Success in hunting on your farm is directly related to how well you provide the basic elements of a wildlife habitat – food, water, cover, and space to raise young. If you’ve done a good job, chances are you will have a successful hunting season.

1. Success in hunting on your farm is directly F ive types of habitat occur
on farms – grasslands,
related to how well you provide the basic elements wetlands, cropland, woodlands,
and the farmstead.
of a wildlife habitat – food, water, cover, and
space to raise young. A study shows that grass-
lands support 7 to 11 species
If you’ve done a good job, chances are and up to 386 birds per acre.
you will have a successful hunting season. Wetlands support 13 nesting
bird species and up to 702
birds per acre. Corn and
soybean row crops support 2
or 3 bird species and up to 88
birds per acre.
Landscaping Using a few simple
techniques for plantings and
Your Farm land management can enhance
wildlife habitat on different
For Wildlife areas of your property which
could dramatically improve
your next hunting season.
For more nature habitat information
Visit these helpful websites:
There are a number of cost-
sharing programs available
A Plant's Home
A Bird's Home from state and federal
A Homesteader's Home sources for conservation
practices.
Check with your Natural
Resources Conservation
Service, Farm Service Agency,
and state department of
natural resources for details.
These agencies can also
provide a list of inexpensive
sources for trees and shrubs
used to enhance wildlife
habitat and improve soil
conservation.
Grasslands
Following are some grassland
practices that you can use to
enhance wildlife habitat on
your property:
© WindStar Wildlife Institute Page 1 A Plant's Home

2. Waterways Orchardgrass and brome work Fence Rows
These water pathways are well and some farmers are These provide excellent cover
usually dry and sustain flows of having good luck with native for birds and small animals.
moderate to heavy rains. They warm season grasses such as
need to be wide enough so switchgrass, big bluestem, Fence rows which contain
water won’t divert around them Indiangrass, and little bluestem. continuous grasses, shrubs,
and be protected from soil and trees are the best.
erosion by permanent grass Waterways provide excellent Research shows summer
cover. cover throughout the year and counts of 28.5 birds per mile.
especially during nesting. Many
a gamebird has been flushed For herbaceous fence rows
from this natural cover. only, 12.7 birds were found per
mile and for herbaceous fence
rows with scattered trees and
shrubs, 16.5 birds per mile were
found.
Fence rows can produce good
cover, food, perching, and
nesting, along with serving as
safe wildlife travel corridors
between areas of the farm.
If you want maximum benefits,
maintain two or three snags
(dead trees) per mile for cavity
nesters, plant a few vines or
shrubs that produce fruit, add
rock and brush piles, keep at
least a 10 ft. width, and, if you
have no snags, add nesting
boxes for bluebirds, tree
swallows, wrens, kestrels, and
flickers.
During the last two decades,
the practice of plowing fence to
fence has increased, making it
difficult for songbirds and
gamebirds to find adequate
habitat.
Wetlands
Wetlands are simply areas
that become saturated with
water for all or part of the
growing season.
© WindStar Wildlife Institute Page 2 A Plant's Home

