The Use of Agricultural Cover Crops in Southeastern Waterfowl Management

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Increased demand on southeastern land available for waterfowl management calls for the maximum production of hard seed and green forage to support the winter concentration. Agricultural cover crops can contribute to this program. By cover crops is meant fall-planted annuals, usually following summer non-legume crops and plowed under the following spring for soil improvement. The use of these cover crops for physical soil protection and the addition of nitrogen and humus is well known, but their value as waterfowl forage has often been overlooked. In addition to their indirect value of increasing soil fertility and crop production, several cover crop species, properly used, can furnish good grazing for all species of geese and are subject to limited use by ducks. Their use can convert fields which supported summer crops of no waterfowl food value-such as cotton and tobacco-into excellent winter goose range. Used behind good waterfowl food crops, such as corn, peanuts, or grain sorghum, and coupled with gleanings from these crops or amounts deliberately left in the field, they can furnish an ideal combination of hard seed and green forage on the same site. The material for this paper has been gathered from various southeastern refuges of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, from state-managed public hunting areas, and from private and clubowned land throughout the Southeast. In some southeastern localities, wheat, oats, rye, barley and ryegrass are occasionally used as winter cover crops. These have no nitrogen-fixing properties but do furnish physical protection and add humus when plowed under. All are good goose forage. Among the legume cover crops, only three species are subject to heavy goose usage. These are crimson clover, Austrian peas, and button clover. Crimson clover is especially well adapted to better soils in the central parts of this region, but in recent years its use has spread over much of the Southeast. When used as a cover crop, the reseeding strain offers no advantage over the common annual type. Austrian peas seem especially adapted to Piedmont and Upper Coastal soil types. A variety, the Dixie wonder pea, may offer certain advantages in some localities. Button clover is less well used by waterfowl than the above species, but is subject to enough usage to make planting worthwhile. It has an added disadvantage of making little growth in winter. The vetches are excellent cover crops for the northern part of this region and Caley peas do well on Black Belt soils, but neither are used well enough by geese to justify planting for waterfowl forage. Occasionally, when hard pressed for green food and plants are in the right stage of succulence, they may receive light usage. A mixture of small grain with these legumes will increase their waterfowl value. Blue lupine, a cover crop used for Lower Coastal Plain soils, is without waterfowl food value. Several other legumes are in local or limited use as cover crops in the Southeast. These include the yellow lupine, the trefoils, and Singletary peas. Their waterfowl food value, if any, is not known. When planting cover crops, the recommendations of the nearest agricultural substation as to inoculation, liming, fertilization, and dates of planting should be followed. With early maturing summer crops, it is often possible to break or disc fields before a cover crop is planted. With late-maturing summer crops, it may be necessary to drill cover crop seed in middles after the last cultivation. To adapt cover crops to waterfowl use, only slight modifications of standard agricultural practices are necessary. Fields should be of sufficient size and shape to give feeding birds a feeling of security and should be located within reasonable proximity to water. They should be free of hedgerows, standing trees, and clumps of brush. All stalks, weed growth, and other possible predator cover should be leveled, using a rotary mower or similar implement. If extremely heavy waterfowl use is anticipated, the rate of seeding should be increased by 50 per cent above that normally recommended. When small grain or ryegrass are used as cover crops, the time of planting is an important factor. Too early seeding may result in a stand too coarse for good forage by the time migrant birds arrive. Too late planting may result in a young, poorly rooted stand that will be damaged by heavy waterfowl use. Planting at about the mid-date of the recommended planting period is usually best. The legumes are notoriously slow growers in cold weather, and it is usually best to plant at the earliest practicable date to insure against waterfowl damage to poorly rooted stands and to provide the appearance needed to attract geese. To promote good legume growth, proper inoculation and heavy fertilization are desirable.