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University of Missouri Extension Video Helps Assess Land's Potential For Quail Habitat
An award-winning new video from University of Missouri Extension can help farmers assess their land's potential for supporting bobwhite quail.
"Bobwhites have more complex habitat requirements than many wildlife species," said Bob Pierce, MU Extension state fisheries and wildlife specialist. "They require an appropriate mix of plant communities that provide food and areas for nesting, rearing broods, loafing and escaping predators — all interspersed closely together."
The 40-minute DVD, "Missouri Bobwhite Quail Habitat Appraisal Guide," visually showcases the habitat components bobwhites require and demonstrates the process landowners can use to evaluate the habitat conditions on their property.
The DVD recently won a Silver Award from the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals in the video/DVD/CD category.
"The video lets us show different types of quail habitat in a way that's hard to convey through written descriptions and still photos," Pierce said.
The DVD is packaged with a 16-page MU Extension publication that provides in-depth information on conducting the appraisal and determining management goals, as well as a two-page worksheet to help identify and score available habitat components on a property.
"Once the habitat components that are missing or in short supply are identified, the appropriate management technique can be implemented to improve the condition of the habitat and provide more usable space for quail on a farm," Pierce said.
There are a variety of available management techniques, depending on a landowner's goals, the amount of time and resources they are willing to invest, and how intensively they are able to manage the land. Some practices are as simple as leaving shrubs and brush on unused land or around crop fields to provide escape cover for quail. More intensive management practices for creating favorable habitats include prescribed burning, strip disking, developing borders along crop fields or pasture, and "edge feathering" by thinning trees at woodland edges.
Pierce and wildlife biologists with the Missouri Department of Conservation and the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service developed the video with producer and editor Robert Mize of the MU Cooperative Media Group. MDC and NRCS partnered with MU Extension to provide funding for the project.
Much of the videotaping took place on the property of farmer and quail enthusiast George Hobson and at MU's Bradford Research and Extension Center, which includes a 591-acre research farm that for the past several years has been a laboratory for practices that integrate wildlife management, including quail habitat, into modern farm operations.
"Missouri Bobwhite Quail Habitat Appraisal Guide" (DVD16) is available for $22 from MU Extension Publications. Go to http://extension.missouri.edu/publications or call (573) 882-7216 or (800) 292-0969.