Wildlife vs. The Drought of '17

Duckslayer100

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damn you guys must have some ruthless farmers up there

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. Have you never seen this happen where you're at?? Christ, every year when the sloughs dry, they get mowed and tilled and then, either the next year or the year after, they'll be planted and then rains come and fill them back up again and boom...dead spot in the field. If it's wet long enough, the cattails come back -- that is if drain tile isn't put in. But with commodity prices in the pooper I haven't seen much of that going on these days.
 


guywhofishes

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you can't imagine what they do to gain an acre here in the eastern third of the state

nauseating
 

Kurtr

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I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. Have you never seen this happen where you're at?? Christ, every year when the sloughs dry, they get mowed and tilled and then, either the next year or the year after, they'll be planted and then rains come and fill them back up again and boom...dead spot in the field. If it's wet long enough, the cattails come back -- that is if drain tile isn't put in. But with commodity prices in the pooper I haven't seen much of that going on these days.


no it does not happen much maybe it is because of what happens but most guys even in dry years just farm around them.

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plus most of them like to pheasant hunt so they leave them for that.
 

Coldfront

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Blue tongue is not caused bad or sour water. It is caused by a midget that breeds around damp area's or in places were there is a lot of dung.
 

zoops

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Blue tongue is not caused bad or sour water. It is caused by a midget that breeds around damp area's or in places were there is a lot of dung.
I was also thinking this. I believe the worst outbreaks are in wetter years with warm falls.
 


Fly Carpin

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Blue tongue is not caused bad or sour water. It is caused by a midget that breeds around damp area's or in places were there is a lot of dung.
I believe the socially acceptable term is little person. Or midge, if you're talking about the insect. Chironomid family.

If you're talking midgets, why that little dude would be breeding around damp dung is beyond me.

This is, hands down, the funniest post on NDA I've ever read. Even if it was a typo. Thank you sir
 
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Allen

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guy said: you can't imagine what they do to gain an acre here in the eastern third of the state

nauseating



LOL, I watched as over the course of a summer, a farmer out in Kidder county used a backhoe, payloader, and skidsteer to clear the rocks out of a good sized (quarter??) piece of land. OMG! That brought tear to my eyes as I harkened back on all the rocks I picked as a kid. I've never seen anything like it before!

Then again, he turned what was probably $500 and acre pasture land into $1800 an acre cropland. But...the rocks...holy Shiite for flipping rocks!

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I believe the socially acceptable term is little person. Or midge, if you're talking about the insect. Chironomid family.

If you're talking midgets, why that little dude would be breeding around damp dung is beyond me.


Because if you were 2'10" tall, you too would knock off a piece whenever and wherever you found something that said yes.
 

gst

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you can't imagine what they do to gain an acre here in the eastern third of the state

nauseating

Just out of curiousity what is the value of an acre of farm land in the RRV. Why is a farmer maligned for trying to increase his net worth or profit potential by improving his lands from a production stand point while any other business it is acceptable?

We have land we try to keep cleaned up and we have some we purposely leave cat tail sloughs on for wildlife.

I wonder if the nausea is offset by that? :eek:

Traveled out to the Shrine Bowl a while back to watch the kid play and was surprised at the number of tree rows around Grand Forks on the way in. Supposedly the longest continuous shelter belt in the nation is around there?

for the record, I don;t like seeing trees taken out or wholesale cat tails cleaned off becasue of the impacts on wildlife. But farming is a business like any other.

My guess is that in these areas of drought wildlife will migrate to where the food and shelter is....usually the ranchers yards. This winter with low feed supplies and wildlife likely competing for those feed sources in these hay yards it is going to be interesting.

I would guess a couple threads on the value of buying feed to feed wildlife will pop up and depredations issues will likely be more of an issue.

We are already seeing sloughs getting worked up around here, am going to be cleaning up some ourselves so am guessing any kind of winter our yard will be full of deer again.

Maybe looking for bow hunters those last couple weeks of season once again.

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Ha shoulda read allens post first.
 

Big Iron

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Who doesn't do their breeding in damp areas with excrement everywhere- I know I do.

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In all seriousness, I'd always thought that EHD was worse in dry years- deer congregated to fewer watering areas with less water on the landscape. More deer drinking from a central area, better chance of the bug infecting more deer. Interesting to think that it is worse in wetter years---
 


Allen

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I think there's also something about the midge's life cycle that puts it into full on infectious stage in late August through Sept. So early frosts help a bunch by knocking some of the midge's out of the gene pool.
 

Kurtr

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Blue tongue is not caused bad or sour water. It is caused by a midget that breeds around damp area's or in places were there is a lot of dung.

not gonna lie you made my day. Every one needs a good laugh. Thanks man
 

MathewsZman

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Blue tongue is not caused bad or sour water. It is caused by a midget that breeds around damp area's or in places were there is a lot of dung.
IMG_1124.JPG
 


Big Iron

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The bucks had extremely spindly racks in my opinion. Anyone who thinks drought = exceptional horn growth is on drugs. Never understood that logic.
 

Jake G

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The bucks had extremely spindly racks in my opinion. Anyone who thinks drought = exceptional horn growth is on drugs. Never understood that logic.

Dry years tend to lead to higher protein content in plants and grains.
 

Taylorman55

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The bucks had extremely spindly racks in my opinion. Anyone who thinks drought = exceptional horn growth is on drugs. Never understood that logic.

Talking with multiple taxidermists... they say they see, on average, bigger deer brought in during drought years. Could be chance for sure, but for a few of these guys doing taxidermy for 30ish+ years... they def see some trends.
 

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