Saturday, April 1, 2023 | Country Acres South • Page 1 PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #278 Madelia, MN 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave Sauk Centre MN 56378
SOUTH Saturday, April 1, 2023
Focusing FFo ocusi ssiing ng on on Today’s Rural Environment
Volume 1, Edition 21
PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO
(right) h Brian Martin raises ht) a variety rieety of exotic pheasants, peafowl, wl, and trumpeter swans at his farm near neear Winona. He sells birds all over thee U.S. U PHOTO SUBMITTED
(far right) Several Seeveral peacocks roost at Martin artin Game Farm na. Brian Martin near Winona. has modifi dified e existing buildings and d built new buildings on o his farm to create c pens for his different ere nt birds. rdss.
Exotic
Flair
Martin Game Farm raises myriads of rare birds BY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER
Martin owns Martin Game Farm, where he currently raises 32 breeds of exWINONA – Little did Brian Mar- otic birds. He raises 14 breeds of pheastin know as a ten-year-old raising ring ants, 17 breeds of peafowl, peacocks are neck pheasants, that one day his pastime the male peafowl, and trumpeter swans. would grow into a largeHis game farm includes one scale, exotic, 250of the largest collecbird hobby. tions of Satyr Tragopan pheasants in the country.
A white eared pheasant enjoys a snack of lettuce March 21 at Martin Game Farm near Winona. Martin started raising birds when he was 10 years old.
ST R
Publications bli ti The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
Martin raises around 100 peafowl chicks and 20 to 25 tragopan chicks each year to sell. If he doesn’t buy or barter the birds in person, he will ship them in boxes via the United States Postal Service. Martin has supplied zoos as far away as New York and even sold a private party pheasants that they kept on top of the building they live in on Staten Island. Martin has an established market and has not advertised a bird for sale in five years. He said that he has a twoyear waiting list for birds. And, his birds are valuable, a pair can sell for $800 to $1,000. The high price of exotic birds is the result of the high costs of raising them Martin said. All of the birds Martin breeds are native to Asia. Their origins include places such as China, Nepal, India, Afganistan, Southern Tibet, Malaysia and the Himalayan mountains. Because of their climate origins, raising the birds in the temperature extremes of Minnesota is challenging. Martin said many of his birds are used to cool, temperate mountains but not considered hardy. “The pheasants I’m raising, you can’t raise in Florida because of the temperature difference in the humidity,” Martin said. “And there’s pheasants they raised in Florida I can’t raise up here because they don’t take the cold.” Martin uses fans all summer long to keep the birds cool. Some of his birds spend the winter under heat lamps to escape the bitter cold. He said that in the
winter his heat bill alone can hit $700. Even given the cost of his large collection, Martin enjoys it. “It’s not a business by any means,” Martin said. “It’s just a hobby that tries to pay for itself.” As a hobby, Martin has shared the birds with others. He recalls how once a young boy from his area was hoping to buy birds and only had a few dollars to spend so he told the child that’s exactly what they cost. “I ended up sending then home with a couple hundred dollars of pheasants for like $5,” Martin said. The birds mate in spring and early summer and most eggs are laid in April and May. He collects the eggs each day, and every three to four days he will place eggs in the incubator to be hatched. He also will sell some fertilized eggs. He raises the chicks until October or November when he sends them to their new homes. The bird-lover only overwinters his breeding pairs. Martin works full time for UPS in addition to caring for his exotic birds. Each fall he takes the majority of his vacation time to do a building project for his birds. He has converted the buildings on his farm site and built new buildings for the birds. Most of the breeding pairs each have their own personal pen, but this depends on the type of bird and their age.
Martin page 2
This month in the
COUNTRY:
Watch for the next edition of Country Acres on April 15, 2023
3
“The cows are out!” Amy Kyllo Column
5
Harvestore houses on farm experience Caledonia
4
FFA Highlight
9
A different farm commodity Theilman