Unplanned flight

When Austin King of Rich Hill, Mo., pictured life after high school, he didn’t see himself in the hunting industry—or surrounded by thousands of ducks. He was raised on a cattle farm where his only experience with poultry was a handful of chickens. He had never hunted birds either, solely whitetail deer.

“I always knew that I wanted to work for myself and to live on the farm,” recalled King about his teenage aspirations. “I just wasn’t sure what path I would take to get there.”

But life often takes off in unexpected directions. While he still lives on the family farm and has a small herd of cattle, King now focuses on livestock with feathers. For eight years, he has owned and operated Little Sprague Game Birds, where thousands of ring-necked pheasants and mallard ducks are raised for hunting and dog training. 

The path to building the operation began after King’s high school graduation in 2012, when he got a job working at Maple Ranch, a nearby private hunting lodge. 

“We did a lot of duck hunting up there,” he said. “And I really fell into it, got passionate about duck hunting, and then eventually upland hunting.” 

Picture a male pheasant suddenly rising from the tall grass, his long tail billowing in the wind like a flag to the hunter waiting with a shotgun raised—that is upland hunting. Unlike hunting waterfowl in wetlands, this sport involves game birds that live in dry, grassy habitats, such as quail, grouse and pheasants. Trained dogs often help by locating and flushing out the birds. 

Upland hunting is a popular pastime for outdoorsmen nationwide, including in Missouri. Since ring-necked pheasants are not native to the area and their wild population is small, most birds used for hunting are captive-bred and released. 

In 2017, while still working for Maple Ranch, King decided to take a chance and try raising pheasants for the hunting lodge, which was purchasing them from another farm. 

“That first year, I bought 600 and then ordered another 600,” King said “I think we ended up raising about 1,000 to maturity that first year. There was some learning curve there for sure.” 

After the first year, King saw enough potential in the business that he decided to leave his job at the ranch to focus on raising game birds full time. With hopes of expanding beyond a little shed and a single flight pen, he purchased more pheasant chicks to raise and eventually sell to licensed game preserves. 

In 2019, King took aim at a new venture—raising mallard ducks. After hatching out a couple hundred ducklings, he purchased another batch of 2,000 birds. Initially, the young entrepreneur wasn’t sure if mallards would be profitable, but with the help of social media, he had no trouble selling the birds. 

“I posted them on this dog training group on Facebook. I said, ‘Hey, we have these mature ducks ready.’ Within probably 20 hours, they were all gone,” he recalled. “So, I thought we could raise a few more. And over time, it’s just grown into raising ducks for these retriever field trials and hunt tests and for dog trainers to use in their personal training.”

A hunt test evaluates a dog’s ability to find and retrieve game using set standards, while in a field trial, dogs compete against one another. For both types of events, using live ducks is always preferred since they improve the dogs’ performance, King said. 

“It’s so much different for a dog,” he explained. “It triggers those natural instincts a lot more than what a plastic bumper or dummy does.”

Duck, duck, score

By selling to this market, the demand for mallard ducks has grown exponentially, which King attributes to word-of-mouth in the tight-knit retriever club community. Last year, he sold 10,000 mallards, and he said the goal for 2025 is to raise 35,000 mallards, along with 10,000 ring-necked pheasants. 

He isn’t too concerned about a lack of demand. “Two years ago, we had five hunt test groups that we were dealing with,” King said. “This year we sold to about 55. We really jumped up.” 

When it’s time to deliver the mature mallards or pheasants, King personally hauls them to their destination, placing 20 birds in each poly poultry crate. In the summer, he stacks the crates on an open trailer and drives nonstop to keep them cool. In the winter, he loads them into an enclosed stock trailer to keep the birds dry. “You want to keep them as safe and comfortable as you can. Less stress is the best,” King said. 

His deliveries now take him across the country, from northwest Idaho to Florida. King said he always posts his routes online in case someone needs more birds along the way.

For King, traveling is a highlight of his job, even with a growing family. He and his wife, Lena, have three kids: Walter, 6, Nora, 4, and their newest addition, Freddy, born in May.  This past summer, the whole family traveled to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to deliver a batch of baby ducklings. King said Lena plans to leave her job soon to focus on homeschooling, and he looks forward to visiting more places together as a family.  

Expanding Little Sprague’s breeding operations means the business looks a little different from what it did eight years ago. King no longer trains gun dogs nor offers guided hunts on the farm’s shooting preserve. “Over time, we’ve just kind of changed things, grown out of things,” King said. 

It also means experiencing some tough growing pains, such as learning how to properly house thousands of birds at once. 

“The biggest challenge in raising game birds of this scale is maintaining and creating proper infrastructure. If something can go wrong, it will,” King said. “Always stay ahead of the maintenance. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

That can be a tough job for King on top of handling sales and delivery. “I wear a lot of hats,” he said. King gets some help from his father, Anthony, and this year, he brought on the farm’s first employee—Magal Chol-Case, a high school student and the son of a family friend. 

