Post-Season Ramblings - Spring 2026

[Rick]

And much of that ethanol corn at the cost of CRP habitat. BAN ETHANOL!!!

[Ericdc]

Don't underestimate the impact of simple waste grain in the corn field. Ducks and geese feed all winter long with no problem just picking up the waste grain in the fields.

https://www.louisianasportsman.com/hunting/waterfowl-duck-hunting/ducks/ending-louisianas-duck-detour/

the Midwest’s agricultural production is increasing, primarily due to the rise in popularity of ethanol. The corn-producing acreage in the United States has increased by millions of acres over the past 20 years, a scale so large that waste grain can be found on the ground as late as spring.

“Species like snow geese are actually feeding on corn during their spring migration,” Reynolds said.

There is about 27,000,000 acres of corn planted in the Midwest. The yields are up to almost 10,000 lbs/acre with a loss of about 1%, so that 2.7 billion pounds of waste corn available to deer, ducks, geese.

At 5 ounces of corn per day, that's 8.6 billion duck use days worth of corn. Divide that by 6.5 million ducks and that is 1,300 days worth of corn laying in the fields. They aren't going to remotely run out of waste corn over the course of the winter.

You just cannot underestimate the magnitude of just waste corn from 100% normal agriculture.

But flooded corn is on my Facebook more and it's easier to blame that.


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[Ducaholic]

It's not just the flooded unharvested ag. It's all of the habitat types in its entirety that have delayed migrations. Corn just gets all the press. Let's face it the guys in the mid-latitude states have wised up and figured out what combinations of habitat works best to hold ducks in some cases all season long. You match that with good pressure management, and you have a winning formula. Corn just allows them to stay through the colder weather systems that at one time would have pushed them to La. in greater numbers.

[SpinnerMan]

But flooded corn is on my Facebook more and it's easier to blame that.

I am definitely getting flooded by corn on my Facebook as well.

I'm not trying to say it plays no part. There are just many factors.

What surprised me this winter and I guess it is because it was so dry, I saw geese in bean fields pretty late in the winter. There are also 10's of millions of acres of soybeans. However, I don't think the beans hold up very long after they get wet. The geese crush those fields right after they are picked.

A large fraction of the mallards just do not go any further south than they have to. With unlimited corn in the fields, the only thing that will make them move is lack of open water or too much snow. It shocks me how easily they seem to find corn even in fields with a fair amount of snow. With all the warm water discharges and winters with a lot of warm weather between cold snaps, open water is probably not limiting until you get way north. Snow is really the only thing that would push a lot of them even with zero flooded corn.

I think flooded corn does more to concentrate the ones in the area than really short stop them. I think that isn't just about the food, but the lack of pressure. Most people that can afford flooded corn are not out there hammering it every day. A buddy of mine knows a guy that has flooded corn even though he hasn't hunted ducks in a long time. He likes feeding "his" ducks. The one flooded corn near where I hunt near the cooling lake, I think I heard they only hunt it a couple times a week. This compared to most places that are hunted every day. The birds definitely respond to pressure. I just saw a study about that.

[Duck Engr]

And much of that ethanol corn at the cost of CRP habitat. BAN ETHANOL!!!

That’s a movement I could certainly get behind! I shouldn’t have to look up which gas stations have non eth for my small engines.

[SpinnerMan]

And much of that ethanol corn at the cost of CRP habitat. BAN ETHANOL!!!

That’s a movement I could certainly get behind! I shouldn’t have to look up which gas stations have non eth for my small engines.

100%.

4 BILLION bushels

[DComeaux]

And much of that ethanol corn at the cost of CRP habitat. BAN ETHANOL!!!

That’s a movement I could certainly get behind! I shouldn’t have to look up which gas stations have non eth for my small engines.

100%.

4 BILLION bushels

This is going to be a tough row to hoe. It's a voting block no one wants to alienate. They need a bone to throw at this issue. I'd love to see ethanol disappear for more than one reason.

