LET'S JUST MOW IT ALL DOWN!

       Everybody seems to wonder where all the Pheasants in Iowa have gone. I have always believed that there never is just one answer to a problem or question , but, several!

      Here is my opinion on some of the answers to the dilemma. First of all we have shortened the the yearly hiding places for them by harvesting corn and soybeans much earlier and all the stocks and etc. get mulched into the ground unlike the standing corn stocks of years ago. We also used to have timber along creeks and streams with more pastures, oat and hay fields.
Other words, there is no place to hide!

      And, one that really gets me and I am sorry if I am stepping on some toes, has to do with everybody out in the country having to mow everywhere. Farmers and Acreage-ites seem to be possessed with getting on their big old John Deere mowers and flatten every thing in site around the homestead! No! I don't feel sorry for you when you tell me about all the time you spent or wasted this week-end on that mower.

      Some have to mow along the roadside in front of the house a long ways in both directions. Very few plant native grasses or taller plantings, even me in town, around the home to provide protection for many types of wild-life including birds and butterflies.  And, yes I have a nice mowed yard here in town thanks to family help!