Harvest ends early for Kansas farmer dealing with migrating birds

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Harvest ends early for Kansas farmer dealing with migrating birds

A Kansas farmer says migrating birds are a threat to his crops during harvest.  

Near the U.S.’s largest wetland in Central Kansas, Keith Miller says planting and harvest must start three weeks early. “If I wouldn’t be, the birds would be harvesting it for me.”

He tells Brownfield the Cheyenne Bottoms is a stopping point along the Central Flyway for birds who migrate south from Canada and North Dakota. “There is, I don’t know how many thousands of ducks and geese right now but there is quite a bit,” Miller says. “The problem I have is the blackbirds. The blackbirds come in here and they’re here by the millions.”

Miller says those birds don’t affect his soybeans or corn, but they do take a toll on his sorghum crop. “They just love to be here.  If you don’t have your milo cut if you don’t get it cut in the next few days, you won’t have to cut it because they’re going to shell it out for you.”

He says he beat the birds this year and his crop made around 120 bushels-per-acre.

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