Everyone even remotely associated with the pheasant business knows that there was a severe shortage of adult pheasants on the market this past season (the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012). I hear a lot of speculation regarding bird supply for this upcoming season (the fall of 2012 into the spring of 2013).
One argument goes that because of the shortage, producers are increasing production. This same argument continues by stating that the belief is the primary cause of the shortage in the past year was the demand created by the warm winter.
I speak to many producers and what I repeatedly hear from them is that the number of pheasants they are raising is based on what they have for orders. With feed prices being significantly higher than even just a few years ago, it’s risky for producers to raise additional birds (above and beyond what they have orders for) on speculation. If a producer does raise on speculation, and then can’t readily sell the additional production the holding costs (primarily feed) quickly erode any potential profit and in fact can result in a significant financial loss on those “extra” birds.
Also, as I have written in previous posts, the warm winter was just one of several factors leading to the short supply of birds. I am not saying that I believe there will be a shortage again in this upcoming season. But I do not foresee a glut of birds either.
The best situation is for preserves and producers to work together. Hopefully preserves will order what they need and supply and demand will match up.
The setup of the pens for our 1st hatches
Our first hatch (March 5th) ringneck pheasants of the year were moved out to the pens last week. The birds were just over eight weeks old. The birds were in the pens a few days before we got a substantial rainfall, but by then the birds knew to use the huts. After our record warmth in March, April here was quite cool and our crews have a backup of about 20,000 pheasants in the barns that need to be moved outside. From what I hear, all the pheasants ready to go will be moved to the pens in the next few days.
The shipment of eggs on the loading dock ready to depart
This morning one of our trucks left for Chicago O’Hare with a shipment of 120 cases of ringneck pheasant hatching eggs. Each case holds 420 eggs, so the shipment was over 50,000 eggs. This is the largest shipment of eggs ever shipped by us. Our egg production this year has been outstanding (much better than projected). We needed to move some eggs and then we received an email from a large French gamebird producer looking for eggs. We quickly put the deal together and the eggs are on their way!!
There is a 330′ X 30′ poultry shed within a mile of our farm. For years the building was used as a flea market. Over the past few years, the building has sat idle. We could always use more brooder space, so Ryan George took on the task of negotiating a lease and then renovating the barn. Our farm has invested a lot of time and equipment in this facility and the first chicks went into the barn this week.
The lighting is all dimmable LED’s. We went away from nipple waterers and went with small automatic satellite drinkers. We put in a new ventilation system and lined the walls with new steel. We can put groups of 11,000 pheasants chicks into the barn every 4 weeks (using the “A” room and “B” room system. so the barn can handle over 50,000 chicks per summer and we can use the barn for white bird (meat) production in the winter.
Thanks to Ryan and to Chris Theisen and to Troy Cisewski for their efforts to get the barn ready in a timely manner.
A beautiful field of wheat just outside my office window
It’s been over 70 degrees here for a week and the flowers and trees are blooming and the grass is green. It would be common to still have snow here in Wisconsin in late March.
Our breeding hens are responding to the weather and our egg production will reach peak soon. The warm weather has caused me to think we are behind in our chores. The pens need to be mowed and rotovated (and yet we still have 6,000 mature birds left to deliver). The weather has sort of tricked me into thinking we need to get more done, and then I remind myself that it’s only late March and we actually are ahead in what we have done.
Our customers have ordered more pheasant chicks, and we’re not sure if people are raising more pheasants, or if they just have ordered earlier because of the warm weather. We increased the number of hens we kept as breeders to 33,000 and it certainly appears like we will be able to sell all the chicks we can produce.
One concern we have is what will occur if we get a return to colder weather in April. We generally wait until the first week of April to move our two barns of early inside breeding hens to the outside pens. Both barns have been moved out already. The pens are already greening up, what will happen if it freezes in April?
The warm weather has caused a few of the preserves that we supply to slow down, as the hunters just aren’t coming out with the heat, and the perception there aren’t any birds available anymore. We are ahead in sales for birds for this fall, and not sure whether people have just ordered earlier or what it all means.