[Duck Engr]

And much of that ethanol corn at the cost of CRP habitat. BAN ETHANOL!!!

That’s a movement I could certainly get behind! I shouldn’t have to look up which gas stations have non eth for my small engines.

100%.

4 BILLION bushels

This is going to be a tough row to hoe. It's a voting block no one wants to alienate. They need a bone to throw at this issue. I'd love to see ethanol disappear for more than one reason.

There’s a pretty funny interview with T. Boone Pickens years ago (Oklahoma oil tycoon) where he talks about when he told senator Bob Dole that ethanol was useless and Dole gave him a lesson in politics.

[SpinnerMan]

This is going to be a tough row to hoe. It's a voting block no one wants to alienate. They need a bone to throw at this issue. I'd love to see ethanol disappear for more than one reason.

Never gonna happen. Massive welfare for the farmers.

[Rick]

BAN POLITICS!11

[SpinnerMan]

[Darren]

It's not just the flooded unharvested ag. It's all of the habitat types in its entirety that have delayed migrations. Corn just gets all the press. Let's face it the guys in the mid-latitude states have wised up and figured out what combinations of habitat works best to hold ducks in some cases all season long. You match that with good pressure management, and you have a winning formula. Corn just allows them to stay through the colder weather systems that at one time would have pushed them to La. in greater numbers.

Really is that (fairly) simple. You wouldn't take a drive from point A to B if the stops along the way were steadily getting nicer, the next trip you may stop off once, or twice the following year, etc. etc.

[Darren]

Was able to track down one of my recent puzzling quotes I'd promised. More to come, but for now:

You hear a lot about ducks not moving and its because of the corn. And of course my counterpoint is always if there were more of them, they would move.
-Cason Short, Bill Byers Hunter Club

lol, I'm sorry, what!?


Source:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fb6pZ ... sgEn8PfLuQ

[SpinnerMan]

Really is that (fairly) simple. You wouldn't take a drive from point A to B if the stops along the way were steadily getting nicer, the next trip you may stop off once, or twice the following year, etc. etc.

Obviously it depends on the species. Why do so many BWT go to South America? Why do giant Canadas not move an inch further south than they need to?

We are talking about primarily are mallards. My impression is that mallards are a mix of migrators from the fair weather head to the warmer climate ducks to the hard ass, I'm not moving an inch until the snows up to my chin, ducks. A lot of the radio transmitter studies seem to suggest they are pretty loyal to their wintering grounds.

We've had a liberal season for a very long time now. If the birds are fairly loyal as it looks. This liberal season will have an effect compounded over many generations of ducks.

A mallard that is born in Canada and winters in the south will be shot at starting in early September and be hunted more or less nonstop until late January. They face 4 months of hunting pressure. On top of that, the intensity of that pressure is lowest in the middle and most intense where they are complaining the most. Even if there is a small increase in mortality because of that extra time and intensity, compounded over decades, it will lead to big changes.

Now if those that don't go any further than they have to, and mild winters have made that not as far as normal, are well fed, they are going to show back up on the breeding grounds healthy and ready to make babies. What would be really interesting to me is, do the children tend to migrate to the same place as momma, pappa, or just depends on who they are hanging around with on their first trip south?

This is fascinating because it is complex. That also means that most people are going to see what they want to see because it is a Rorschach test and not a search for the truth which clearly includes many factors from milder weather, way more corn, more wetlands up north after many decades of draining them, hunting pressure cumulated over decades of liberal seasons, giant cooling lakes and countless smaller warm water discharges, ...

[Ericdc]

Was able to track down one of my recent puzzling quotes I'd promised. More to come, but for now:

You hear a lot about ducks not moving and its because of the corn. And of course my counterpoint is always if there were more of them, they would move.
-Cason Short, Bill Byers Hunter Club

lol, I'm sorry, what!?


