South Dakota farmers will get some emergency help this spring to ensure that the state bird doesn't devour freshly planted corn seed.

South Dakota's pheasant population last year was the highest since 1945, and the birds have a taste for corn.

State Agriculture Secretary Bill Even said Monday he has issued an emergency exemption allowing farmers to use Avitec seed-treatment products to protect newly planted field corn and sweet corn seed from ring-necked pheasants.

The products are digestive irritants that teach the birds to stay away from newly planted corn seed.

Because the Environmental Protection Agency was unable to approve the state's Avitec request before corn planting season, Even used his authority under federal law to issue the exemption.

The significant number of Conservation Reserve Program acres in South Dakota, coupled with demand for increased pheasant populations for recreational purposes and demand for corn to make ethanol, have resulted in more overlap of pheasant habitat and corn acres.

Replanting corn is costly. The state's farmers stand to lose up to $50 per acre in replanting costs and up to an 8 percent yield loss at harvest.

Treatment with Avitec will minimize the impact pheasants will have on this year's corn crop, Even said. The exemption is effective until Aug. 15.

Without use of the product, it's estimated the value of lost production and replanting could hit $77 million in South Dakota.

Two years ago, South Dakota State University and the state Game, Fish and Parks Department conducted field studies with Avitec at three sites in the eastern part of the state to see how effective it is in preventing pheasants from eating corn seed. Losses were reduced from 20 percent to 73 percent.

All three sites had been replanted in 2005 because of pheasant depredation.