I am cautious but it looks like the gamebird business is on the upswing. Time will tell.
March 14, 2012 – 11:40 am
One of our seminar sessions
Our 2012 seminar is over. Life at the farm is slowly returning to normal. The week before the seminar became a whirlwind of activity at the farm with last minute preparations, cleaning, and planning. Once the group from the U.K. arrived on March 3rd, life became a blur. I can say clearly that this 8th seminar was the smoothest seminar we’ve had – really no glitches or hiccups whatsoever. One of the best things about this seminar for me was that the farm employees bought into what we were trying to do. I felt there was so much cooperation from our staff. In past years at times I felt like the seminar was perceived as “Bill’s seminar” and the week of the seminar was an intrusion into what our employees needed to get done. This past week I saw so much enthusiasm from everyone that works with us at the farm – it was great.
I know from the many comments I heard from the attendees that people were happy with the content of the seminar and the concept (eating meals together, 1/2 day of classroom style coupled with a 1/2 day of tours or labs). We met so many cool people.
Dori took the week off from school and that was awesome for me, as she could attend the seminar and be at all the meals, and go to Chicago with me with the U.K. (and French) attendees.
When Dori and I got back from Chicago Friday night, I just crashed. In the past it’s taken me a few months before I could state that I wanted to have another seminar, but I can say right now that the 9th seminar will happen. Thanks to all of you that helped with the implementation of the seminar (not only our staff but the restaurants and the hotel staff too) and thanks to all of you who took nearly a week out of your lives to attend and participate in our seminar.
Our 2012 Pheasant Management Seminar is just a few days away. We have 76 paid participants which is awesome! With speakers and employees we will have 123 people at our opening night dinner this Sunday night.
There has been a lot of planning and preparation for the seminar. We advertised the seminar in the U.K. and were successful in getting 21 people to sign up. Those 21 will be flying into O’Hare this Saturday. We also have 2 attendees from France, 2 from China and 1 from Peru.
It’s wet and dreary here, in the 30’s and 40’s but next week we will be in the 50’s with a predicted high of 59 degrees on Tuesday. The farm doesn’t look its best when the frost is coming out of the ground and the roads are all torn up, but the temperature is a plus for us.
I have really tried to include all our staff in the process this year and we have had a series of meetings with the staff so they hopefully feel included. All of our staff are coming to lunch at the seminar hotel on Tuesday. Many of our staff are attending one or two dinners too.
The seminar concludes next Wednesday night, but then on Thursday we’ll be taking the U.K. contingent (and the 2 people from France) down to Chicago to Cabella’s and then staying the night in Chicago. Friday the group departs from O’Hare for home.
I’ll get some pictures taken of the seminar so I can post those pictures on the blog soon.
January 28, 2012 – 3:48 pm
I’ve written in my blog before that in the pheasant production world, how South Dakota goes plays a large part in the U.S. supply and demand of pheasants. If there are ample wild populations in South Dakota, the demand from South Dakota preserves is diminished and since so many birds are sold annually into South Dakota, that surplus reverberates through the market. But the other side of the issue is even more dramatic. If the wild population in South Dakota is diminished (like it was in the fall of 2011) there can be a dramatic increase in demand for pen raised birds from South Dakota preserves. This increase in demand can be in the tens of thousands and can literally pull birds from states across the U.S. into South Dakota.
I drove to South Dakota this past Tuesday and spent three days driving across the state. I visited 12 different preserves and 3 producers. I went to South Dakota for several reasons. I went to visit customers but I also wanted to see if I saw pheasants. Over the years I have driven to South Dakota on numerous occasions and have seen pheasants by the thousands. On my trip this week I didn’t see many pheasants in the northeastern part of the state. Overall as I drove across the state I was amazed at how few birds I saw. I did see thousands of pheasants south of Pierre. More than just what I saw is what I heard from the experts I met. Everyone I spoke to agreed that the wild populations were diminished. And some people stated that it would take several years for the populations to recover. Others told me that because of the mildness of this winter, they felt populations would be back to normal this fall, if we have a summer with no catastrophes (torrential rains, or lack of rain). Without a doubt diminished CRP land will hurt South Dakota pheasant populations.
