Getting Ready!!!

First, good news from South Texas. Rains, thanks to the 'tropical depression' a few weeks ago have been added on to some surprisingly good rains from late spring to now. Cover is gigantic, which will make the early part of the season this year a bit difficult to stay with a dog...but the quail crop promises to be outstanding.

Second, is a call this afternoon from Robert Barksdale, who always stays out there on the cutting edge of new hunting dog developments, tells me about the hottest new dog collar available this year!

Steve Snell of Gun Dog Supply (one of the best sources for Dog supplies for hunters) is recommending the new SportDOG SD 1825 for those of us with running dogs. His opening line on his website review of the collar starts with:

"The SD 1825 is so cool it is now the only training collar I will use on my bird dogs and retrievers. To give you an idea of how big a deal this is to me, I have been using the same model e-collar since 1998. I have tried at least 50 or 60 new systems over the last 11 years but I always went back to my old system. I could not find another training collar that fit my needs. I started using a prototype SD 1825 in September 2008. I ended up using it the entire 2008 - 2009 hunting season and have not looked back."

The Sport Hunter SD-1825 has a ONE MILE range, weighs less than 5 ounces, a customizable transmitter for your way of doing things, and 8 levels, plus a separate 'tone' (which I use a lot, after conditioning the dogs to the 'tone/stimulate' sequence. Very quickly, the stimulate is all my Brittany's need!) Oh, and it uses Lithium lon batteries with longer run-time between charges.

http://www.gundogsupply.com/sportdog-1825-sport-hunter-1-dog.html#range

I am not being paid for this recommendation, but I sure intend to pay the price to buy one!

UH--OH, Not Great News!!!

IS DEER CORN A QUAIL KILLER?

Dallas Morning News
09:52 PM CST on Saturday, February 6, 2010 (all rights reserved)

By Ray Sasser rsasser@dallasnews.com


As another poor quail season grinds toward a halt, I'm struck by a disturbing thought. Texas deer hunters may be killing more quail than quail hunters kill, and the deer hunters are not even aware they're doing it.

How is that possible? Deer hunters put out an estimated 300 million to 500 million pounds of corn each year to bait white-tailed deer near hunting blinds. Anyone who's watched a bait pile in quail country has seen birds eating corn. It's not just quail; a huge variety of seed-eating birds, including some rare species, consume those golden kernels.

Several factors are blamed for the precipitous decline of bobwhite quail, habitat changes ranking first. I don't think it's a coincidence, however, that the quail decline parallels the dramatic expansion of white-tailed deer and deer hunting throughout West Texas.

Even in South Texas, the state's other ecological island of quail habitat, the practice of baiting deer with corn accelerated in the 1980s. In December, I hunted quail in the Oklahoma Panhandle with John Cox, a wildlife biologist who feeds quail, both as a means of supplementing the birds' natural diet against harsh winter weather and to congregate them for hunting. He no longer uses corn or the smaller grain seeds that quail hunters often prefer.

"I'm feeding the quail with black-eyed peas," Cox said. "Peas work great in an automatic feeder. When you buy them in bulk, they're cheaper than corn. Quail, deer and turkeys all love the peas, and I can go to sleep at night not wondering how many coveys I poisoned that day."

The poison that Cox refers to is aflatoxin, a substance produced by fungi that grow on corn and other food staples. Aflatoxin rates in wildlife corn caused a stir in the 1990s when biologists became concerned about potential damage to deer and other wildlife.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not allow grain that tests more than 20 parts per billion of aflatoxin to be fed to dairy cattle or used for human consumption. It winds up as wildlife feed. Several studies have indicated aflatoxin can weaken and even kill wildlife.

West Texas quail guru Dale Rollins said he's more concerned with secondary effects of aflatoxin. Diminished immunity means the birds are more susceptible to disease. Feeding the birds tends to congregate them, so disease spreads more quickly.

In December, Texas Tech's Quail Tech Alliance sent out a memo to its charter ranch members warning of the risk of supplemental feeding after a cooperating ranch tested its wildlife corn and found it contaminated. Information is available at the project Web site, www.quail-tech.org.

