Oklahoma has a long and storied history of being one of the leading states in beef cattle production, as well as being one of the leading states in numbers of bobwhite quail. And when applied correctly as a habitat management tool, the cow can greatly benefit the quail while benefitting herself and her owner’s bottom line.
As with any wildlife, the bobwhite quail needs what I call the trifecta of survival basics… food, water, shelter. Food can be subdivided into those items preferred by and consumed by chicks or adults, while shelter can be subdivided into the categories of travel areas, loafing cover, nesting cover, brood cover and escape cover. An ideal balance of these will offer a stable environment for the health and well-being of quail, as well as a chance for the rearing of future generations of this revered game bird.
Quail do best in habitat that is interspersed with a blend of ground cover, areas of dense overhead cover with clearings below, and pockets of woody or shrubby cover. This ground cover needs to be relatively thinner down low. Old, dead vegetation that has matted and taken over the understory prevents quail – adults and chicks alike – from having safe travel spaces with overhead cover. It also makes finding certain food items difficult, and hinders fresh new growth of beneficial vegetation.
Disturbance and diversity are two words to remember when thinking of quail habitat… disturbance being the act of cleaning up and removing old growth, and diversity being the end result as new growth emerges. Regular prescribed burning is the best and most cost-effective method to achieve this, but in those periods between burns, the use of cattle can keep the habitat in a state of ongoing regeneration.
As cattle graze a field, the very act of their hooves moving around creates openings in and around low vegetation. And, with every bite they take, cows are thinning down and opening up grasses and forbs that are clumped together. This is disturbance, and all of this achieves the goal of giving sunlight and precipitation a chance to reach the soil below, thus nourishing that soil and encouraging fresh, new growth of the plant community. This is diversity.
Fresh, new growth of herbaceous, flowering plants will lend itself to attracting insects – which are critical for quail chicks – and the seeds and fruits of these same plants will provide food for quail all winter. Pollinators will also arrive to use revived flowering plants, which in turn only adds to the overall diversity and health of the landscape. The openings created down low will give travel spaces, while plants with heavier cover left overhead will offer loafing cover and future nesting and brood cover.
Any brushy or shrubby plants dotting the landscape – with easier access below thanks to grazing – will give quail a fast hideout from predators.
If you decide to use livestock as a habitat management tool, keep in mind that cows – left to their own design – will eat everything down to the dirt. For the practice to be successful, you should remember the rule of thumb to “take half, leave half.” In other words, when the cows have eaten roughly 50 percent of what’s there, move them somewhere else, thus leaving behind roughly 50 percent of undisturbed vegetation that will meld into the refreshed habitat.
A good way to monitor this is to construct exclusion zones, which is an enclosure measuring about eight feet square, using t-posts and wire panels. Once the vegetation inside the exclusion zone is about twice the height of that outside, it’s time to move the cows. From there, a rotational grazing regime can be implemented, whereas the cows are taken from one parcel to the next, and so on, to set a pace of varied successional growth.
And with this, the quail benefit from the different habitat needs, while the cows benefit from the repeated availability of palatable, high-protein forage.