I am retired, but how do you school teachers stay on this board all day? My wife teaches and she sure doesn't have time for this nor would the district allow it.

dang aggie you got caught. be in trouble now

To you texas ranchers I would like to say quailquy doesn't speak for all quail hunters. I think if the government (state or federal) came up w/ a program that would help our wild quail survive and thrive we would all be on board. The government wastes much of our tax dollars and I would be happy to see some of that go to hard working texas ranchers and farmers. All programs begin as an idea that is put into action, gain steam and thru trial and error either succeed or fail. QU has failed. Cable has brought our atten. to the quail coaltion and it seems to be on the right track and I believe it deserves our attention at the very least. Time will tell its story. Occasionaly, some from the migratory section (Jeff34) will fly over and hold out Delta as the model we should follow. I would like to point out that Delta came about from one man's response to the decline of waterfowling in the 30'. He and aldo leoupold scraped up 1000 dollars to fund a graduate student and the rest is history. Their most recent claim to fame, predation control at nesting sites, was began in the 2000's. Not exactly an overnite success. Another of their success stories is the youth and graduate studies they do. Exactly what Dr. Dale and his bunch are advocates of. The comedy stylings of jeff once told how the quail is gone due to fireants and the turkey is thriving on his (or should I say his daddy's) land. When reminded that quail and turkey both nest on the ground, he went into a rant saying he was sure it wasn't his cattle that caused it. He then came back with Delta's success on predation and recommened that quail hunters should control predation also. Well duh, now if we could only get all of the texas quail nesting around a few potholes maybe we could duplicate their results. As evidence of his knowledge of quail he held out this nugget, he still has a bird dog whistle that belonged to his great grandpappy. I suggest you toot on it and maybe you can get some of those dabblers and divers you are so proud of posting to come in to those glorified stock tanks you call duck holes on daddy's farm. Your knowledge of quail would fit into a thimble.

[ . As evidence of his knowledge of quail he held out this nugget, he still has a bird dog whistle that belonged to his great grandpappy. I suggest you toot on it and maybe you can get some of those dabblers and divers you are so proud of posting to come in to those glorified stock tanks you call duck holes on daddy's farm. Your knowledge of quail would fit into a thimble. [/quote]

High rack Jeff34 is the Texas state duck calling champ 1989. Show some respect!

. Yea I hear when he blows a call bobwhite hens go in heat.

I agree




This is stupid. Regardless where his land came from weither his great grandfather, Grandfather, or dad.... He still works it everyday, and will continue to do so until the day he dies. Thats more then I'm sure most on here can say. Regardless of his upland knowledge, he along with ranchers just like him are going to be either the beginning of the Quail or end of the Quail. So you can either sit from puplet and judge or help educate.

Jeff brought up the biggest point on this whole thread how do you get land owners to lower thier income to help save quail habitit. You can't unless you subisize it like you mentioned above... an even then the subsitiy is not likely to fully cover the income loss. jeff brings up delta and DU because the sames things that help ducks in the southwest help cattle.. so its an easy sell to landowners.. But again quail habitat is different with different needs and different cause and effects.

Educate me. What income loss?

All of us concerned quail hunters know that landowners are the key. I for one don't begrudge ranchers one dime of income however they come by it. Jeff has bashed quail hunters in general of which I am one. I am certain he is a helluva duck hunter and a hard working cattle man, but he has made in the past some dumbarse statements about quail and quail hunters. I would think it only natural when one bashes some of those statements would be brought up.

How can anyone bash quail hunters? We're the smartest people in the world. We're out there for the cheap meat. Quailguy took a bashing on this thread, but he paid $5,000 for no meat.

Are you buying the next round, I'm geting thristy?

How many of you who have posted on this thread have given money to the Quail Coalition?

I guess I could give you a virtual beer. Drink up.

in a perfect quail world (or so i've been told ) there would be no livestock or very few and lots of weeds in the farm fields. nothing to disturb the quail habitat but the ocasional atv loaded with dog boxes

I'm asking a legitimate question, and I get a smart azz answer.
Cattle and quail have lived together for a long time.

yelp lots of weeds and no single grass pastures. No more broad leaf spraying on your field edges. Even CRP fields being multi-native grass fields instead of single and mowed or burned to keep them from getting to thick.

Less cows when the grasses get shorter...ect

Yes they have and some say they go hand and hand. But look at the top quail desentations in TX for wild quail... What do those ranches have in common. They are not cattle dependent, so they have very little cattle pressure. Many of their pastures are managed strictly for quail not cattle. The Grasses are differnt, they aren't planting coastal and round baling it 2-4 times a year.

Their pastures are never grazed past a point, in fact most are using the cattle to manage the grasses. Not using the grass to manage cattle.

You quail guys need to calm down or Im going to tell my daddy your being mean to me!!! I think I will go to my glorified stock tank/ duck hole and cry now Most not ALL, but most of yall dont know $hit about land or as much about quail as you think. If your anti cattle then you have no clue how the prairies of Texas developed.. It was foot action from thousands of buffalo tearing every blade of grass to dirt. Yet the quail survived. A monster drought in the 30's then again in the 50's. Yet the quail survived. But now their numbers have plummeted. Could it be the lack of Federal trappers?? Dont know. I know on my DADDY'S ranch when I was a kid, when we saw a bob cat or coyote we thought it was a big deal. But when GRAND DADDY blew his whistle to his bird dogs there where lots of quail on my DADDYS ranch.

You know at Stuttgart I didnt make the second go with DADDYs whistle

Not yet but I will. I've got nothing but blues though. I'd rather try to herd cats then let my dog loose on them.

I will in a few weeks at one of their banquets they are having.

Then it will give me room to B!TCH if I want to

Most of the ranches I've hunted on are not fit to run many cattle on. The land can't handle a very large cattle to acre ratio. When I do run across coastal fields, they are patchworked in to the overall usage.
It would seem to me that a large working ranch, with many fields planted in coastal, wouldn't have many quail anyway. I don't think those ranches give much thought to quail, or their numbers, or hunters in general, unless there are deer. I realize that hunters dollars basically pay the taxes on a ranch. Ranchers and land owners don't get rich from hunters.

These new land management practices will probably be intended where quail and cattle coexist already.

There are probably 50 deer hunters to every quail hunter in Texas, with that one decreasing every year.

Doing nothing will produce exactly that, nothing. But, even if there is just one group of people trying to preserve a small little piece of this state, for the preservation of the bob white quail, I'm in favor for it.

To me if your going to save the quail you have to save the quail hunters first. You save the quail hunter by adding more huntable land. Not just increasing quail numbers on where they are already doing well. IMO.

I have no idea whats the best way to fix the population, but I do know the way it is now... Its like having the only water hole for 50 miles... If you have access to that water hole your golden if you don't your going to be on the road for a while. So you have to start with THOSE ranches that had the quail but don't any more

Costal has NO food value for wildlife, and isn't that great for cattle either.

All I have been trying to say is,,, before it got side tracked is basically what you are saying. Quail hunters # are droping and I think that a way to get more people involved is for the state to help in restocking the Quail.. More opportunity to shoot at quail means more people hunting quail, which means more people joining QC, wich means more $ for research!! If we can eradicat a screw worm , we can bring back quail.