Flooding Crops

[Matt Hass]

Myself and a few of the hunting party are looking to buy 160 acres to flood crops here in MN. The property we are looking at seems to be set up for such a project. The land has a ditch that runs along it with a natural berm, and the tillable land is real flat with a foot of drop into the ditch. We would like to put in a dike through the middle and split the crops on either side and flood them. Thinking corn on one side and soybeans on the other. There isn't anyone here in MN I know of that has done this so I am asking for some ideas and have a few questions.

How high should the dikes be? How deep should the water be, if flooding corn I was thinking it would have to be a little deeper?

What crops have you seen work the best?

Should we leave the crop stand or harvest then flood?

How many acres need to be flooded, we were thinking 2-4 acres on each side?

Thanks to all that respond, I am excited as I think in an area where there is so few flooding crops it could be a real honey hole!

[Rob Heflin]

In Mississippi, it is common to hunt over flooded standing and harvested ag crops.

Most people have leases where the farmer has harvested the crop then flooded the stubble. Rice, soybeans, grain sorghum and corn are common. Soybeans rot the quickest. The key is to not flood too early. Warm water temps (down here) will rot seed long before season begins if you flood too early.

Simple rice levees(about 2 feet tall) will hold water if you have them erected at intervals throughout the field. One levee in a 160 acre field will not do much. a lot of our fields are precision leveled (slight slope across whole field). One levee will hold water out so far in the field and the rest will remain dry. If you have several levees, you can flood in intervals or flood several pads at one time and have water across more area of the field. Be sure to have a "spillway" or a place for excess water to escape. You can cut out a notch in your levee and place visqueen over it so that the excess water will not cut a groove in your dirt levee and blow the whole thing out. If you don't have a "spillway" the water will find the lowest spot in your levee and start running over. It will take only a few minutes for it to erode the dirt in that spot and the levee will blow out, leaving you high and dry. A foot to 18 inches of water is all you want for puddle ducks. Anything deeper than 18 and it's hard for them to get the seed on the bottom. Even in standing corn, 18 inches is plenty deep. They will get the corn, it is guaranteed.

If I had the choice, I would have standing corn (not harvested, of course) flooded 12-18 inches deep. Next choice would be rice because it lasts a good while even when the seed is submerged. The natural grasses last the longest. When it is warm down here, the birds will stick to the natural stuff. When it is cold, they move into the high-carb grain crops.

Be sure to check 50 CFR 20 of the Federal Regs for what you can and can't do in regards to hunting crops: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=50&PART=20&SECTION=21&YEAR=1999&TYPE=TEXT