Doves and cotton fields.

[Slew]

Shoulda called me I’m in frost (right between Corsicana and Hillsboro) we have quite a few birds. There all in the fields you to drive through the fields to flush them up, not a whole lot on the power lines also really depends when you came through. Come ride the cotton stripper with me and I’ll show you there ARE dove in cotton fields.

The dove do not eat the cotton as far as I know. They roost in it and use it for cover.

We used to walk through unstripped cotton mid day and flush em out and shoot em! Always figured they were in it for the shade!

[skeeterboud]

cotton doves

I just went/returned to p mans from l Jackson.. not even a dove on the power lines around cotton. milo/corn areas had dove on power lines, flying, road shoulders, etc …….

[Bayouboy]

They are eating the seeds from weeds in the cotton fields.

[Hoss163]

That explains why dove Breast are so small they don’t eat cotton seed are double down I bet . Dang Little birds !!

[Sunnylab]

Take it for what it's worth, but one of the best dove hunts I have ever had was behind a cotton gin in MS. The doves were in and out of the big piles of gin trash behind the gin. I have no clue what they were eating but they were there. It was mid December and the gin had already closed down for the year.

[duckboy007]

Now I have shot a bunch limits of dove in mature September cotton stands, but it was because of the irrigation water pooled up in rows or puddled near a leaky pipe, not because of cotton plants!

I can see that. A cotton field could still be a good spot to hunt, but not cuz they're eating in there!

[duckboy007]

Take it for what it's worth, but one of the best dove hunts I have ever had was behind a cotton gin in MS. The doves were in and out of the big piles of gin trash behind the gin. I have no clue what they were eating but they were there. It was mid December and the gin had already closed down for the year.

I bet there were getting grit.

[Playa]

I can see that. A cotton field could still be a good spot to hunt, but not cuz they're eating in there!

It’s really a pain in the A. Hard to find your birds when they fall under the canopy of thigh high cotton, and the Farmer’s don’t much care for you or the dog knocking his bills off

[Playa]

One caveat to this, if they are sowing wheat/oats as cover crop or crop rotation a plowed cotton field can be dyn-o-mite. But I suspect he would have mentioned that.

[PapaBear]

Here's another tip when hunting around cotton without a dog. Don't shoot them where they land in the cotton, especially high cotton. Will. Never. Find. Them. Just feeding the ants.

[Philip-TX]

They are eating the seeds from weeds in the cotton fields.

^^^^ This ^^^^

[kruppa24]

Almost as good as pea gravel

[coolhand]

We have killed a lot of Doves out of harvested cotton fields. But it was the weed seeds they were after. Apparently, when they harvest, the small weeds that are below the cotton plants get disturbed and drop the seeds. The Doves can easily get to them with the cotton plant bare. Every Dove we killed was full of the same small seeds.

[double bogey]

Shot my first ever limit of doves in the middle of a cotton field. There was a plugged up old gas well that leaked water out and made a small pool. This was in western Van Zandt county on a cousins place in about 1965. I shot about half of them flying. I was there with an older cousin about 5 yrs ago, and the well is still burping gas and making a small pool, but no doves, salty water. Used to kill a lot of doves in that county, same for quail.

[TAMU84]

They are eating the seeds from weeds in the cotton fields.

Never killed any doves with cottonseed in them but there is other food sources in a cotton field.
Most of the time farmers rotate crops, cotton one year, milo or corn the next, possibly even winter wheat outside the pivots. Some of those seeds will still be there.
Also weeds will be growing there and they could be after those seeds as well. They will be milling around there getting grit also.
You really need another food source in the area if you want a huntable amount of doves.

It would be interesting to know what was planted there in the past. If they rotate crops maybe do a multi year lease.
One year poor to average. Next year great.