Corn for Wildlife
Due to recent weather – particularly the heavy snow and ice in many locations – MPI & Garden City Rod & Gun Club will be giving away corn for wildlife feeding. Recent weather has made it particularly difficult for pheasants to locate seeds such as corn. We are primarily concerned with helping pheasants and other wildlife maintain until conditions improve. Recent warming trends are very helpful.
Starting Tuesday, January 10th, we will have a wagon of corn available for self-serve pick up. The wagon will be located in Good Thunder, MN near Dick’s Locker just off of Main Street. Google link: 44°00’19.0″N 94°04’03.4″W – Google Maps
A big thanks to Garden City Rod & Gun Club for partnering on the corn this year. And a big thanks to Adam Krosch for the use of his wagon and Dick’s Locker for allowing us to park the wagon on their property & Hubbard Feeds in Mankato for donating seed bags.
Please limit the amount of corn you take so there is enough for others. Please do not take corn to feed your own animals. We are asking everyone to follow the safe and effective feeding techniques listed below whenever possible. We will try to have bags located at the wagon for you to take but please try to bring your own containers in case the bags are gone. We will try to keep an eye on the corn supply and re-fill as soon as possible. If you come to Good Thunder and the wagon is empty – we sincerely apologize. We will try to keep corn in the wagon as best as we can.
Wildlife feeding guidelines:
- Do not place corn on the side of the road if possible. This is not only harmful to wildlife but also to motorist.
- Place corn where birds are seen feeding in an open windswept area close to habitat. The less distance they need to travel to find corn lessons vulnerability to predation and excess energy consumption.
- Feeder cribs work well by keeping corn above the snow. If you have access to pheasant feeders, please use those. If you’d like to build a simple pheasant feeder look at this link.
- Avoid areas with dense populations of deer. If deer discover your corn, please put out small amounts each time but replenish frequently. You may want to consider a different location as well.
- If you scatter corn on the ground, do so in smaller amounts and add to it after the birds have located the corn. Dumping lots of corn at one time is wasteful and it may be buried by new snow and not found.
- Continue with feeding as long as poor winter conditions persist if possible. Small amounts of corn on a frequent basis can be most helpful.
Thank you for helping feed wildlife!