I'm in Arkansas as much in the off-season as I am during the season. This past weekend I noticed something in the fields that I think would affect the hunting.

Almost all the rice has been harvested and a lot of the fields have A LOT of volunteer rice coming back up. This has to affect the number of birds that would use the field. Am I over thinking it? What do you think?

If the rice is harvested early enough and then regrows enough days to make a mature seed kernel it does help but there is so much rice left already it is already a good situation. A cold snap will stop it in its tracks though. South Louisiana farms sometimes harvest and then reflood for a light second harvest which the term the "lagnaiappe" crop or a little something extra for nothing. They harvest earlier and have a longer growing season though.

It's been extremely dry ....a lot of the fields have already been burned and worked for next year. Won't be an abundance of food on the prairie...... just like last year

Be very careful with manipulation if the rice grows back. A few years back, we went out a month before season to fix up our pit. The rice had grown back after harvest and had headed back out. There was rice everywhere and I was real excited. Two weeks before season started, our farmer went in and rolled the stubble down in front of our pit. Week before season started, feds came in and flagged every field in the area that had the stubble rolled with all the volunteer rice. Said it was not normal agricultural practice, and we had to move fields. Farmer had to disk the rolled area until there was no more evidence of rice left before it could be hunted.

These are the types of things I've been wondering about.

A lot of the fields had been burned and the had some volunteer rice coming up. None of it was any where near big enough to head out

If in any doubt, call a gw and get them to come check it out or ask the farmer not to roll around the pit. We were told to just make one trail driving in and out and not ride around knocking rice everywhere. It is one of those things that it is not worth risking.

I hadn't thought about the game warden side of things. That's definitely something to consider. Fortunately, none of these fields are ones I hunt.

I was just thinking about there not being a lot of food left in the field.