AFTER THE HUNT: MILLER CITY, ILL. PROCESSING FIRM RELIES ON SUCCESS OF GOOSE HUNTERS

Six hunters stepped out of their vehicles at the Miller City Processing Co. early Tuesday morning.

Each of the hunters was carrying two geese.

"Tuesday was a good day for hunters, which translates into a good day for us," said Jack Thomas, who spends a lot of his spare time in an out-of-the-ordinary way -- "processing geese," a polite term for feather plucking and all the other things necessary to prepare a bird for the oven.

One of the hunters, though, had a problem. He lamented, "My wife told me not to bring a goose home unless it was cooked."

Thomas, who has been involved in the goose processing business for more than 30 years, can do that too, with his professional smoker.

A retired rural mail carrier, Thomas is no stranger to the ways of hunters and geese in the area. He and his wife, Gin, started their business 33 years ago as a part-time business.

The goose processing company, the only one of its kind in Alexander County, is just one of many businesses which annually looks forward to the lucrative Canada Goose season.

"Goose season is a big economic boon to Southern Illinois," said Dorothy Maze of the Horseshoe Lake Chamber of Commerce. "A lot of businesses depend on the season for a major part of their annual income."

Many businesses -- hunting clubs, services stations, motel operations, grocery markets and other businesses from Olive Branch to Cape Girardeau, Anna to Carbondale and Marion, all share in the economic boom created by the annual goose season.

That economic boom means about $10 million over a 50- to 80-day period each year. This year the season is 51 days; a year ago, it was 84 days.

"Goose hunters bring more money into an area than any other type of hunter," said Larry Bowman, director of the Williamson County Tourism Bureau. "And last year more than 80,000 hunters sought out the Canada goose in this four-county area."

The Williamson Tourism Bureau conducts surveys on goose hunting and economics. According to the survey, about 75 percent of the hunters are "visitor" hunters. Also according to the survey, each of the "visitor" hunters spent $115.16 per hunter day.

"This tallies out to $9.4 million," said Bowman. "Add in the expenses of the 25 percent of local hunters, and you have better than a $10 million industry."

Thomas' industry is one which relies solely on hunters and their success.

"When we first started, we picked the feathers by hand," he said. "We didn't cook any geese then, but we packed them in dry ice for shipping.

"We picked the geese by hand for a number of years," said Thomas. "We were reluctant to go to a professional picker, but we eventually had to keep up with progress."

Shipping was big business for processors at one time, noted Thomas.

"The possession and daily kill limit of Canada geese were two," he explained. "But a hunter could ship out his first day's kill to a family member or friends, which took it out of his possession. Then he could return to the field the next day and bag two more."

There were only two shippers in the immediate Southern Illinois area -- Midwest Milk Co., and Thomas Processing.

"We've shipped thousands of geese," he said. "At one time, we would order dry ice by the ton."

Shipping became almost extinct a number of years ago when the possession limit was raised. "Now hunters usually wait and take the geese back home with them."

Smoking is the big thing now, said Thomas.

"Most hunters from out of the area come in for at least a two-day hunt," said Thomas. "They usually want their first day's kill of two Canadas smoked."

The smoking process takes about three to four hours.

The processing business in the Horseshoe Lake Refuge area has been up and down over the years.

"In 1992, we processed 1,643 geese," said Thomas. "In past years, we have processed three times that many during a season."

The business has also been up and down during a single season.

"Like this year," said Thomas. "Early on, things have been slow. But during the past couple of weeks, business has picked up."

The Thomases have a couple of part-time helpers in the business.

With the new geese which have flocked into the area over the past couple of weeks, the hunting has been good.

"A lot of the new geese are what we refer to as juveniles," said Thomas. "They're young birds. The birds are easier to attract to the pits than wiser, old birds."

Thomas also helps Illinois Department of Conservation officials keep tabs on the type of birds in the flock.

"We save the tail feathers," he said. "Officials use tail feathers to determine the age of birds."

Thomas added that early on in the season -- late November, early December -- the young geese outnumbered older birds about four to one around the Horseshoe Lake area.

"But before this latest influx of new birds, things were starting to even up," said Thomas. "Hunters killed a lot of the young birds, and the count was about even between juveniles and adult birds."

Geese like the wintry weather, and these days they are moving, noted Thomas.

"The count around the lake is between 30,000 and 40,000," he said. "Hunters should like this amount of birds. When the count is high, the geese tend to play `follow the leader.'"

When a number of geese lift off the ground with a large flock, they are joined by others, and fly together as a large group throughout the day, said Thomas. With a small concentration of geese, they're more apt to take off in smaller groups and fly different directions.