Can Cover Crops Provide Habitat for Bobwhite Quail?
By Brady Welch, Farm Bill Biologist, KS
Before diving into the debate on cover crops providing habitat, we should look at what cover crops are. A cover crop is a plant grown over a single period to cover bare soil and stubble with variable duration depending on the objective. Producers can use these for a variety of reasons, including reducing nutrient loss and leaching, improving soil structure, reducing soil erosion and run-off, improving soil fertility, and pest management. These can be broken up into three broad categories: grasses (cereal rye, annual rye, winter wheat, oats, Sudan grass, etc.), legumes (cowpeas, crimson clover, sweet clover, crimson clover, sun hemp, etc.), and broadleaves like Buckwheat and safflower (Wilcoxen et al., 2018).
Variety of possible cover crops that can be planted.
Photo by Brian Scott
These many benefits coincide with additional ecological benefits that cover crops can provide when used in the correct manner. Insects are critical during the first three months of a bobwhite quail's life. Cover Crops do provide a nectar source for insects which attracts species such as Grasshoppers, beetles, ants, and other insects which provide amino acids, fats, and other nutrients that will allow chicks to grow strong enough to progress into their juvenile stage. In the spring, adult quail switch from a plant- or seed-based diet to an insect-based diet because of the energy needed for breeding. The distinction should be made that even though cover crops do not directly provide a food resource. They do provide an indirect food source that benefits all life stages of bobwhite quail. So, cover crops do provide a needed food source, but do they provide nesting cover?
First, let’s look at what is needed for proper nesting. Building quality nesting cover requires several considerations before determining its Potential. Cover crops must be able to be secure, undisturbed, diverse, and dynamic (Pierce et al., 2022). In other words, proper nesting cover would need to offer adequate concealment from predators, residual cover for nesting construction, and minimal disturbance during nesting period. Proper nesting cover should be enough to conceal quail which would need to be around six to eight inches tall. In a native grass setting, this would be about the average height of native grasses from previous growing seasons. Bobwhites usually utilize native bunch grasses.
Perennial native grass field nest made from previous year’s growth.
Photo by Robert Gundy
Now, the real question is: Can we mimic a diverse native environment using cover crops? There are not many studies looking at upland bird’s nest site selections. However, one study looked at the adoption of fall cover crops in corn and soybean rotation. Nineteen fields were the control which were seeded into perennial vegetation (native grass) and 23 row crop fields were fall seeded with a winter cover crop primarily made up of cereal rye and winter wheat (Shierley et al., 2022). Their results showed that there was not much evidence of bobwhite nesting sites found in those fall cover crops (Shierley et al., 2022). This could be due to the cover crops being terminated before the bobwhites could truly utilize them. The cereal rye and winter wheat cover crop were terminated between mid-April and mid-May which would go against a couple of the requirements of proper nesting habitat that we talked about earlier.
Cereal rye cover crop planted in between cash crops.
Photo by USDA NRCS
This caused a disturbance due to farm equipment. Shierley et al. speculated that due to the preference of selecting nesting sites with higher visual obstruction, higher litter cover, and low disturbance is why the terminated cover crops were not selected for nesting sites compared to the perennial grasslands (Shierley et al., 2022). With this study's findings, there are some ways that could provide some ways to be able provide nesting habitat. This could be a fall cover crop that is placed between a corn and soybean rotation. After harvesting soybeans in September, a cover crop mix with cereal rye and winter wheat could be planted and then left to be terminated in late May allowing time for nesting to occur to be some benefit. Cover crops have their uses, but they will never be utilized like perennial native grass are by bobwhite quail.
In conclusion, cover crops offer a wide range of environmental, economic, and agricultural benefits. Cover crops work in reducing nutrient loss and leaching, improving soil structure, reducing soil erosion and run-off, improving soil fertility, and pest management. Though cover crops do not provide ideal habitat for bobwhite quail, they are important to soil health. There are other options to creating habitat on crop ground including habitat borders or filter strips. Through the implementation of these practices, we can find that balance between agriculture and conservation.
References
Shierley, R. T., & Janke, A. K. (2022). Ring‐necked pheasant nest site selection in a landscape with high adoption of fall‐seeded cover crops - shirley - 2023 - wildlife society bulletin - wiley online library. https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wsb.1394
Wilcoxen, C. A., Walk, J. W., & Ward, M. P. (2018). Use of cover crop fields by migratory and resident birds. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 252, 42–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.09.039
Pierce, R. A., & Gallagher, E. (2022, December 1). University of Missouri. Ecology of Northern Bobwhite Quail in Missouri | MU Extension. https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g9431