Pheasant Game Farms in MN

[Tragic_Mishap]

I'm interested in starting up a pheasant game farm and was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with this and if so, would allow me to pick their brain for a little while. I'm also interested in eventually incorporating a dog training angle to the game farm, and would like some information about that as well. But first things first...what are some of the necessary steps one must take when they're first starting out with this? I assume there are zoning/license/permit issues to take care of.

Thanks in advance for any help or info you can provide.

[theharvester]

well first you need to see how high the insuraance is. it usually is sky high.

[LightningBG]

and you'll need a very large chunk of land.

[LandDr]

Do you have the land already?

If yes, how many acres?

Is the land adjacent to a town or how far out of town? You may or may not have zoning requirements depending on where you are. If you are building an office and out buildings, then you will need permits of coarse as well as several other things. Maybe you have some buildings that are already present that you can work with?

Habitat design...I specialize in that and there may be some programs you can tap into that will generate an income as well as excellent cost share to pay for the grass and trees. You will want to leave some out of programs as well so you don't have restrictions on when and what you can do. The key is to find a balance.

Email me at info at habitatnow dot com if you have specific questions.

[Tragic_Mishap]

oh yes, there's always the land issue...i've got a little head start on that and was aware of the insurance issue, i just wanted to put some feelers out there to see if anyone else had any experiences with it.

thanks guys.

[Tragic_Mishap]

the land (40 acres, for now) is at least 5 miles from the nearest town in each direction. it was being used as a hay field but i'd be looking to convert the habitat into something a little more pheasant friendly. i'd love to email you about this...i'll be in touch. thanks!

[LandDr]

It is always nice to develop some "perennial" habitat into the design to lower annual maintenance and management costs. Programs can help with that but we need to look at it first to see what might qualify.

40 acres is not a really big piece of land, so it will be important to maximize the design to make it look and feel like a big piece of property. I think it will also be important to design in a sporting clays coarse along with the pheasant releasing. A really challenging sporting clays along with starting a weekly league can really help...but it has to be unique and challenging so it isn't just the same old same old.

You will need a little shed for people to meet and gather in and to run your business out of...club house to say. Porta biffy might do ya to start or an out house (yes those are still legal if done right) because a septic system will probably run you 10 to 15 thousand depending on where you are located.

[Tragic_Mishap]

the property i'm "involved" with has some large barns and out buildings i would convert into kennels and hatcheries and the hunting land itself is about 500 yards away from the farm house property. i was thinking about the sporting clays angle as well and felt that it would be an excellent addition to the other services i would provide.

[Tom7227]

I have no direct experience owning or operating but I have gone to a half dozen game farms. Raising the birds seems like a very time consuming experience and may be difficult to succeed with. Setting it up and finding the land could be tough. Wild Wings used to do it but for the past number of years I think they buy the birds on an as needed basis. That may be a lot simpler at least for the begining.

The worst of my experiences involve poorly designed and developed land. Worst was the place that had 6 inches of water over thin ice. Clearly defined areas with rows of woody cover as barriers between spots are the best. A diversity of cover that can be worked is nice. Some shorter corn, sudak, and then just waist high grass is good. Solid places to park, some water for the dogs, maybe a place to sit before and after the event. Don't worry about food, but a cool drink afterwardsis nice.

You are going to have to decide if you're going to offer to cleanthe birds or sell cleaned birds, and who is going to do the work.

Memberships,, open hunting, and licenses are all issues to work on. Work with someone to develop a written detailed business plan and hopefully it will come together.

Good luck.

[pureinsanity]

forget all the basics, those are basics... What is going to put you over the top compared to the other big time game farms???? I can think of a few bigger ones, and tons of little ones... those big ones have business year round, those little ones???? not so much

[carpshooterdeluxe]

40 acres will not get you much more than a hobby operation. Insurance, preserve licensing, initial habitat development, remodeling buildings to facilitate customers' use, etc. It takes a ton of money and a few years to get it all right. Consider leasing additional land surrounding the property. Could you do it with 40 acres? Sure. It would take pre-established walking paths and planting birds before each customer/group enters the field though. "Wild" birds will learn very quickly to bust out of the property to the neighboring land.

I worked on a preserve that operated on 2000 acres, and its a lot of work. I loved working there, but you could see very easily how stressful it was for the owners to operate the facility. I've seen it all from guys showing up wanting to buy and shoot 100 roosters in a day to dogs getting shot, to guys getting sprayed by skunks, to guys thinking it was ok to drink jack daniels before entering the field. One the flip side, I got to see some great pointers and retrievers, met great customers that enjoyed the experience and tipped graciously, made some friends, and learned a lot.

[kentuck_ike]

I just opened one this spring, I can help with some of it. I am not sure that 40 acres is enough for the state requirements for a commercial license, it might be a enough for a hobby license. my e-mail is [email protected] cell number is 507-438-3313

[Acemac]

prob make more money having a range a clay course on 40 acres.

IMO we need more 200-300 yd rifle ranges more then we need farms

[LightningBG]

The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking 40 acres just isn't going to be nearly enough. I think I'd lean towards 240-320 acres+ as a decent size for people to be paying for.

This is what 40 acres looks like, for some perspective. Seems like you could hunt the whole thing in under 45 minutes.

[Acemac]

removed

[Tom7227]

Since it's illegal to discharge a firearm within 500 feet of a habitable dwelling my guess is that virutually all of that plot is not usable as a game farm, at least from what I can see in the picture.

[oleWalter]

...the picture was posted by a different user, not the potential game farm operator. The picture was just to show what 40 acres relatively looked like.

[PurpleFloyd]

If you are interested I would recommend going to a few different ones and see what they do and then take note of things that you could do that they don't and build on that.

I would recommend looking at the Caribou Gun Club by LeSeuer/Cleveland and also Traxlers Preserve by LeCenter. They are close enough to each other to see in a day and they are different enough to see a mix of offerings.

[Musky Buck]

Oak Point, best 1 I ever hunted, near Bluffton, between kinda New York Mills and Wadena, north on 75 by the old country manor motel which is being turned into apartments ? 75 north and I forget what road to the west.