines today are loosing less than 3% running through the throat. That's a bushel maybe 2 of leftover waste grain that allows ducks to forage for. Once you disk it, it gets incorporated back into the soil. In short, stubble leaves food on top and disking does away with it.

missed mallards wrote:

ScottBrown wrote:I have never hunted fields but have a friend that has a couple fields to hunt this year, so I am trying to learn. My question is what does stubble leave for ducks that is more attractive than a dirt field?

Esjay I don't know the cost to leave stubble but for the farmer to leave his beans this year it was $600 an acre.

Stubble will have left over grain. I would assume most combines today are loosing less than 3% running through the throat. That's a bushel maybe 2 of leftover waste grain that allows ducks to forage for. Once you disk it, it gets incorporated back into the soil. In short, stubble leaves food on top and disking does away with it.

And the vegetation (when wet) gives a place for buggies to live...........there is some of your food.

Wingman wrote:Flood moist soil. Invertebrates will explode.

You got that right....turned on a well yesterday in an old fish pond, and millions of crickets exploded out of the cracks.

We write it into our lease agreements up front

eSJay wrote:

hntrpat1 wrote:

Wingman wrote:Flood moist soil. Invertebrates will explode.

This I don't understand why people flood a dirt field. What a waste of money. Pay the farmer to leave stubble and kill ducks all season.

What is the going rate for that with your farmer?
The reason I ask is that we battle this every year & from my experience, if it's dry enough after harvest, our farmer is going to disk & row leaving us rowed up dirt to flood. Just wondering what a fair price for him not to do this would be. I'm thinking we couldn't touch it but would like to hear from someone that knows what they are talking about on the subject.
Thanks!

Maybe hntrpat1's farmer has a goose that lays golden eggs, but 99.9% of the farmers I work with are gonna work their fields if they can and they don't give a rip about how much you're willing to pay them not to. Days matter come springtime, and if all they need is a 10 day window of dry weather to plant they don't wanna waste it prepping. Sure, they'll no till a bean field if the beds are still in good shape, but good luck getting them to leave corn or rice stubble.

hntrpat1 wrote:

Wingman wrote:Flood moist soil. Invertebrates will explode.

This I don't understand why people flood a dirt field. What a waste of money. Pay the farmer to leave stubble and kill ducks all season.

I've hunted over some dirt fields/mud flats in Ark that killed 1500-2000 birds each that I'd put up against most fields with crops. It's all about location.

We just ask our farmer not to disk our fields til spring...of course, he leases the farming rights from the landowner and doesn't actually own the land....that said, I've killed them over dirt, but the stubble is better IMO.