Reynolds Game Farm is closing down after 81 years of operation, the Binghamton Press reports.
The farm is a victim of state budget cuts, according to the article. No word on the immediate fate of pheasants still on the farm.
The farm has been in various administrations' crosshairs for decades. In fact, if memory serves, the state sought to turn the Reynolds farm over to Cornell University to be used as a wildlife rehab facility in the early 1990s. The news leaked to the Conservation Council and some quick maneuvering and brokering -- ostensibly involving a license fee increase -- saved the farm at that point.
The state consolidated the pheasant program in 1999 when it closed and sold the White Farm in Batavia and moved all the equipment, etc. to Reynolds.
The fate of the pheasant program is still unknown. Commissioner Grannis had expressed in the fact that pheasants could be purchased for the program at far less expense than it took for the Reynolds farm to raise them. Maybe this means the program will continue.
