Everything here is a full speed, this week we’ve shipped more birds than any other week in our history. The weather has been ideal for pheasant hunting across the U.S. and evidently wild bird populations really have taken a hit as demand for pheasants is currently crazy. My belief is that in past years many producers raised extra “speculative” pheasants, but with current commodity prices, those extra pheasants just weren’t produced this year.
Without the cushion of those extra birds, when higher demand hit, the effect was felt immediately. In the past in late October I’ve seen the picture as it stands now (i.e. potential shortage of pheasants) completely change with a 1 foot snowfall in South Dakota in early November. So to be clear, what we are seeing now could completely change with just a shift in the weather. In other words, the current shortage of birds could disappear depending upon the November weather. I’ve said before, that how South Dakota goes determines a lot about the supply and demand for pheasants across the U.S. When South Dakota is pheasant deficient, that one state alone can pull in pheasants from all the surrounding states. On the other hand, if there is a significant early snowfall in South Dakota that stops hunting for even a week, the whole situation can shift just that quickly.
