Beef Cattle Aren't The Only Animals That Call Your Ranch Home

The early Spring is a time when we need to be thinking about our management practices as it pertains to row crop production, timber management, cattle production and a clean environment. Best Management Practices improves our quality of life, through the preservation of the land, which includes everything on it. I believe that cattlemen/women do the best job in fostering a clean environment, because we make our living on the land and we are part of it. We live here and we raise our children here -- A Cattleman's Story

There are a few terms that should be addressed, so that we all understand what we are facing as we plan to keep our environment clean.

1 Best Management Practices (BMP's) are defined as "the effective, realistic, structural or non-structural methods which prevent or reduce the movement of sediment, nutrients, pesticides and other pollutants from the land to surface or ground water".

2 Non-point-source (NPS) pollution is water pollution affecting a water body from diffuse sources, such as polluted runoff from agricultural areas draining into a river, or wind-borne debris blowing out to the sea.

3 Point-source pollution (PSP) is water pollution from discharges occurring to a body of water at a single location, such as discharges from a factory, urban runoff from a roadway storm drain.

"Without clean ground water and surface water - we have nothing, so it pays to think about it and plan for making your farming/ranching operation part of the solution instead of the problem".

In cattle country, I have found that fencing off the riparian areas to cattle has improved our wetlands considerably. Cows prefer clean water and if given the choice will always seek out cleaner water sources for consumption. They tend to use stock tanks (ponds) for wading while cooling off in the summer months.

Other benefits to fencing off our riparian areas, to cattle, are the increase in available space for large/small game and non-game wildlife species, which includes:

    Cleaner water
    A larger variety of plant species - grasses, forbs and sedges
    Hard and soft mast plant varieties
    An increase in Small game mammals and Upland game bird populations using these areas for nesting sites, thermal cover, structure, feeding and the safe movement between habitats.
    An increase in Large game mammals using these areas for bedding, cover, water, browse and a host of other purposes.
    An increase in Non-game wildlife species and birds that utilize these areas for thermal protection, cover, structure, nesting sites, water and feeding.
    Fish and crawfish can now be found in these riparian areas, where none had been before, in my lifetime.

Other BMP's include planting field borders around every parcel of row-crop land. This BMP goes a long way in reducing the movement of sediment, nutrients, pesticide and other forms of pollution into our ground water and surface water areas. Planting field borders are a simple way to make sure we are doing our part for a clean environment and that we are part of the overall solution.

Our field borders include the establishment and maintenance of native grasses, phorbs, leguminous plants and wildflowers that not only prevent NPS pollution, but provide the cover, structure, food, nesting sites and safe corridors, for a wide array of both game and non-game wildlife species. One other benefit, we enjoy with field borders, is the wildflowers in the spring are aesthetically appealing to every living thing. These field borders provide corridors for all game, non-game species and birds increasing their survival-ship.

Almost 30 years ago, we also took the less productive farm land out of production and planted food plots for big game browse, small game cover and habitat for birds; and all but eliminated erosion on these parcels of land. The only mechanical means we use to further improve these sites is with timely soil aeration. By aerating the soil we can increase soil tilth (water/nutrient/air balance) and water infiltration rates.

One other project we enjoy, on our ranch, is building bluebird houses. Since the 80's, almost every livestock operation, in our area, went to the widespread use of steel fence posts, which decreased the cavity nesting species of birds in our area, due to lack of suitable habitat.

To give back, what we un-intentionally took away; we build bluebird houses and have the only recorded population in our state.

What have our efforts accomplished?

1. Brought Quail back.
2. Improved the White-Tail Deer in our area
3. Brought in Beaver.
4. Brought in the non-migratory Canadian Geese
5. Brought in the Bald Eagle
6. Brought in Bluebirds by the hundreds. (only recorded population in our area)
7. Brought in the Wild Turkey
8. Brought in the Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawk
9. Brought in the Osprey
10. Brought in Honeybees (without them we would have nothing)
11. Brought in the Mallard Duck
12. Brought in the Hummingbird
13. Brought in the Great Blue Heron
14. Brought in Mourning Dove
15. Brought in the Anhinga
16. Brought in the Great Horned Owl
17. Brought in a great assortment of small game species
18. Brought in the Black Bear
19. Brought back native threatened wetland plants
20. Brought in the Gopher Tortoise

Beef Cattle Aren't The Only Animals That Call Your Ranch > Home

The early Spring is a time when we need to be thinking about our management practices as it pertains to row crop production, timber management, cattle production and a clean environment. Best Management Practices improves our quality of life, through the preservation of the land, which includes everything on it. I believe that cattlemen/women do the best job in fostering a clean environment, because we make our living on the land and we are part of it.