Feeding Wildlife, Corn Prices, Ammo Prices

Hunting and Wildlife viewing season is almost upon us. The bucks have almost grown their new antlers for this year. Most of this year’s crop of dove and quail have left the nest and are on their own. Here in Texas we have had a banner year for rain and the wildlife outlook is the best it has been in years. If you feed corn or set up feeders each year now is the time to get them going. By setting up your feeding stations or planting food plots earlier you will condition wildlife to coming into your areas. Whether you hunt with camera, bow or rifle you will see more wildlife if you have them conditioned to coming to your property early. A lot of those early deer will be does and not the big bucks you hoped for but all is not in vain. The does that come to your feed plots and feeders on a regular basis will bring the big boys with them when the breeding season begins.

Corn has really gone up this year due to the hype that green fuel will save us all. Most have not analyzed how much that green fuel will cost us in the price of fuel, meat, eggs, milk and any other product that uses corn. Also forgotten is the cost of all the water and irrigation fuels it will take to grow this corn. I saw a report the other day that stated that if we made all the corn in the USA into fuel it would cover about 8% of our total fuel consumption but the cost will be much greater than that to the American consumer.
If you shop around you can find a few deals on corn. The best price is to buy it in bulk from the farmer in the field. For those of us that buy it by the bag I have seen some good prices at Academy Sports (3.99-4.99 per 40lb bag) If you are putting your corn in feeders make sure it is really clean or pour it through hail screen so it will not stop up your feeders.

Ammo Costs have gone up by about 40% in the last year and will being getting a large increase before this fall. If you have not priced shotgun shells and other ammo since last year you are in for a big surprise. Watch for sales at the big boys like, Academy, Bass Pro, Sportsman’s and Cabelas. Go ahead and buy a lot if you find a good deal as it will keep going up. Not only are we shipping tons of ammo to the wars in the Middle East but we are selling the raw components and materials to the Middle Eastern countries and China. Companies will be more concerned with profits and long term contracts than making sure consumers at home have adequate product.