The governor says: Let them eat pheasant.

It may sound odd, but the economic pinch on New York State’s government may result in thousands of needy families dining on pheasant this Christmas.

Ending a long tradition of operating pheasant farms for hunting, New York State officials have announced that they will close the last state-run pheasant farm, the Richard E. Reynolds Game Farm, which opened in 1927 in Dryden, N.Y., near Ithaca.

The farm’s approximately 8,000 pheasants will be slaughtered over the next three weeks and distributed to food pantries throughout the state’s Southern Tier, said Yancey Roy, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Many, but not all, of the birds will be ready to donate by Christmas, Mr. Roy said.

“It will take up to three weeks to line up and budget the processing of the pheasants, which will take us through the holiday season,” he said. Running the farm, which breeds and releases pheasants into the wild for hunting, costs the state $750,000 annually. The farm’s operating budget includes four full-time staff members and up to 10 part-time employees during busy times of the year, Mr. Roy said.