“It’s a blessing because this operation is lot of work when you’re on the road all the time,” King said. 

Poultry precautions

More help is vital to protect the business from the growing threat of deadly poultry diseases, most recently avian flu. To ensure the flock stays healthy, Little Sprague Game Birds is a National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP)-certified operation. NPIP issues standards for identifying and controlling poultry diseases, and certification means that the poultry and poultry products of an operation have been tested and found to be free from certain diseases, such as avian influenza. 

“We get tested every three months for avian flu,” King said. “The Missouri Department of Agriculture (NPIP’s official state agent) comes out and pulls sample birds out of each group. Knock on wood, we’ve never had a positive case. The other part of being NPIP certified is that they blood test the birds once a year for pullorum (a disease caused by a salmonella species), and I haven’t had an issue with that either.”

Last winter, several poultry operations in Missouri had to depopulate due to a positive case of avian influenza. If affected, Little Sprague would also have to follow the same rules, with compensation for each bird from the MDA. To avoid such an event, the farm utilizes several biosecurity measures. 

“If we’re bringing in outside birds, they’re day-old chicks from an NPIP-certified farm,” King said. “If we’re traveling, we just use smart thinking. Whatever boots we wear on the farm, we don’t wear them outside the farm and vice versa.” 

Avoiding the spread of disease also influences how the ducks are bred and raised. 

“We used to collect all our own eggs and everything,” King said. “It’s a lot more added work.”

Now, he contracts with Amish farmers in Urbana, Mo., who maintain the breeding flock owned by King and are paid per egg. Every Monday, the eggs are collected and taken to Heartland Hatchery, owned by King’s cousin, Alan Nieder, in Amsterdam, Mo. Last year, King purchased an incubator to use at the hatchery that can hold 12,000 duck eggs. When the eggs hatch, the ducklings are then brought to King’s farm. 

King also noted that operations in three locations would mitigate losses if one were affected by disease. Literally, “All the eggs aren’t in one basket,” he said.

Feeding the flock

Raising more birds also means selecting a feed that checks all the right boxes. King first used MFA’s Game Bird Grower/Finisher, followed by Game Bird Starter Mix, in 2018. 

“When we started, we were buying a pallet at a time in bags,” he said. “We’ve had great luck with it ever since.” 

King began working with Frank Harris, livestock sales manager in MFA’s southwest territory, in 2022. Harris noted the addition of MFA’s Shield Technology has been an added benefit to game bird feeds. 

“Shield has been a very good asset, especially in a game bird operation, because it’s an all-natural product, no additives,” Harris said. “It’s not a medication, but it helps enhance the gut function of any animal. Then we’re able to keep that protein high for these game birds to perform well and sustain a good look and growth potential.”

King and Harris maintain a text message chain to check in about feed supply and ensure the bins stay stocked. These days, Little Sprague receives a truckload of MFA’s Game Bird Grower/Finisher with Shield almost every four weeks from MFA’s feed mill in Aurora, Mo. 

“The big thing in the game bird market is they’ve got to have a lot of energy,” King explained. “With pheasants, what people want to see is a hard, flying bird that gets up. And they want to see good tails. These birds seem to grow off really well with the MFA feed. And as far as disease—I need to carry around a piece of wood to keep knocking on—we haven’t had any problems.” 

Partnering with MFA is just one way King plans to grow Little Sprague’s operations. Along with hatching more ducklings, he has bought a second incubator to breed and hatch pheasants as well, instead of purchasing day-old chicks. King’s dad also recently retired and now works with him on the farm full time. 

King is confident that the demand for game birds will increase in the future, and he knows of several current breeders who are expected to retire soon. He plans to be more than prepared to fill the supply gap. 

“My absolute goal for the future is to be the biggest mallard duck supplier in the U.S.,” King said. “I guess we just have to keep building more pens.” 

For more information on Little Sprague Game Birds, visit the farm’s Facebook page at facebook.com/littlespraguegundogs. To learn more about MFA game bird and poultry feeds, talk with your local MFA livestock expert or visit mfa-inc.com/products/feed/poultry. 

CAPTIONS - TOP - A flock of mallards, with a few pheasants mixed in, sweeps past Austin King inside one of the many flight pens where his adult birds are kept. King’s sights are set on growing Little Sprague’s mallard production to 35,000 this year, a big leap from 10,000 last year. ABOVE RIGHT - Austin King, and his wife, Lena, are raising three children on the farm—Walter, 6, Nora, 4, and their youngest, Freddy, who was born in May. The family often travels together on game bird deliveries.

View more articles from this October/November 2025 Today's Farmer magazine.