Many factors could affect MN pheasant season success

Glenn Schmitt, glens@outdoornews.com

The 2014 pheasant season kicks off at 9 a.m. Saturday and hunters are expected to have a better season than 2013 when they shot 169,000 roosters, which was the lowest total since 1986.

August roadside counts conducted by the Department of Natural Resources indicated a 6 percent increase in pheasant numbers from last year. It also appears that nesting success was better this spring based on a 28 percent increase in the number of broods counted compared with last August.

But Nicole Davros, DNR research scientist, says there are several variables that will once again play into hunter success this season. Among them, the lack of corn harvested at the start of the season could affect hunters more than any other factor.

“There just hasn’t been much of a corn harvest at this point. I’m hoping it starts coming out because that helps condense birds,” she said. “We’re predicting a harvest of 224,000 roosters this season, we hope it will be close to that.”

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