Step back in time to a land where Cowboys still roam the open range. A land where Native American’s hunted buffalo by the herds of 10,000+! Ride horseback down the wagon trails from the 1800’s. See a land that hasn’t changed much since the early settlers. Rolling Plains Adventures, home of the Black Leg Ranch, offers all inclusive world class hunting for pheasant, waterfowl, coyote, and deer as well as professionally guided fishing trips, western vacations, and more!
The wild Ring Necked Pheasant nesting season is in full swing! Roosters are strutting their stuff all over the gravel roads while the hen pheasants sneak in for a quick visit. The weather has remained dry and warm, which has made for a perfect breeding season thus far. If this continues......its going to be a great pheasant hunting season this fall!
The weather has been very dry in North Dakota this spring and weather has been warm. These conditions have made it more then ideal for spring nesting. If it remains dry with small amounts of rainfall and warm weather, this year should have a very good nesting season.
The pheasants have been in breeding mode for over a few weeks already, so they do have a jump start on nesting. Pheasants will attempt to lay 3 nests if the first one or two are unsuccessful.
This article featured the Doan's in the Dakota Farmer magazine proving how they use the land in multiple way while reducing costs. This is just another way they are contributing to keeping the earth a greener place.
Warming up to winter grazing
Jerry Doan and his sons grow full season cover crops for cattle to graze in the winter
Published on: Jan 6, 2015
Jerry Doan, and sons Jay and Jeremy, of Blackleg Ranch, McKenzie, N.D., are set up to save as much as $250 or more per head on winter feed costs for their beef cattle again this year.
They winter graze their herd on full season cover crops that they grow on cropland exclusively for grazing instead of for grain.
"I'm not aware of anyone else having achieved true all winter grazing on standing cover crops in North Dakota," says Jay Fuhrer, Natural Resources Conservationist Service district conservationist, Burleigh County, N.D.
The Doans winter grazed cover crops last year.
"It's worked very well," Jerry says. "The cows were in the best condition coming into calving than I have ever seen, even when they were on feed." Cattle and calves find plenty of forage beneath the snow in fields planted to full season covers crops. Photo: Blackleg RanchThe Doans saved money on diesel fuel and labor with winter grazing because they don't have to run tractors to feed hay, blow snow or clean pens every day.
They don't think they will have have to buy as much commercial fertilizer to grow cash crops on the fields where the cattle grazed over the winter because of the nutrients released from the cover crop, along with all the manure and urine that the cattle have spread.
Last spring, a soil biology test on winter grazed fields showed the highest microbial biomass level seen to date in Burleigh County, says Fuhrer says.
If they continue to winter graze, the Doans will likely avoid a big expense in the future. Because they won't be feeding cattle in pens in the winter, they won't need to build a lagoon or other ag waste structure to prevent runoff from the facility from getting into a nearby creek.
Planting a full-season cover crop mix for winter grazing helps their pheasant and deer hunting enterprise. The forage is exceptional habitat for deer and pheasants.
If they can continue to winter graze, the Doans plan to add water sources and build more fences so they can graze different grain fields planted to full season cover crops in the future.
"Winter grazing seems to lot of sense for us," Jerry says.
While out on a pheasant hunt this past fall, we happened to witness and video this amazing footage from this nice White tailed buck. He apparently jumped the fence to early and hit the barbed wire dead on. He struggled a little to get out of it, before he took back off down the corn row. He then scared up a couple of rooster pheasants on his exit.
It was a great day to be out in the field coyote hunting. The weather was perfect, only 6-8 mph winds and a nice 30-40 degree day. Our first sit, we had 2 coyotes come in after about 24 minutes of calling. They held back at around 400 yards, until the large male decided to come right in. We let it get in to about 75 yards, before Adam released the trigger on his .204 caliber rifle. He smoked him in the first shot! Mike then shot at the other one at 400 yards, but was just shy of hitting it.
We did several more set-ups throughout the day and seen plenty of coyotes. Many of the coyotes weren't interested in coming in, or something seemed to have spooked them. It was fun watching them from a distance pouncing on mice or chasing around. Most of the coyotes were most interested in our rodent in distress call, which we were using a Jack in the box decoy as well. Otherwise, they seemed to respond well with a pup in distress or Coyote challenge call.
The white-tailed deer are slowly starting to drop their antlers. We are starting to see several bucks with only one antler on their head now. It will not be long before we hit the fields again in search of these sheds. Typically most of the bucks will lose their racks by February, but we have seen them carrying them all the way into March or April.
