Missouri Conservation Farmer of the Year!

I wrote the following after learning that I had been selected as the 2009 conservation farmer of the year. Frankly I am awed that I was selected. The Wildlife Society is the profession organization for wildlife professionals. Given a life "do-over" I might easily have chosen the path of a wildlife biologist rather than that of science teacher and subsequently an electrical engineer. Not that I would change anything (isn't that the accepted cliche?) of my life, but its fun to dream.

Because of time constraints at the meeting I roughly covered the "Thank You" section with a few ad libs. I thought the fuller story might be of interest to others so here it is. I stayed up late writing it so if it seems sappy I ask for the readers indulgence.

THANK YOU:

I would like to thank the Mo Chapter of the Wildlife Society for this award. This is a wonderful acknowledgement of my efforts to improve the quail habitat on my farm. I would also like to thank Nate Mechlin and the Missouri Dept. of Conservation for their assistance.

Also, a special thanks needs to go out to the Dodd family of Cameron, Mo. We exchange labor and share equipment between our farms and most importantly they have provided me a place to stay. This plaque will find a home in Doug’s Man-Barn.

I also would like to introduce my wife, Karen, co-signer on the farm mortgage. Over the last two years she is has supported me in this new endeavor, as she has over the previous 25. Thank you.

My final thanks go to all the research biologists in attendance and your colleges. I want you to know that I understand that doing wildlife field studies takes enormous amounts of time in the worst of weather conditions. When I read the interesting fact that during severe winter weather Quail move less than 70 feet from their roost, I understand that a wildlife biologist, or at least a grad student, was out there with an antennae walking around the brush pile, that a wildlife biologist was out there in the summer trapping birds and fitting them with radio collars while fighting off mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers. I understand that what is known about Bobwhite Quail or other wildlife species is often not easily learned.

FULL STORY:

I was going to tell you the story of growing up in Missouri and Quail hunting here for the last 35 years, but you know how the sad story goes. We have all been witness to the Quail population dropping year after year. One author wrote about it this way…

“The ‘olden days,’ when quail were so plentiful that almost any hunter could take his limit at will, are gone." The author was not talking about the olden days of 1980's, 1970' or even the 1960's. It was written by Jack Stanford in 1952. (Whirring Wings)

I wonder how he would write it today.

“The poor days when quail were so scarce you were lucky to find a single covey and felt blessed to harvest one, are gone”

10 years ago I realized what I had lost and didn’t like it. A lost Quail population was not something that I wanted to sit and ponder in my old age reminiscing about the "olden days."

My family calls me Mr. Fix-It. I don’t know if I got that name because I’m good at fixing things or because I never throw away anything that’s broke. I tell them if they would stop breaking things I wouldn't have to be Mr. Fix-It.

All I need to fix something is the right knowledge and the right tool.

So 10 years ago it was only natural for Mr. Fix-it to approach fixing the lack of quail in the same manner.

1st thing was, get the knowledge. So I went to the Quail experts:

Stoddard – 1931
Errington – 1936
Davis – 1949
Stanford – 1952
Schwartz – 1959
Rosene - 1969
Roseberry & Klimstra – 1984
Guthery – 2000


I became an amateur Quail expert. I had my Quail library and all the knowledge I needed. I knew the annual life cycle for bobwhite quail. I read and considered the merits of competing theories of Doomed Surplus v. the Additive Model v. Density Dependence.

Now all I needed was the right tools and the lack of Quail could be fixed.

I was sure that the farmers where I hunted would be more than happy to spend their time and money to increase their Quail populations so I could have more fun!

Well, you know how that went. But I told them, “Hey, not a problem look at all of these government programs where you can offset your costs of habitat improvement by changing the way you’ve always farmed and the way your Dad always farmed the place.”

My dream of getting these farms, my old Quail hunting hot spots, back to their former glory was not going to happen. But I continued to read about Bobwhites and the more I read the more motivated I became. The only solution was to buy my own farm.

It turns out most people that own farms don’t want to sell them, or if they do, they price it like there is a gold mine on the back forty. Fortunately my good friends near Cameron, who I pestered constantly for 5 years, finally put me on to a friend of a friend who was willing to take less than an arm and a leg for 175 acres. They only wanted an arm.

In the first week of January 2007 Karen and I signed the papers and closed the deal. Karen asked me what I was going to do now that we had a farm. I told her I didn’t know about her but I was going to go lay out in the middle of the harvested bean field and sweep my arms and legs back and forth making a big Dirt Angel. (Early January was dry in 2007)

My dream of owning a farm had come true. My other dream was a dream about Quail.

I dreamed of having so many Quail:

· they bordered on being a nuisance,
· you couldn’t get out of your truck without a covey scaring the tar out of you,
· people driving by have to swerve to keep from hitting them and damaging their car,
· Scott, who farms the ground for me, constantly complains about all our crop losses,
· a dog can’t retrieve a bird without the next covey getting up,
· and each Covey that flushes, flushes the next and the next, the wave of Bobwhites rolls away across the prairie grasses.


To realized this dream of Quail I was going to need some help. You might be wondering why an amateur Quail biologist that had read everything he could get his hands on would need help.

You also have to realize that before the farm was mine, cattle had been allowed to graze the bean stubble after harvest, the fescue water ways and the little bit of timber I have. They were left on the farm a month too long. They ate the fescue down to the crowns, the tops out of the sumac, they ate the broom sedge, they were even eating the hedge apples and honey locust pods. My primary habitat type was cow patties and thorn trees.

The task at hand was daunting. I had never done habitat improvement before. The books showed me what I wanted, what the quail needed, but not so much on how to do it. As they say the Devil is in the Details.


So I invited Lee Metcalf (MDC private lands conservationist – Carrolton) to come look at my farm. We drove around and he looked it over. After the tour he asked me what my goal was. I told him that I knew I had 3 coveys on or along the edge of my farm to start with. In 5 years I wanted to have 10 coveys. I had done the math, 1 bird per acre, 175 acres, 175 birds, 17 birds per covey, therefore 10 coveys.

I will always be grateful for his answer. “No Problem, you’ve got miles of edge”

No soft peddling, no hedging. Just, “no problem, you’ve got miles of edge”

He said he would make out a management plan for me and I think he may have said something about it would take a little hard work. Here was a “Professional” that had seen lots of other farms and experienced the accomplishment of others. He had looked at my farm and didn’t think I was crazy when I told him I wanted 10 coveys. In hindsight I probably should have listen to the part about the amount of work a little better.

I won’t bore you with the details but my mantra for BWQ Farm is “must kill all fescue, locust and hedge”.

It has been an interesting two years. I would be happy for any of you to come visit my farm and see what I’m doing and how the dream is coming along. Nate and Lee can attest to the fact I love talking about Quail but I also carry around a Camera and field guides to wildflowers, birds, butterflies, prairie grasses, even amphibians.

I started my little talk by acknowledging that today the Quail population in Missouri is a sad story with a few exceptions. In 2011 I hope to be able to report that there is another exception. That on a 175 acre farm in Caldwell County the Quail are so thick the coveys get up one after the other and the wave of Bobwhites float out across the prairie grass.