3. Following are some inland If you want to make these one-half to five acres, but they
wetland practices that will strips especially attractive to can be larger.
enhance wildlife populations wildlife, encourage herbaceous
and boost hunting success. food plants and mast- If you want to host more
producing (nuts) & fruit trees wildlife, enhance the area
Be sure to check your state and shrubs. Dogwoods, around the pond with native
wetlands regulations before winterberry, blueberries, grasses, shrubs, and trees.
implementing any practices. viburnums, and elder are good
choices. Consider adding one or more
Buffer Strips and Corridors nearby food plots or leave
One of the most important If you can till on adjacent several rows of unharvested
practices is to protect the land, seed millet, buckwheat, grain nearest the pond. Also,
wetlands from activities on sorghum, or corn and you will add a wood duck nesting box.
surrounding land such as attract songbirds, grouse,
turkey, and possibly waterfowl. If you are building a new pond,
logging or cropland.
leave an island in the middle. It
Hunting near these areas provides a safer nesting area
Maintain a buffer strip at
usually produces good results. for ducks and geese.
least 50 ft. wide around the
wetlands. Do not mow or cut
If your livestock will use the
the vegetation. Marshland
pond for watering, run a pipe
If you are lucky enough to have
from a submerged filter to a
These strips can serve as marshland on your property,
tank below the dam.
filters for reducing erosion protect it, as it is one of the
and sedimentation, provide most valuable natural assets
visual screening, and provide Fence the pond to keep the
on your farm.
shade trees to maintain livestock from damaging the
cooler water temperatures. banks and muddying the water.
It serves as a nutrient trap
Fence the area to keep that filters out herbicides,
livestock outside. Consider seeding the banks
fertilizers, and soil that washes
with native grasses and
into the marshland from
These strips also serve as wildflowers. What you will be
adjoining cropland. Usually you
travel lanes and are sources creating is an oasis for many
will find an abundance of wildlife.
of food and cover for wildlife, species of wildlife from ducks
especially wetland and upland and geese to gamebirds, deer,
A good rule of thumb to follow
species. songbirds, fish, butterflies, and
is for every acre of wetland on
amphibians.
your farm, provide two to four
Planting desired wetland acres of undisturbed adjacent
vegetation to increase cover grassy nesting cover.
and food can be successful, Cropland
but is often difficult if plants If you are practicing good
If you have no wetlands, you
are already established in the conservation tillage on your
should have five percent of your
target planting site. cropland to reduce soil erosion,
farm in permanent grassy cover.
chances are you have beneficial
If you have cavity trees and habitat for wildlife, especially
snags in your buffer strips, Ponds quail, pheasants, and songbirds.
keep them, they are needed Most farmers prize their farm By maintaining the crop residue,
for nesting. ponds. Usual size ranges from you are furnishing both food
© WindStar Wildlife Institute Page 3 A Plant's Home

4. and cover for some species. The Food Plots songbirds, barn owls, and as
waste grain and weed seeds are One of the most popular and dens for rabbits, woodchucks,
food for wildlife during the best ways to provide winter and raccoons.
winter. food for wildlife is food plots.
If it is necessary to remove
Crop Rotation Farm co-ops have an the old buildings, retain the
Instead of continuous excellent assortment of trees and shrubs. You may even
cropping, try rotating your grasses and grains that can be want to plant additional native
crops. It will increase the health used for wildlife food and cover. trees and shrubs such as
of your plants and add plant cherry, hawthorn, and highbush
diversity. They include millets, berries, where the buildings were.
lespedezas, soybeans, grain
By adding legumes to your sorghum, and legumes, plus These farmstead sites are
cropping program, you’ll add sunflowers, birdsfoot trefoil, also important habitat for
nitrogen to the soil, reduce cowpeas, and crown vetch. squirrels, flickers, robins, brown
fertilizer requirements, and thrashers, sparrows, catbirds,
provide ideal wildlife nesting For maximum bird attraction, crows, red-tailed hawks, wood
cover and food. try the grain sorghum. The ducks, owls, finches, deer, blue
tuber heads grow as long as jays, woodpeckers, chickadees,
Also, delay mowing until after there is moisture – often until cedar waxwings, and black
the peak of the nesting season a killing frost. Then, when it snakes.
– around July 15. ripens, birds will have a feast.
Untimely mowing will kill Food plots should be
nesting adults and destroy sheltered on the north and
their nests. west by natural features such
as wooded creek bottoms,
Strip Cropping wetlands, or wind-breaks, that
Another good conservation will prevent drifting snow from This article was written by
practice is contour strip covering the grain. Thomas D. Patrick, President
cropping. and Founder of the WindStar
Wildlife Institute, a national non-
profit conservation organization
Here row crops are planted in Farmstead whose mission is to help
strips along the natural Another excellent area for individuals and families establish
contour of the slope and next wildlife is around abandoned or improve the wildlife habitat on
to a grass strip. You’ve got both farmstead sites. their properties.
erosion control and plant
For more information or for the
diversity. The trees, shrubs, grasses, name of a Master Wildlife
and weeds found there are Habitat Naturalist in your area,
The grass strips serve as beneficial to wildlife, especially please contact:
travel lanes and nesting/ old, mature trees with cavities
roosting cover for wildlife. and those that produce WindStar Wildlife Institute
quantities of nuts, fruits, and
Terraces planted to grass/ seeds. E-mail: wildlife@windstar.org
legume mixtures also provide http://www.windstar.org
food, nesting/roosting cover Old buildings are used for
and travel lanes. nesting by barn swallows,
© WindStar Wildlife Institute Page 4 A Plant's Home