Source:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fb6pZ ... sgEn8PfLuQ

I think what Cason is saying is that if the population was where it was 10 years ago, ducks would be forced to move around more because they are using up the food resources faster.

And I think he makes a good point we weren't really talking about this 10 years ago when the populations were high and the weather hasn't changed that much either.

Our carrying capacity this year was dramatically, decreased by the drought. I'm sure.


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[Darren]

Maybe; but I've also got to look at it as I don't care if the migration is 10 ducks or 10 billion ducks, there are non-natural efforts underway that are modifying natural patterns. The fall flight index is going to go up and down, that doesn't give you the right to hold back "your ducks" via certain practices, whether you hold ten, or a million and ten. Simply only my 2 cents for offseason fodder.

Will track down more of my fave quotes soon from the recent episodes.

[SpinnerMan]

Maybe; but I've also got to look at it as I don't care if the migration is 10 ducks or 10 billion ducks, there are non-natural efforts underway that are modifying natural patterns. The fall flight index is going to go up and down, that doesn't give you the right to hold back "your ducks" via certain practices, whether you hold ten, or a million and ten. Simply only my 2 cents for offseason fodder.

Waterfowl hasn't lived predominantly on a natural environment in over 100 years. Corn is not natural. Rice paddies are not natural.

The question I don't understand is where should the line be. What would you never ever do no matter what and how did you come to that conclusion?

For instance, I hear everyone with a lease and water control manipulating the water levels to modify the natural patterns and get more ducks on their property. Is that wrong? It's not natural and it's obviously intended to get ducks to go where they would not have gone if it was left natural.

But I think people dramatically underestimate the "natural" changes in midwestern farming and how much corn, waste grain from 100% normal agricultural practices, is available to waterfowl.

Corn is the best waste grain for waterfowl. It still around until planting time unless it gets eaten.

Yields have gone sky high. It's at about 200 bushels per acre compared to less than 30 originally. Acres planted has gone up by about 50%. And possibly the most consequential of all no-till farming has increased dramatically. 1/3 to 1/2 of the farms are not tilled leaving 100% of the waste grain available.

Southern Illinois crashed as a Canada goose hunting spot because of all of these things. Canada geese don't normally eat in flooded corn yet the southern Illinois goose hunting mecca completely collapsed precisely because of these changes.

https://dnr.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dnr/oi/documents/dec08honkgoodbye.pdf

“We were the Canada goose capital of the nation,” explained retired Department of Natural Resources waterfowl biologist Dennis Thornburg, an avid southern Illinois hunter. “We wintered more Canada geese than any other place in North America.”

Then the proverbial bottom fell out. Peak migrations of nearly 1 million Canada geese into southern Illinois were replaced by peak migrations of tens of thousands. Hunting clubs closed. Goose hunters disappeared. Local economies suffered.

“Farming has changed,” Garrison noted. “Back in 1968 (when I started working at Horseshoe Lake), as soon as they harvested the corn they’d plow the field and turn it all over.” Such agricultural practices throughout the upper Midwest, where loose grain would get buried by the plow each fall, made Garrison’s enticing, unharvested food plots within his state fish and wildlife area an irresistible— and essential—destination for Canada geese. Site managers at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge also left hundreds of acres of grain available specifically for the incoming geese. With the advent of no-plow, conservation tilling, loose grain remains on the surface throughout winter. Even amid moderate snow cover, clever Canada geese in the north can dig up the grain and feed themselves, never having to fly south.

So even back in 1968 they were manipulating things for waterfowl, but the "natural" changes up north wiped the southern Illinois goose clubs out.

If such a dramatic impact on Canada geese happened why wouldn't a very large shift in mallards be expected as they have a lot of similarities in how the feed. The basic way we hunt mallards in the winter is put out all of our Canada goose decoys and add some spinners to it. Even after duck season closes, it's not unusual to get the mallards to work your decoys with no motion and no calling.

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