18.05.12
For many farmers and ranchers, position birds and other wildlife offer an additional source of revenue from hunters game to pay for access to private land. But crop and livestock production practices do not always equal up with best practices for encouraging wildlife populations, especially as estate in the Conservation Reserve Program returns to agricultural production.
Digging from North Dakota State University shows, however, that ranchers can make it that land for grazing while also providing good nesting habitat for game birds including Ringneck Pheasants and ducks. Nesting ascendancy is one of the biggest factors in determining game-bird populations.
Benjamin Geaumont, PhD, from NDSU’s Hettinger Analyse and Extension Center presented results of his research during last week’s File Beef Cow Symposium in Mitchell, Nebraska. Geaumont points out that pheasants typically settle in a relatively small home range, easily contained within the borders of a sole farm or ranch. So for that property to support a healthy population of pheasants, it might emergency to provide four-season habitat. Upland-nesting ducks, on the other hand, use Northern Plains limit and pastures for nesting, but then migrate away, so year-around habitat is not as necessary for ducks in those nesting areas.
Source: CattleNetwork.com