After 10 years of paying extornianate rates for a quail lease in Texas I am done with them. This year was the killer. Hunting from 0800 to 1730 for 3 days we found 2 to 3 coveys a day with good, experienced dogs. I surveyed the place in May/June and found decent quail numbers and good grass cover. January finds us with few quail and a badly overgrazed ranch. That despite really good rainfall and good cover and grass up to September. And despite the fact this rancher owns 4 other ranches all with numerous oil and gas wells. So he took our money and knowingly/uncaringly ruined the quail habitat.

Never again.

from all us greedy self serving domino playing land owners - don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out of texas. bye now

This is the 5th straight year of poor quail hunting and yet the price of quail leases only go up. Consideration of the requirements of quail and quail hunters in exchange for all that cash?? Fagetaboutit!!

And that is what I have to say to you Texas ranchers: screw YOU!!

Not that you care, but you will not get my hard earned cash again. I will be off to New Mexico and Kansas and Montana and to hell with you. In fact I may not even buy a Texas hunting license.

Quailguy

Average intelligence would have told me to get off that ranch after the second season.

The King Ranch reported that they made more money from quail then they made from cattle.

I've heard several people who have said the same thing. It's been a sellers market for so long. Looks like it's going from a sellers market, to no market at all. I've told about the lease I was on two years ago. It was beautiful. We killed one bird. That was a $4,500, or $2,250 for me. They asked me if I would get back on at a reduced price, or with adding a third guest. I wasn't going back for free the remainder of the season, so why should I go back at say $1,500.

I was ready to get on the lease which Billy C is on when they said that we could start on 12/1. They changed their mind, so I declined. It's my understanding that Billy, and my friend Ron went up there last week and moved 4 coveys in four days.

The camphouse was a big selling point. The departing hunter told them that there was a water leak in the camphouse. They couldn't get the rancher or the owner to come and fix it in 4 days, so they had no water.

The ranchers are down at the feed store or the domino parlor laughing about how dumb the quail hunters are.

Did someone say Dominos?

x2

This IS the 2nd season at this particular ranch. And I have done a quail calling survey each spring in accordance with the quail calling count protocol developed by Dr Rollins.

The POINT of this rant is that I have done "due diligence", doing calling counts and including checking habitat conditions in Oct/Sept each year. AFTER all that the place was grazed down to just about nada over thousands of acres. The grass is so overgrazed over 80% of the place a mouse couldn't hide there.

Quailguy

to bad we're not all from the metromess then we could see the error of our ways.

p.s. lack of rainfall in could come into play on the grass shortage.

Key questions to ask the rancher when looking at quail property.

What type of cattle operation do you run. Cow calf or stocker calf. Most stocker calf operations graze very heavy in the summer months and then get rid of the calves when the grass is gone. The cow calf guy will normally try to leave enough grass to carry the cows through the winter. However the lack of rain hurts.
Be vary aware of lease operators. If cattle lessor also controls the hunting his main goal normally is the produce as many pounds of beef as possible each year. The exception to this is when he is also operating under a long term lease.

A cow calf operator that is carrying over 75 percent capacity will overgraze in dry or below normal years. But they are normally better to quail lease from. A cow calf operator cannot jump in and out of his operation on a whim but if he is going to lease the quail his stocking rate should be no more than 75 percent of recommended.

LMAO You don't know me the least bit. but think what you want.. If you want to blame you carpet on drought your not going to make it very long in the cattle business.

from all us self serving greedy domino playing land owners - don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out. bye now

faimlys been up here since the 1800s so maybe we will make it a little while.

This is a typical rancer attitude. Here's from the King Ranch;


youth hunts on the ranch.

Nothing better illustrates the ranch’s commitment to wildlife than its management of bobwhite quail. On the King Ranch, a six-ounce quail is as important as an 1,100-pound heifer. Quail are a major drawing card for hunters, attracting more interest than deer. Cattle and quail vie for top revenue-generating honors. Most years quail rank first, cattle second. Deer take third place, followed by horses, though the rankings can change from year to year depending on range conditions. “Incomes from wildlife and cattle are roughly equivalent,” says Genho. “Some years cattle blow wildlife away; other years it’s more wildlife. Neither wildlife alone nor cattle alone will pay enough to operate a ranch.”

Quail numbers on the ranch fluctuate wildly depending on rainfall. “Add water in the spring and you will have quail,” Thompson says. “Our best harvest year was 80,000 birds; the average is around 14,000.” Since quail usually are the No. 1 revenue generator for the ranch, range management practices are geared toward quail first, then cattle, then deer. So valued is quail hunting that there is no need for harvest quotas.

“We have very enthusiastic quail hunters, and they do a very good job of controlling their harvest, because they want to take care of their quail as badly as King Ranch does,” says Hellickson. “In years of poor quail numbers some lessees will not hunt quail at all, and they are paying a substantial amount of money for those leases.”

Cattle ranching and hunting operations are highly integrated. “The King Ranch is unique in that most people see cattle and wildlife as opposing entities,” says Hellickson. “Here, both wildlife managers and cattle managers compromise.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the brush management practices of the ranch. Bulldozers sculpt pastures to contain 65 percent open grassland and 35 percent brush arranged for the benefit of quail and deer. Range manager Verl Cash maps the brush in each pasture using a GIS (Geographic Information System) database and downloads the information onto computers aboard the bulldozers. GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites guide the machines as they clank and roar through the pastures, taking out only designated areas of brush.

the king ranch doesnt have to make a living from cattle either. they are the exception to the rule.
one thing i would like to add is that ranchers in general (not all) love their land and try to do the best by it. i just get tired of hearing how it's always the landowners fault if there are no quail. i can see where that may be ture in some cases it's not in all. sure lease prices for quail have gone thru the roof( i don't lease for quail)but you hunters have done this to yourselfs by competeing with each other. how about we all go back to a couple of dogs, sell the atvs, grab a o/u and your best hunting buddy and just enjoy being outdoors and not so worried about the number of coveys one can push during the day . you might be surprised and the cost of quail hunting might go down