Without a doubt South Dakota draws more pheasant hunters in from out of state than any other state in the U.S. Being a pheasant producer I’d like nothing more than a repeat of the demand we experienced from South Dakota this past fall.
January 9, 2012 – 12:54 pm
Sunrise at our farm
There is a shortage of adult pheasants unlike any shortage I’ve experienced in my 30 years of running our farm. Regardless of the weather from here til spring, there will be a shortage. In my opinion the shortage has occurred because of a number factors, some obvious and some not so obvious.
First of all, without a doubt the mild winter we are experiencing across the upper Midwest has resulted in many more hunters visiting local preserves. All the preserves are reporting that sales are up and the mild weather is continuing. Over the past seasons, several if not many weekends were lost at preserves due to significant snowfall or bitter cold temperatures. Zero weekends have been lost this year.
The shortage of wild pheasants in South Dakota this past fall resulted in tens of thousands of pheasants being trucked into the state from literally around the country. In the past, at times the beginning of the South Dakota season started out with few wild birds being located, but as the season progressed and the farmers began harvesting their crops more and more wild birds appeared. As this season moved into November, it became obvious that the wild bird numbers just weren’t there.
Many backyard operators have historically raised a few thousand pheasants. For these operators raising pheasants was a sideline, not their main source of income. In past seasons these operators filled the supply chain as the season progressed. These suppliers buffered the supply/demand balance. We noticed this past spring that many of the smaller operators weren’t ordering as many chicks or no chicks at all. We called several of the smaller farms to inquire and the two main answers we heard were that feed was just too expensive and also that they were sick and tired of selling surplus birds at a loss in March.
In the commercial pheasant business, the U.S. the past few springs reflected a market with surplus birds. The biggest hit was the spring of 2009 when at our farm we had 25,000 mature pheasants canceled and we were forced to sell those birds at wholesale prices for $2.00 under cost. The next two springs (2010 and 2011) there was less of a dramatic overproduction but there were still birds to be found at bargain basement prices. Some preserves came to count on this excess production and the resulting discount prices. With feed prices nearly double (we were paying $180/ton in the fall of 2007 for 20% grower and the spot price during the fall o f2011 for 20% here was $350/ton) it made no sense for producers to raise any more birds than they had orders for and they didn’t raise those birds.
So this perfect storm of unrelated influences occurred and now we have preserves closing down because they have no birds to stock. It is unfortunate that it has taken such a traumatic event to correct the imbalance that has been occurring for the past few years. My hope is that preserves for the coming season will order what they need and to equal out the burden put onto the raisers.
December 12, 2011 – 3:01 pm
- Employees inventoring by walking & counting the birds in each pen
- Counters and pen maps
Each year we “count the farm”, usually after the first of the year. It is much easier to accurately count when there is snow on the ground, as the birds stand out much better against the white background of snow. Even though we have no snow and it’s early December, our crews are counting as we need to make sure we have the number of birds we predicted we would have, in order to fill all our orders.
We have 120 acres of pens and to count, employees need to walk and count every single pen in the entire operation. Our prediction (which comes from taking the accurate number of pheasants placed into each pen minus expected loss based on past experience) is that we’ll have 140,000 adult pheasants on our farm. Not only do we need to know the number of pheasants, but how many are hens and how many are cocks.
This would not be the year to be short, as there are virtually no pheasants avaiable on the open or spot market. We’ll have the counts done in the next few days. I have positive intent.
Everyone even remotely associated with the pheasant business knows that there was a severe shortage of adult pheasants on the market this past season (the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012). I hear a lot of speculation regarding bird supply for this upcoming season (the fall of 2012 into the spring of 2013). 
