Think you meant to say plant them for your own use and oops some fell to the ground…….
Pat, am I missing a joke, or is planting sunflowers to attract doves illegal in Texas (and presumably some other states)?
FishingRod, doves at least mourning dove fall under the migratory bird act and baiting is not legal. Do your due diligence but crops are not generally considered baiting. Doves are more attracted to wild sunflower which drop seed over a long time. You can also uses sunflower for cattle forage. Its actually very good forage ... they eat seed heads, leaves and small stems. Anyways you might also check this out (a link Snipe earlier shared as a source of scuds)
http://www.habitatnow.com/store/shop/shop.php?pn_selected_category=19 . That page has information on hunting ducks on crops specifically sown to attract them (even crops intentionally flooded).
I have to wonder whether a state GW has jurisdiction to enforce federal law. What I can tell you is that in OK ... some GMAs have crops planted on them specifically to attract doves. One I hunted, they didn't harvest but burned just a few days before the season started. All in all, I do think that restricting crops grown for feeding migratory birds would have a negative effect on migratory bird populations. There is a limit to how many dove or ducks any one person or one family can kill and eat. By an large much more wildlife is benefitted from these kind of crops than is harvested by hunting.