Every expert I've spoken with said that the wildlife feed industry is doing a better job of testing for aflatoxin. Corn testing 100 ppb or higher is not acceptable as "deer corn." Read the label on every sack of corn you buy. That's the good news.

The bad news comes from Scott Henke, a researcher with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Kingsville. His aflatoxin research concluded that putting clean corn into aflatoxin-contaminated feeders defeats the purpose of aflatoxin-free corn.

"My study showed that no one storage practice short of freezing the grain effectively curtailed the growth of fungi-producing aflatoxin," Henke said.

Aflatoxin tests are performed when corn is bagged at the mill. Sacks of corn may sit for months in a warehouse or in front of a convenience store. On a ranch, corn and other feeds are routinely stored in bulk bins.

Furthermore, I've never known of hunters who clean out their feeders with disinfectant or even a power washer.

The issue is complicated by the fact that aflatoxin occurs in nature. Also, quail or other birds that succumb to aflatoxin don't die under the feeder. They get sick and weaken slowly. They die out of sight, hiding in thick cover, and are usually eaten by a coyote or some other scavenger.

I'm not sure how scientists can even design a study that reveals the impact of aflatoxin on quail, but common sense tells me the impact is significant.

How many times have you heard this quail hunter's lament? "We had plenty of quail in September but they were gone by November and I don't know what happened to them." Deer hunters ramp up their feeding programs in September and October.

The evidence may be circumstantial but, until somebody convinces me otherwise, I believe that deer corn is taking a toll on Texas birds.

More Friends and Bird Dogs

Wonderful note from long time friend and bird dog addict, Jerry Hoffman...

"We have chased birds and bird dogs from Illinois to South Texas. Along the way made some great memories...Working Brandy on a pheasant the day before the Nationals, then you watch him run a great race but no birds. On the way home, stopping in Memphis to visit Graceland...Where Sharon asked the tour guide that famous question, Where are his fat suites??. WE couldn't get out of there fast enough! Then the following year..Great expectations, Brandy could be one of the dogs to beat...then the thunderstorm of all thunderstorms and the rest is history. Was with you to see Sissy retrieve her last bird. Hunting over all your great dogs...Looking for Bo #2 and Sharon calling out from the boss bus..."Look what mama's got" to try to find him. Our Dash dog having 6 finds between the power line and the house on our way in. She was out of Val and Trademark-I think your best breeding. Our Jake dog getting lost only to find him on a covey where a covey shouldn't be (some of his ash's are at that spot). The great anticipation I would always feel when you were about to put Val down. The way she'd bark as she came back after we thought we had lost her...as if to say to us "Where you been...the birds are over here!", and how excited I would be to shoot a bird over her.I loved that dog!.One of the great things about Dos Jefes ranch is that it has brought you and so many others so much happiness. That's the great thing about this sport. For those people that truly love the game...the dog work, not the number of birds in the bag, it gives people the opportunity to enjoy and hopefully improve the breed, but maybe, just maybe, it's a way to bring people of like mind together and create memories that last a lifetime and I guess through friends and family, from one generation to the next. As Bob Hope would say "Thanks for the memories! ps. That GSP backing Daisy is 6 months old.

Long Time Friends

Dr. Michael Godin--Gerry Hoffman-Rigged out --Daisy and 6 month oldGSP backing!

Click photos to enlarge!

The Hoffmans, Jerry and Julie have been friends for many years and we have chased Bird Dogs from Illinois to South Texas. They join us each Christmas at Dos Jefes and this year was no exception. We also were blessed to have long time friends Garth and Janie Cook and Dr. Michael Godin, (shown)a caring Vet that has been a part of our dogs from their births to the ends of their lives....

It was a wonderful holiday, thanks to friends and good bir dogs!

Sleigh Bells and Bird Dogs

Click to enlarge


Cold Christmas week at Dos Jefes with ice and freezing rain at times. Bird count lower than previous years, but ample covies to provide some thrilling moments with special friends...Top photo, the consistently thrilling Austin Annie De Lamont, Below left to right, Gerry Hoffman, Dr. Michael Godin, and Gareth Cook with Daisy Mae De Lamont! Thanks for the memories!