In what has been a difficult and challenging year to grow a good crop of anything, opportunities still abound to plant a great dove field to shoot over this fall.
Browntop millet matures in 50 to 60 days, which does land its maturity beyond the Sept. 1 opener but, thanks to the way Mississippi distributes the hunting of the dove shooting days allowed by federal law, there is plenty time to plant this month and have great shoots later on.
This fall, dove hunters in Northeast Mississippi will have seasons that run Sept. 1 through Sept. 30, then Oct. 18 through Nov. 16, then Dec. 27 through Jan. 25. A solid planting of browntop millet that gets into the ground this month will have ample time, first as a crop, then as a mown field, to attract and hold doves for latest September, then for all of the season dates in October and beyond.
Simple to plant, easy to grow and naturally attractive to doves and all sorts of other wildlife, browntop millet is a great selection for planting as a dove field this fall. It’s a great grocery to keep available for deer, turkeys and quail all year long.
Browntop millet is a leafy, annual grass that will grow roughly two to three feet tall. It matures in 50 to 60 days and produces excellent seed yields. Doves love these seeds, and preparing a field for a dove shoot in the fall by planting browntop millet in the summer is an excellent approach.
Timing a field for a second-season dove shoot is one of the great hidden-in-plain-sight strategies available in Mississippi, and it’s one that commonly pays dividends far greater than could be realized on any blazing hot September opening day.
Further, if your dove field is situated on a low-lying area that can be flooded, either intentionally or by natural happenstance, browntop millet is a wonderful forage that can be left standing and legally shot over for ducks as well.
Practicing, preaching
Dove fields prepared any way other than by growing and mowing must be created “according to normal agricultural practices,” to quote the state wildlife officials’ guidelines.
Available online at mdwfp.com, a pamphlet entitled “Dove Field Preparation and Hunting Regulations in Mississippi” can be found by clicking on the “Wildlife and Hunting” tab, then by following the links for the agency’s dove program. The document lays out what specifics the term “normal agricultural practices” includes.
Most concisely, the rules say a field that’s been disked and harrowed or otherwise cleared or smoothed, conditions both consistent with agricultural practices and those which doves like best for feeding, may be planted or sown once, evenly, and at a normal rate of seeding, and be legal for hunting.
Reaping what’s sown
Fields that are home to grains that have been grown on the spot, however, may be mown and hunted legally on any schedule, a few strips at a time, to keep and build the interest of doves leading up to and throughout the fall seasons.
Corn, sunflowers, brown top millet, milo or anything else that’s been grown on the land can be cut when and how the land manager chooses. Adding more grain on top of the mowing to sweeten the deal, however, is not legal. Sowing bags of millet over the top of land from which millet was just cut is not a normal, agricultural practice.
Second, grains that are traditionally top sown in the fall may be sown over prepared ground or no-till drilled and that area will be legal to hunt. A legal dove field can be prepared with wheat sown over disked ground, as this is a normal planting practice.
The pamphlet in question says wheat can be planted “at a rate not greater than 90 pounds per acre,” and notes it must be spread evenly across the area, not piled or clumped.
Furthermore, the pamphlet says it can’t be sown with wheat every few days to keep the doves coming, as this is not a normal agricultural practice.
Additionally, grains that are not traditionally top sown, such as sunflowers or millet, may not be top sown to attract doves. According to the pamphlet, since these seeds are typically covered when they’re planted, sowing them on top of the ground now to attract doves would create an illegal field.
Following best methods
Sunflowers or millet that has been grown in the same location, however, can be mowed, disked or otherwise knocked down and the field will be legal.
For more information, questions should be referred to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks at 601-432-2400.
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