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Be sure to check the Federal Hunting regs before hunting doves over a sunflower field..unless certain things are done to it so many days before the season opens it could be considered hunting over a baited field..and as I am sure that you already know...THAT IS A NO NO...
Steve, do ya`ll have those Big ringneck doves in your part of the country??? They came in here from Texas about 5 years ago..They are twice the size of the morning doves and just stay here all year and they like to nest under sheds and in barns...
Steve we are starting to get those Honkers down here year round..seems like every farm pond you pass has a group of them around it...
Charliehorse,We try to keep a good management program in place, so the deer population shouldn’t be much of a factor. But now that I’ve said this, whatever I plant will probably be eaten up in the first week. That’s just my luck.Steve,You seem to think pretty highly of this sorgham. In your opinion if I already have a field planted in either sorgham, or milo, and wanted to plant a field mostly for dove, but also for quail would you plant sorgham, or sunflowers? I have not messed with it before, so I’m clueless, and if it’s a better alternative to sunflowers that would be great. Slider,Hunting over a planted field doesn’t constitute a baited field in Missouri, we can even go as far as to bush hog the field down right before season opens to “sweeten the pot” but it is illegal to add additional seed. So we can’t bush hog a bunch down then go back with a bag of sunflower seed and spread it out. It works very well to bush hog most of the field, but leave several strips of standing sunflowers to sit in. That’s what a lot of the conservation areas around these parts do for their dove draws.
Sunflowers are more a cover plant for Quail, than food source. Except for the use of them combined with other plants. The more variety of plants, the more insects. Especially grasshoppers, and crickets. Birds that use the upper parts of the plant can also act as lookouts for ground birds.