October 3, 2005
Late fall and winter bring "hard times" for small game species like bobwhite
quail and rabbits, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
Natural food becomes scarce and resting and escape cover is thin in the fall and
winter, according to Billy Dukes, Small Game Project supervisor with the
S.C.
Department of Natural Resources (DNR). However, farmers and other landowners can
do many things to help small game animals through this difficult period. Among
the practices that can benefit small game species are leaving a small amount of
unharvested crops along field edges, establishing weedy field borders or filter
strips, allowing ditch banks and hedgerows to remain unmowed, and planting of
supplemental wildlife food and cover strips.
For more information on providing wildlife habitat on your farm, contact the DNR
Small Game Project in Columbia at (803) 734-3609 or visit the DNR Web site at
www.dnr.sc.gov/hunting.html.
When harvesting corn and soybeans, farmers should consider leaving several rows
unharvested along the field borders. This provides an important food supplement
throughout fall and winter when natural seeds have disappeared. Modern soybean
varieties may have to be run over with a tractor or pickup to cause the seed to
"shatter-out." After the harvest operation, the remaining stalks and stubble
should be left in the field as long as possible. Crop residue provides valuable
wildlife cover and protects fields from wind and water erosion. Some grain will
be wasted on top of the ground, as even the sophisticated combines in use today
can't harvest every single grain. Control of most disease and insect problems
can be achieved through crop rotation. If turning under the residue is
necessary, leaving 10 percent around the field edges will provide food and cover
where it is most beneficial to wildlife.
"The present-day practice of plowing and planting fields right up to the edge of
the woods has drastically reduced the ability of the land to produce quail and
rabbits," Dukes said. Following corn or soybean harvest this fall is an ideal
time to establish "field transition zones" or filter strips. A transition zone
is simply a 15- to 30-foot wide area around the entire edge of a field that is
allowed to grow up in native weeds, grasses and briars, and a filter strip is a
band of vegetation established adjacent to a ditch, stream or other waterway to
filter runoff while providing wildlife habitat. Allowing these areas to grow
undisturbed for two to three years will provide critical nesting and
brood-rearing habitat, as well as winter cover.
Field transition zones, also called habitat buffers, and filter strips are
eligible for enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program under a continuous
signup period. The Conservation Reserve Program, administered by the county
offices of the federal Farm Service Agency, provides incentive payments and
annual rental payments for landowners willing to establish environmentally
friendly practices on eligible croplands. A new practice, CP-33: Habitat Buffers
for Upland Birds, has recently been added to the list of available practices
under the Conservation Reserve Program.
"Practice CP-33 represents an outstanding opportunity for producers to retire
marginally productive cropland on the perimeter of crop fields and dramatically
improve small game habitat without sacrificing farm income," said Dukes.
"After harvest time, when things slow down around the farm, the temptation is
great to pull out the bush hog and clean up those brushy ditchbanks and fence
rows," Dukes said. "Removal of these habitat components may increase planting
area and give the farm a neater appearance, but small game populations will
really suffer. Vegetation along ditches and fences serves as a windbreak, as
well as supplying food, cover and travel corridors for quail and rabbits."
Supplemental plantings, especially for small game use, can also be a beneficial
practice. A strip of shrub lespedeza may help a covey of quail make it through a
tough winter. Small patches of wheat and clover will offer some winter greenery
for rabbits and quail and attract insects later in the spring, according to
Dukes.
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